For Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, IACMI is spotlighting an IACMI intern, Mary Daffron, who has interned at the Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility (FCMF) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she is also a student. Happy #GirlDay2018.
I am a junior in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). As a Grand Challenge Scholar and member of the Executive Board of the UTK chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) for the last two years, my passion for the field is clear. I first became interested in engineering when I joined my high school’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team. I was overwhelmed at first, but I quickly learned to ask questions and that I could do more than I had imagined. My teammates and mentors inspired me to further develop my skills and pushed my boundaries making me a better team member and person. The team I was a part of was fortunate to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), where we saw cutting edge manufacturing technologies and learned from the people who were developing them. My excitement about engineering and manufacturing techniques was first sparked in this space of innovation and experimentation.
I learned a lot in my first year at UTK. I was excited about my course work and the organization I had joined. That summer, I interned for IACMI where I learned about carbon fiber, the creation of composites, and even got to work more with robotics. I could apply some of the skills I learned in classes to a real-world project and was challenged to work on a problem with no clear solution. At the Members Meeting that summer, I saw amazing developments in composites, learned from presentations by experts in the industry, and could further develop my presentation skills when I presented my own research.
After my IACMI internship, I decided to pursue a minor in Materials Science and Engineering because through IACMI I learned about the importance of understanding materials and their use in any application. I have continued to learn about composites manufacturing and testing through my work with Dr. Vaidya, my professor and the UT/ORNL Governor’s Chair in Advanced Composites Manufacturing. I am able to stay involved with IACMI through events like National Manufacturing Day and am through those experiences am able to inspire younger students to consider careers in STEM fields.
In addition to gaining experiences through my experiences with IACMI, I think that it is important to find organizations like SWE to help navigate the engineering curriculum. SWE provides support when classes are difficult and offers insight on questions about professional development. Having a group of people who care about my success and understand what it is like to be a woman in engineering is so valuable.
It is also essential that I give back to those organizations which helped me to attain my goals and to help those who also want to engage in STEM careers. FIRST Robotics was important in my development into the engineer that I am today, and my mentors truly impacted my life through their gift of time. I have been a mentor for the last three years, and I hope to inspire other young girls to pursue engineering through my example and encouragement. It is important to me to take advantage of the opportunities presented to me, and because of the support of SWE and my experiences gained through IACMI, I feel prepared to tackle any challenges that I face head on.