My curiosity in science and engineering started as a young kid when my parents would let me stay up an hour past my usual bedtime to watch the NOVA TV series on PBS every Tuesday night. However, a few tough years of algebra in middle and high school destroyed my confidence. Fortunately, after a chance encounter being assigned a seat next to a classmate who was on my high school's Robotics Team, I decided to go to a team meeting and I was hooked! I was so excited about robotics that I went on to enroll at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where I worked on all sorts of cool robots that played musical instruments, navigated outdoor courses, and drew pointillist images.
Near the end of my time at WPI, I thought I was going to work in the robotics field, or something similar, so I applied to an Electrical Engineering role at a 3D printing company called Markforged. In the interviews they mentioned that there was a Controls Engineering job in the Operations department working on the machines that produce the filament for the printers that I might be better suited for. I honestly had no idea there were any engineering jobs in operations, but it ended up sharing a lot of the features of the interdisciplinary work that I enjoyed from robotics. I gained a huge appreciation for manufacturing and controls from working there and I am excited to continue growing these skills.
