[FRC Blog] Mentor Monday - December 1, 2014

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 12/1/14: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...onday-12012014

Mentor Monday - December 1, 2014

Blog Date: Monday, December 1, 2014 - 13:54

Today’s Mentor Monday blog post comes to us from Ellen McIsaac, an alumnus of and current mentor of FRC Team 1124.

We’d like you to write a blog post about your journey to the current point in your career. What were the most important steps that you took? Were there influential people or events along the way?

Ten years ago, as a freshman in high school, I heard on the morning announcements that the school’s robotics team had won something called “Bash at the Beach”. I didn’t know the school had a robotics team until that moment, and I didn’t know what “Bash at the Beach” was, but the announcement conjured images of robots driving through sand dunes in my head. The idea of a robotics team sounded interesting to me – I had always been interested in math and science – but it was mid-October, so I figured it was too late to join new clubs that year, and I figured I’d look into the team more the next year. If you’re in FIRST, you know how silly this sounds now, but at the time I didn’t know the FIRST season really begins in January. I was very shy and reserved, and didn’t want to make waves.

Ten years ago, like many high school freshmen, I had not yet given much thought to college or my future career path. I had perhaps heard of engineering, but had only the vaguest idea of what an engineer did, and had certainly never considered it as a possible career choice. I never would have dreamed that ten years into the future, I would be an engineer working on the next generation of jet engines, that I would have a degree in engineering from MIT, or that I, the girl who was once too scared to join a club “late” in October, would have served on the board of directors of an international engineering association. As you can probably guess, the thing that started it all was joining FIRST.

My sophomore year, I went back and joined the robotics team. I remember my first meeting distinctly. I came straight from dance class, in a leotard and tights. People looked at me like I had two heads. Students were demonstrating the different types of things the team worked on. I got to help take apart a gearbox and see how it worked. When I went home, still in my leotard and tights, my hands were covered in grease. Then it was my parents who looked at me like I had two heads. I also remember the feeling I had when the students on the team showed me the robot they had built the previous year. It was as tall as me. I was instantly intimidated when I found out that they had designed and built the robot themselves. I assumed I had nothing to offer. I wasn’t smart enough to build my own robot my own size from scratch! I didn’t even know anything about electronics. I wasn’t sure that I would go back.

Of course, I did end up going back to give it another chance. The beginning of my experience on the robotics team ended up being the start of several important lessons for me. Not only have they been important, but they have also been recurring as I’ve developed my education and my career. Some of the feelings I’ve had throughout my journey over the past ten years and the lessons I’ve learned may resonate with you.

I learned not to let other people’s expectations define me or limit me. It’s okay to break the mold and pave your own path. If I had let my parents’ or other students’ initial reactions to my first day on the robotics team shape my decisions, I would have decided I didn’t belong there, and I certainly would not be where I am today. Later on, the summer after my sophomore year in college, I went and worked in a lab in France. I was the first American student who had ever worked there, and it turned out we both learned a lot from each other. I had thought math was the universal language, so it was news to me that people approached solving technical problems differently across cultures. The work environment in France is also very different from the fast-paced culture I was used to at MIT. A year later, I did an internship at Pratt & Whitney, which is what turned into my full-time job as a composite structures engineer. While Pratt & Whitney hires lots of mechanical engineers and aerospace engineers from MIT, I’m the first person from materials science & engineering that my department can think of who has gone to work for Pratt & Whitney. It turns out that my diverse background has also been very helpful in solving problems, because I come at them from a different perspective from the mechanical engineers and aerospace engineers in my group.

I have also learned many times over that it’s good to go outside your comfort zone – you grow the most by doing things that scare you a little bit. When I first joined the robotics team, it was definitely outside my comfort zone, but I gained so much confidence, developed strong leadership skills, got experience working in teams, and learned new technical skills that created the foundation for a successful future. A few years later, when I was deciding where to go to college, I was excited about MIT but was nervous to matriculate because I thought it would be too hard and too intense, and wasn’t sure that I could be successful. I didn’t know anyone there and would be starting out all by myself. While it was a bit scary to decide to attend, I think it was the best decision I could have ever made for my personal and professional development. By pushing myself, I was able to test my limits and grow more as a scholar and a leader than I ever could have in an environment that felt more comfortable.

