STEM Struck: Collin Alumna shares her path to a career in engineering

As a young girl, Samantha Smith wasnt thinking about a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). She didnt have a female role model who was guiding her 在那个方向. But that changed when she started taking classes at 科林大学 from Professor Tripat Baweja, now director of engineering technical programs.

Fast forward a few years, and Smith is happily entrenched in the STEM field as a mechanical 雷神公司工程师. She is working on a product that protects service men and women while completing her Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

打好基础

Learning about engineering from Baweja inspired Smith to serve as a public relations officer for the 大学s Society of Women Engineers chapter. 此外，她也加入了 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and volunteered at the 科林大学 all girls and co-ed robotics camps, sharing her love of science with middle school and high school students.

It is important that women go into engineering because they have different perspectives 史密斯说，女性比男性多. With more people with different perspectives, we can go further because we all bring new and different ideas.

Smith graduated with an associate degree from 科林大学, summa cum laude, in 2017. She transferred to UTD and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, summa cum laude, in May 2020.

I can attribute my success at UTD to Collin. Collin gave me the foundation of how to study and learn in science classes like chemistry and engineering, Smith said. I know how to dig deep into a textbook and notes and which questions to ask. 我把 all the theory I learned at Collin and applied it in my classes and labs and in the Nano-Bio Lab at UTD, Smith said.

Smith led a project in which she was the only undergraduate and only female volunteering 在纳米生物实验室. During her one and a half years at the lab she helped create a stable printhead for a 3D printer to fabricate flexible circuits. 在夏天 of 2018, she was one of five students selected for a summer National Science Foundation (NSF) optics lab project at the University of Texas at Austin. 这个小组在工作 on unique metal compounds that exhibit photoluminescence (emit light). 史密斯一家科学 knowledge from 科林大学 proved invaluable.

At that point, I had only learned about optics in Physics II at Collin. 在科林, we talked about how the focus would change depending on the quality of the materials 金属单层的. A monolayer is incredibly thin, only a few atoms thick. If you put tape on a pencil mark, the amount left on the tape when it is removed is comparable 变成一层金属. It was so thin we could bend it and use it for circuitry, 史密斯解释说.

When Smith returned to the Nano-Bio Lab in the fall she was part of a team that built a 3D printer that used a modified liquid polymer that converts to ceramic when it is sintered (extreme heat). She was awarded the Johnson School Undergraduate Research 获奖并出版了 纸 with her colleagues about the project. Smith went on to complete another NSF internship with a computation mechanics lab at UTD where she compiled biomechanical data and performed simulations showing how bone reacts to forces. The data included nano-level changes in regard to tension, compression, and shear. For Smiths senior design project, sponsored by UT Southwestern, she provided the mechanical components for a mannikin which served as a bleeding control trainer with biofeedback and CPR capability.

在野外工作

Last summer, Smith completed an internship supporting the radiofrequency sensors and electronics design team at Raytheon. She was hired before the internship ended.

I love what I do, how much I am learning, and being able to apply what I learned in 大学. Things I learned are coming to life now, and I am really enriched by that. I receive a lot of support from my team, and they respect me. 我的同事要求 my opinion even though theyve been working there for 20 years, she said.

Looking back, Smith said she realizes that women may be intimidated by the idea of 从事STEM职业. She recommends that they just make the leap and jump into it.

I encourage women to go into STEM because it is really rewarding, Smith said. 你 get to see your limits and how you can change the world through innovation and problem 解决. What I am doing 今天 is going to make someones life better and may even 挽救某人的生命.