Experiences

Commitment to Service

Study Abroad in Abu Dhabi & Wyakom Competition

I studied abroad in Abu Dhabi my sophomore year of college and my first year in GLASS. This opportunity allowed me to experience a new part of the world through both the context of engineering and cultural immersion. While I was there, I took part in a ThinkTank competition sponsored by the UAE government to try to implement better engineering practices around surburban Abu Dhabi. For my team's project proposal, we designed a sustainable bus stop system that served a more rural area of the ermirate of Abu Dhabi. This system used electric buses powered by solar panels on the bus stops that were purposely placed at important places that created a route connected marginalized communities to the downtown area.

This project aimed to reduce the carbon footprint of cars in the UAE as well increase the accebility of commerce to lower income areas. This was my first experience independtly studying public transportation and implementing a socially driven solution.

My team and I were fortunate enough to be finalists in the competition and presented our ideas to the head of the Community Development Committee in the UAE. Creating an innovation that matched the cultural and environmental needs of the area was a skill that could only be learned through an experience like this one.

This was one of my first exposures to the goal of sustainable infrastructure in engineering. The basis of the Think-Tank competition perfectly coincided with the goal of my long-term GLASS program: creating infrastructure that combats the enviromental needs of the community during climate change.

Head of Inclusion, Diversity, Belonging, & Equity

As the Deputy Head of Inclusion, Diversity, Belonging, and Equity in the General Engineering department, my team and I have created a three-year tiered training for teaching assistants that focuses on inclusion and social justice, being an inclusive leader in the classroom, and applying these attitudes outside of Tandon in a professional setting. We presented our research evaluating the efficacy of this training at two conferences: American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) in Minneapolis and at "Out in STEM" (oSTEM) in Boston.

For a long time, the engineering industry has upheld several barriers to entry that prevent the most vulnerable communities from being involved in the field. By attacking this problem at the source (engineering education) equity is more achievable. I am working to make the inclusive practices at Tandon more standardized through Teahcing Assistant training.

The impact of our training has been presented at two different conferences so far, the American Society of Engineering Education conference in Minneapolis, and the oSTEM conference in Boston. Our Teaching Assistants have reported being better equipt to manage stressful classroom environments and we hope to eventually address the graduation gap between marginalized students and their more priviliged peers.

This experience was impactful to my overall goals at GLASS because it represents the non-technical importance of including inclusion into the social context of innovation and developement.

Global Competency

Service Trip to Hua Hin, Thailand

During Spring break my junior year, I travelled to Hua Hin, Thailand alone to embark on a service trip dedicated to conservation and education. In this rural village in central Thailand, I spent several days planting mangroves in their natural habit and teaching local children basic English skills in thier schools.

This region of Thailand is facing two primary threats: climate change, and exploitation from tourism and traffiking. With rising sea levels, the coast of this area is at risk for over flowing and becoming inhabitable. This would displace the majority of the area's residents and severely hurt the little industry and economy that exists there. Planting native mangrove trees contributes to natural sand and soil retention which helps mitigate the effects of the rising sea level. Additionally, since human traffiking is a large problem in this region of the country, many young people are at risk. Without sufficient English education, they are more at risk because they are ineligible for the jobs with the highest social mobility in the area (tourism). Teaching these children English was not a form of imperialism, but a chance at freedom.

The impact of this volunteering experience was extensive. Not only was I engaging in immediately impactful actions for the community, but I was able to gain further understanding of different public health threats than I am exposed to in my community back home. I returned home from the trip with a hieghtened sense of awareness for problems I had previously only read about.

Service Learning Trip to Bandung, Indonesia

During the J-Term of my Senior Year, my fellow GLASS members and I traveled to Bandung, Indonesia to complete a course at ITB (Institute of Technology Bandung). This program invovled us taking classes on local Indonesia culture and learning about the importance of global competancy in  the context of business and engineering. Then, we took several trips to various places throughout central Java where we witnessed a community garden and school program, an alternative education center that emphasized the importance of global learning, and took part in sustainable farming initiatives in rural villages.

During this period, we made life long friends with local Indonesian students, traveled to Eco Parks, visited an orchid farm, and ate lots and lots of delicious local cuisine. The trip concluded with us traveling to a river with the local guides and taking a dip into the refreshing waters.