Something else that has been important to me in my early career path is understanding that you don’t have to have all the answers right away; you can try things out and explore. Even when you’re in school as an engineering student, it isn’t always obvious what engineers do in their day-to-day life. The best way to find out what it’s like to work in different industries, the difference between academia and industry, what different types of engineering roles do, and how engineering varies in different countries is to try it out for yourself. In my case, I always knew I was interested in materials engineering, but wasn’t sure of what specifically I wanted to work on long term or whether I wanted to end up in academia or industry. I ended up doing research in nanotechnology for two years, doing a summer internship in composites in France, and doing another summer internship in composites at Pratt & Whitney. These experiences helped to give me a foundation and shape my understanding of what engineers actually work on, and what I might want to do when I graduate. Another resource that was very helpful to me was my involvement in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). Through SWE, I was able to meet lots of professional engineers spanning every industry and career path imaginable. By talking to them, I was able to gain a much better understanding of what different careers are really like, as well as insider view into which companies are desirable to work for.

I also wanted to discuss what’s known as the “impostor syndrome” – when people feel like they don’t deserve the success they have achieved, they are frauds, and they don’t belong. If you haven’t heard of this yet, it will certainly not be the last time you hear about it. Impostor syndrome is common among high-achieving women and minorities. It’s important to realize that you are not the only one who feels this way – it turns out almost everyone has felt this way at some point, and is “faking it until they make it”. There is research that says that women don’t apply to jobs unless they meet 100% of the qualifications, while men apply for jobs if they meet 60% of the qualifications. Similarly, 57% of men negotiate their salaries, while only 7% of women do. We are holding ourselves back out of that fear of being an impostor, being underqualified, or asking too much, and we shouldn’t be! Again, don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone sometimes, and understand that you are not alone in the way you feel.

Everything that I’ve learned from my FIRST experience has led me to my current place in life, where I am a composite structures engineer for Pratt & Whitney. In my job, I analyze the structural capability of various composite components throughout the life cycle of a jet engine, from early technology development, to development and production of new parts, to support of existing hardware out in the field in service. I get to work on a wide range of materials systems and look at things like how parts will bend and be stressed under loading, how long they can be safely used, how defects will propagate, and whether and how we can repair damaged parts. Outside of work, I am completing a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. I am very involved in the Society of Women Engineers, where I have served on the Board of Directors, and I have also stayed involved in FIRST as a team mentor, event volunteer, and a member of several event planning committees.

We’d also be interested in your thoughts on how teams can engage the female students on their teams. How can teams better reach out to female students who aren’t on their team? How can teams attract more female engineering mentors? Are there successes from your team(s) that you can share?

I think it’s important that current students and mentors understand some of the fears young female students can face when joining a robotics team, like those I mentioned in my experience. Many young women do not have exposure to STEM role models and careers, and getting involved in the unknown can be scary. Coupled with the idea of impostor syndrome, it can be easy to feel like you don’t belong and have nothing to contribute. On the other side of things, team members who have worked together through long nights during build season and traveled together to compete have built deep bonds, and are very connected. While they don’t mean to be exclusionary – you might not even realize that you are sharing so many inside jokes with your friends – it can feel difficult for a newcomer to break into a close-knit group like that. So, when new members join, existing team members and mentors need to put an extra effort into making sure they are welcoming and inclusive of new members. Something that worked well on my high school team was to have a buddy system for new team members, so they had their own experienced student from the team who could act as a mentor, answer questions, and help them feel comfortable.

For me, having adult mentors that understood and were able to connect with my reserved and introverted personality was critical in me feeling comfortable early on in my robotics experience. It’s useful to have a group of mentors with diverse backgrounds and personalities so that they can connect with a wide range of students and contribute different perspectives.