Meet Rose, a Systems Engineer working as an Automation Engineering Consultant. Rose was first drawn to STEM as a child when she would go exploring across the vast acreage surrounding her family home, catching bugs and small creatures and collecting leaves and nuts with her father. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and is truly invested in encouraging and inspiring other young women to purse STEM careers.
While in college, Rose took ecology electives and fell in love with ecological research. She has since studied the natural world both hands-on, while conducting fieldwork on an island off the coast of Chile, and through data, while using MATLAB to analyze measurements from a site in arctic Alaska.
Today, Rose works for DMC, Inc., in an automation engineering consulting role. In her own words, her "day-to-day" can involve "everything from writing code, to holding technical calls with clients to define project requirements, to writing project proposals, to managing projects."
Automation Engineer - (n) a professional who improves the efficiency of manufacturing and computer systems by automating specific system components to function autonomously
Rose has worked on test systems for lithium-ion batteries, medical devices, rockets, and more! Her position does pose its challenges though. According to Rose: "The most challenging aspect is, quite honestly, working with clients who might not be immediately inclined to trust the 'expertise' of a young woman in a very technical role. I have occasionally been in situations where I just have to let my consistent hard work and good results speak for themselves in order for a client to come around to the idea of a 'technically-capable' woman." Fortunately, Rose works for a company that is very supportive of open discussion regarding biases toward women in STEM. Hopefully this trend continues to move in a positive direction and future generations of girls won't encounter the same challenges of bias as Rose and so many of her female colleagues.
Every woman in STEM I've talked with has had great advice for young girls, and Rose is no exception:
Shop yarns inspired by Rose and other inspirational real women in STEM.
