Nonlinear Pathways into Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

When pandemic life gives me time to pause, I often wonder how I became a faculty member in one of the nation’s leading Mechanical Engineering programs. I was not groomed or destined to lead international, multidisciplinary teams engineering energy-efficient future manufacturing processes that use electromagnetic fields. When we succeed, our work can impact the way we produce ceramic materials that find applications in energy devices, sensors, electronics in areas as diverse as environment monitoring, transportation, aerospace, telecommunications, and healthcare. For women of color, opportunities are few and far between. So, my academic career path happened because I explored every fork in the roads that came before me. I took on jobs, pursued degrees, and in the process gained a wealth of experience in seemingly unrelated areas, which are now indispensable to the work I do now. Events along my journey were often trigger points that helped me to navigate the map of these diverse experiences and form connections that became invaluable to my career. At these points, the decision-making had nuances and sometimes I took one fork, followed it, failed and went back to the road to take the other fork. Along the way, also came the challenges of immigrant life, family pressures, and health struggles. These are the stories that define the “non-linearities” of my journey and the ones I wish to share further with the readers.