The Engineering Experience

              At the end of the semester, it can feel like the ounces of coffee consumed overwhelms the number of hours slept.  However, studying for finals doesn’t have to include all-nighters or panic.  Incorporate this advice into your finals week to find success, and your GPA will thank you!  Studying for finals! (with Jennifer Biasi (right), Chemical Engineering)  Practice Old Exams It's typically beneficial to gauge your studying progress by taking exams from a class archive.  If the final is cumulative, it's also helpful to look back at your previous exams throughout the semester. Make a Plan Map out your study time to balance out time studying for each final. Determine how much time you want to spend studying for each final, and use this to make a general timeline Take Five Allow yourself to relax every once in while. I've personally found that I can focus better when I allow myself to walk away ...

Assistant Professor, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Advice for female engineers: Remember that for every one person that tries to bring you down, there are many supporters and advocates. Best advice she received as a college student: Do what makes you happy and remember that you can always change the path that you are on. More about Professor Pienaar...   What is she passionate about? She has a background in math and is passionate about using math to rationally and systematically find better approaches to healthcare. Her career started in applied math and she then went to graduate school to study Chemical Engineering with a biology focus. She uses math to approximate all of the parameter space. What advice does she have for female engineers? Engineering can be a male dominated field, which can be challenging. Try to make others understand that as a minority, you bring a unique perspective. Just remember for every...

Want to know what the Holidays are like at Purdue? Check out some highlights below! Me in front of the very large Christmas tree in the Union. It takes a crew to assemble a tree this big! PMO Christmas Show  - Every year, the Purdue Musical Organizations put on an incredible show in Elliott Hall of Music. This year is PMO's 81st show, and students are excited as ever! Alumni, families, and music lovers everywhere come to enjoy this production, and students can order discount tickets! Beautiful sets created in three months of work, skits and dialogues, and of course incredible musical arrangements highlight the performance, which is an annual tradition for Boilermakers of all ages. Purdue Memorial Union Christmas Tree  -  Since the 1930s, Purdue has decorated and displayed extraordinary Christmas trees in the Memorial Union.  This year's tree was planted in 1990 and is over 30 feet tall!  While they used to be shipped in from W...

My Empowering Internship Experience          I was very intimidated to go to Industrial Roundtable freshman year, but it was so worth it to put myself out of my comfort zone for that amazing professional experience.  During IR, I interviewed with ComEd, a utility company in northern Illinois, and I was thankful to receive the opportunity to intern with them last summer. Going into my internship over the summer, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  ComEd started the program with a helpful orientation day where I learned more about the company and talked with other students in the internship program.  Learning about ComEd’s commitment to “powering lives” was truly an inspiring way to kick off the summer.  Throughout the summer, I had so many great experiences, and here’s what I learned from it all: ·         Take Initiative o     There are so many professionals around you that are more than willing to he...

“Don’t you dare tell yourself you can’t do something because you’re a woman.” Amy Reibman, an ECE professor here at Purdue, pushes young women to remember this. Reibman reminds women that in life you’ll encounter times when people will tell you you can’t do it because you’re a women, but regardless, that you should never believe it. Professor Reibman is a remarkable example of a successful woman engineer, from being a brilliant scientist and engineer to even being on the USA’s Women’s Fencing Team! Reibman fell in love with math at a young age and pursued engineering because of that passion. As she grew older, her interests led her to be fascinated by videos, which were still a new concept 25 years ago. After finishing school Reibman spent about 25 years researching about videos, with 23 of these years at AT&T, being an industrial researcher. While she was at AT&T, she was part of the team that pioneered sending videos to and from devices such as your phone, something t...