We are excited to bring to you our second installment of of The STEM Models of Sci Chic! Today we would like to introduce you to University of Florida Industrial and Systems Engineering major, Ellie Weinbel. Ellie is the daughter of two non-engineers that found a love of industrial and systems engineering (ISE) because of the people to people interaction it considers.
How did you get into engineering?
Nobody in my family is in engineering. My mom and my step-dad are artists actually and my dad has his degrees in psychology and telecommunications so I feel like I am out there as what I picked for my profession. I was always interested in problem solving and how stuff worked and I knew I wanted to do something that would make an impact on people, but not me directly working with them.
I really enjoyed statistics and mathematics and that is a lot of what industrial engineering is based off of. The motto of industrial engineering is, "We don't make things, but we make things better" and that seemed like a perfect fit for me. Also, industrial engineering incorporates people into the equation which is often lost in a lot of other science majors. Its all about the machines and the science and technologies but ISE really considers the people in the problem.
What is the coolest thing you have gotten to do while studying engineering?
I think one cool thing I have gotten to do is I have really enjoyed my internships with Procter and Gamble. This sounds really weird but I got to engineer how tampons are made, which is something people don't often think about. You see consumer goods on the shelf and you buy it and you take it to your home and that is the end of the story. But its really cool to see something come from nothing and then make it into something meaningful and see how it impacts people's lives out i the world.
That's really why I like consumer products because I can see how it is directly affecting someone's life and I can personally relate to it because I am washing my dishes or I am using shampoo in my hair. That's stuff I relate to and I enjoy and its really cool to see how much work can go into something so small and yet so impactful.
Do you plan on continuing to work with them after you graduate?
I hope so. I have an internship with Gillette this summer so hopefully something will happen with that. I am interested to see a different side of business and maybe test my skills a little more. I really want a variety of projects and I really want to work with technology and coding but I also want to work directly with machines and people so hopefully I will get that skill in a different product line.
Can you talk a little about the necklace you are wearing and why you picked it out?
Well it is Gator colors so that was a huge part of why I picked it. Honestly I just picked it because it looked pretty. Also, this kind of reminds me of Jimmy Neutron.
Do you have any advice for kids going into science or engineering?
I think the big thing is to keep an open mind because I wan't immediately drawn to science or STEM or anything like that, but its amazing how much it affects our everyday lives. I was always going to art camps or music camps and all of that boils down to some mathematical formula. Really just keep an open mind because you really don't know what your options are until you sit down and find out what you are really passionate about and go towards it.
Also, get involved early. I think that's one thing I regret is I didn't really figure out I was passionate about engineering or mathematics or science or technology until my senior year of high school. If I would have known that earlier I may have taken programming in middle school.
So get involved earlier and don't be afraid to go for something because you never know where its going to lead.
