Mechanical engineer

Falling Into Engineering

01 / Although I liked science, I didn’t always fit in with the other kids who liked science and robotics. I sometimes felt like too much of a “jock” since I played a lot of sports, like lacrosse, football, basketball, and soccer. But at the same time, I also didn’t always feel like I fit in with my fellow athletes either.

02 / Even though I liked to learn and got decent grades, I didn’t always apply myself in high school. When I did put in a little extra effort, it paid off. I landed a full academic scholarship from the University of Florida, which is where I ended up going for college. However, by the time I got to campus, I still hadn’t declared a major. I still wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to do.

03 / My dad suggested that I try mechanical engineering since it’s often called “the jack of all trades.” So, I did. Luckily, it ended up working out. There was never a big, grand plan. I just made choices that seemed interesting along the way, and luckily I fell into engineering.

Sitting at a Crossroad

01 / In my freshman year of college, I tried out for the super competitive University of Florida football team, and made it. Balancing football with my increasingly complex engineering classes was a huge challenge. Many times, I had to leave practice so I could attend class and then immediately return to practice. My days were always really busy.

02 / I juggled both football and my engineering degree for two years, and during that time my team won the NCAA National Football Championship (which is the highest title you can win in college football). It was amazing, but balancing football with my increasingly complex engineering classes was a huge challenge, so I decided to leave the team. I was there on an academic scholarship, not a football one so I had to prioritize maintaining my grades.

03 / Shortly after I left football, I got an engineering internship with Rolls Royce, but during my time there all I got assigned was really boring to me. It made me wonder why I was even going to university if this was the type of job I’d be stuck with because of my degree.

Choosing to Continue My Education

01 / By the end of my internship, I discovered that the people doing the work I was interested in at Rolls Royce, like designing cars, nearly all had PhDs. So, if that’s the kind of work I wanted to do, it seemed like that’s the kind of education I needed to get. I decided to go for a Masters degree, and it’s easier to get into a program if I got some research experience first.

02 / I started working under one of my professors as a research assistant. Most of the time, this meant I’d have to use sandpaper on a wheel to polish materials for another grad student’s experiments. After about a year, I approached the professor I was working with and asked if he was willing to take me on as a Masters student. Unfortunately, he didn’t have funding for one. However, he could afford to take on a PhD student. So I joined as a Ph.D. student with the option to leave with a Masters if I didn’t want to finish the program.

03 / I chose to stay as a Ph.D. student because I was having such a great time doing research. I felt like the additional experience and expertise would give me more career options. I had also made lots of friends in grad school, so there were a lot of incentives to stick around.

Connecting Engineering with Biology

01 / My PhD research originally focused on studying the effect of friction on tire rubber. In doing so, I developed two instruments, one of which measured how much heat was transported into the rubber as it rubbed against different materials. My instrument worked so well that the tire manufacturing company Michelin actually wanted one! Alongside my tire project, I also built a 3D printer that made 3D models of cancer cells. This was when I realized that I could use the skills I’ve obtained as a mechanical engineer to study biological systems.

02 / By the end of my PhD, I decided I wanted to continue to do biology-related work, so I applied to be a postdoctoral researcher, or postdoc, at the University of Pennsylvania. Here, I created a new material that could stimulate heart cells in a way that mimicked the stress a human heart might face in different situations, like during exercise. Throughout this project, I got to collaborate with a doctor that was an expert in hearts, so we both brought unique insights to the project.

03 / As my postdoc was ending, I opened myself up to the possibility of finding a job in industry, working for a company instead of a university. Luckily, one of the people I had worked with during my postdoc had a friend that worked at Illumina and offered to put me in touch. At the time, I didn’t know anything about DNA sequencing, but decided to reach out anyway. I got the job, which gave me the opportunity to move to beautiful San Diego, take up surfing, and learning how to apply my skills to a whole new field.