Leadership

RoboSub VIP, President & Chief Engineer

I served as a member of the administration team for the RoboSub Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) since the Fall of 2022, but in my senior year of college (Fall 2023) I was named president of the organization. I work to manage the Motion, Vision, Mechanical, Electrical, and Administration subteams in order for the team to compete in Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) competitions around the country. Despite my academic background primarily being within mechanical engineering, I work a primarily integration-based role, ensuring that all of the necessary KPI's are being met on each subteam and that the robot can be manufactured and funciton cohesively.

This role was a challenge, but I took it on specifically to engage my manaagement skills as well as diversify the my technical exposure to content beyond mechanical engineering. Since being President is based primarily around product integration, I have learned a lot more about computer science and electrical engineering than I would have if I remained on the mechancial and administrative subteams. Additionally, as President, I am in charge of the grading of the memebers, the scheduling of meetings, and logistical elements that are crucial to being successful not only as a VIP team but in the future workplaces.

The impact of this project has heavily extended into my global goals as a GLASS student as I continue to learn about all of the practical uses for AUV's when fighting things like climate change or natural disasters. Although, on a scaled down level, the impact of my work has been a healthy revival of a once struggling VIP team at NYU Tandon.

GLASS Peer Ambassador & Head Recruiter

My third year in the GLASS program, I was selected for two leadership positions where I worked as a Peer Ambassador to GLASS as well as a Lead Recruiter for the recruitment of new GLASS members.

As a peer ambassador, I scheduled events for GLASS students to take part in and enjoy while they continued thier studies at school. These events included painitng classes, rage rooms, and an indoor sky-diving event.  As a lead recruiter, I worked alongside Joanna Ibrahim and Nabiha Siddique to host events for freshman students interested in joining GLASS. We answered questions and hosted interviews and assisted in the recruitment process. Incorporating the values of GLASS into the next cohort is essential to ensuring that GLASS is full of globally concious engineers for years to come.

Academic Excellence

Hyperloop VIP, Magnetic-Levitation Braking Team Member

I served a member of the Hyperloop VIP Magnetic-Levitation Braking Team my first and second year of college. The goal of this VIP was to design a prototype of a high-speed Hyperloop rail system that could theoretically be implemented between the southern tip of Manhattan and Long Island. This involved creating a functioning prototype and determining business and urban planning logistics of its implementation. My role specifically focused on creating a braking system for the Hyperloop that involved magnetic levitation technology to slow the train as it traveled along its I-beam rails. 

This project was an important step in my academic career as it was the first time I was taking part in an engineering project outside of the classroom setting. It mirrored many of the professional experiences I would later have during my career, where I was working closely with a sub-team involved in a larger team to achieve an egineering design goal.

The impact of this experience was that I was able to transfer my technical skills and interpersonal skills to bigger larger projects throguhout the rest of my career while gaining confidence in my overall abilities- right at the start of college. 

This experience directly aided in the development of my mission statement as it was my first introduction to the importance of accessible and effective transportation. I realized that infrastructure is a overt form of social mobility and it should be treated as such when making design choices.

Professional Development

SWE Conferences & Internships at ADM & Boeing

I attended two Society of Women Engineers conferences since being GLASS and through these conferences I gained to two internship opportunites.

One was as a Process Engineering Intern at Archer Daniels Midland. During the course of this internship, I worked on several projects focusing on fire mitigation strategy, product flow optimization, and valve replacement based on failure metrics. I learned about trypical manufacturing procedures, key performance indicators (KPI's) and completing engineering projects with profit, safety, and quality at the forefront. 

The second internship was as a Main Cabin Interiors Intern at Boeing the summer before my senior year in Seattle, WA. This experience allowed me to pivot my engineering skills into the aerospace engineering industry. I worked on interior structural design, configuraiton management, stress evaluation, and new product desing. This internship was a great experience and I am returing next year upon my graduation to continue in a full time position.

These professional opportunities have allowed me to apply my technical enigneering skills prior to even graduating engineering school. I have been able to expand my career opportunities while working in various parts of the mechanical engineering field, from agriculture to aerospace.

These internships have allowed me to understand the different impacts of engineering and helped me personally identify areas of engineering industry that could benefit from social justice and sustianabiltiy work. I have a better understanding of the complex problems engineers face and a new found inspiration for solving them in a more socially and environmentally just way.