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Feature

Fab Four These College of Engineering grads are on the fast track to professional success

—Charles Creekmore

Starting from top left; Alexis Smith, Amanda Roche, Patty O'Brien, and Seth Berkowitz FOR YEARS THE UNITED STATES has been suffering from a shortfall of engineers, which is one reason why the country imported some 100,000 skilled technologists annually. But after 9/11, when new visa restrictions squeezed the flow of foreign technologists to a trickle, the problem became critical. And the situation is especially acute in Massachusetts. Last summer, for example, Raytheon announced that it was trying to hire 1,000 electrical engineers. “They aren’t out there,” says Kathleen Rubin, assistant dean for outreach at the College of Engineering (COE). “The whole state doesn’t graduate 1,000 electrical engineers in a year. And the lack of an engineering workforce is a national problem.” Into the breach charge talented UMass Amherst graduates. Approximately 170 will collect diplomas this May, and many will immediately step into highly skilled positions vital to the U.S. economy. Here are four of the brightest. Power Player Name: Alexis Smith, Class of 2005 Major: Chemical Engineering Hometown: Springfield, Mass. What’s next: Associate engineer; United Technologies Corporation (UTC); East Hartford, Conn. Personal Aspirations: “To go to law school, write a few books, retire early, and go into politics.” Alexis Smith can relate to a bumper sticker seen around campus: “Oh, no! Not another learning experience!” That’s exactly how she reacted nearly three years ago, completely overwhelmed by her first chemical engineering course. Smith consulted her mentor, professor Susan Roberts. “I think I’m going to fail,” Smith confided tearfully. Professor Roberts is especially invested in women succeeding in the chemical engineering profession, so she ran the student through her paces. “Are you doing your homework?” Roberts asked. Smith’s answer was affirmative. “Well, are you going to class?” Roberts inquired. The answer was again positive. “And how are you doing in your tests?” queried Roberts. Smith shrugged: “Okay, I guess.” “Then there’s no way you can fail,” Roberts declared, among other encouragements. After receiving this talking-to, Smith revamped her study habits. One result is that she earned herself a three-year internship with UTC Power. Her supervisors were so impressed by her work that the company offered her a permanent job after graduation. Smith’s internship at UTC Power was not just another learning experience. Her first task was to create a vital computer program that monitors the power plant of an electric-automobile prototype and shuts it down if it overheats. The next summer she saw her program installed in the overall monitoring system of the car and tested under simulated conditions. “It was one of those great joys,” she says, “like seeing your baby grow up.” Some might say the same of watching Smith grow into the promising young engineer she is today. Toy Story Name: Amanda Roche, Class of 2004 Major: Industrial engineering Hometown: Ridgefield, Conn. What’s Next: Quality engineer; Lights, Camera, Interaction, Inc.; Norwalk, Conn. Personal Aspirations: “I want to make sure I’m happy with what I’m doing, helping people in a direct way with a product I can be proud of, and working in a place where’s there’s no questionable morality.” Many circumstances conspire to bring about every person’s moment of truth. In the case of Amanda Roche, her agent of destiny wasn’t chance, but one designed by the College of Engineering. After Roche had completed her freshman year, she felt directionless. “Where am I going with industrial engineering?” she asked herself. That’s when she went to see Vanessa Rivera, the assistant dean for student affairs. She’s also head of the Women in Engineering Program, established in 1983 “to reach, inspire, and encourage” women in engineering careers. Rivera did exactly that by encouraging Roche to join the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), start applying for internships, and “get connected. Dean Rivera is such a great help to so many people,” says Roche. Roche took the dean’s advice to heart and made connections—in a big way. During the next three years she became president of SWE, completed four internships, and created a network of contacts that amounted to an “Amanda Roche admiration society.” After turning down two other gainful offers, Roche chose a position as a quality engineer at Lights, Camera, Interaction, a company that makes heirloom-quality toys, meant to be passed down from generation to generation. Her job is to evaluate toy designs for safety, quality, and manufacturability. “Everything just sort of fell into place for me,” says Roche, “with one internship leading to another, and one contact leading to the next.” A Head for Numbers Name: Mary Patty O’Brien, Class of 2006 Major: Mechanical engineering Hometown: Swansea, Mass. What’s Next: Student technical assistant; Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC); Newport, R.I. Personal Aspirations: “I want to wake up every morning and be happy with who I am and what I’m doing.” Patty O’Brien possesses a rare talent that ought to be enough to land her a job working for any federal agency: She has a photographic memory for serial numbers. As soon as she arrived for her student internship at Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) last summer and began memorizing equipment serial numbers as if they were combinations to bank vaults, all the folks in her department took her into their hearts. “They love me,” O’Brien says about the colleagues who benefited from her unique gift. It was put to good use on her first task—organizing the inventory of experimental equipment related to the submarine explosives testing done by her group. Her memory quickly made her a key cog in the operation. O’Brien’s work also included evaluating equipment, installing accelerometers, and learning the software for instruments used during a series of crucial explosives tests that she helped carry out this winter at the Navy’s test facility in Virginia. There, live charges were detonated to test submarine equipment against shockwaves. One purpose of the experiments was to test the strength, security, and effectiveness of torpedo lashings when charges go off outside the hull. Such fireworks also sent shockwaves through O’Brien’s system. “For the first time since I started studying engineering, I really became passionate about what I was doing,” she says. “If you look at my grades, you can really see how this internship has helped me. For the first time I see what I can be and have set my goals to get there.” O’Brien is hoping for a full-time job with NUWC. The odds are good that she will achieve it since most of the people in her department started off as interns, too—and none of them possessed her secret weapon. Building a Better X-Ray Name: Seth Berkowitz, Class of 2005 Major: Electrical engineering Hometown: Westford, Mass. What’s next: Medical school Personal Aspirations: “To use both my engineering education and future medical training to improve future healthcare and biomedical technology.” Seth Berkowitz looks forward to shattering stereotypes as an electrical engineer entering medical school. Like an engineer, he takes a logical view. He’s received many interviews at some of the most selective institutions in the nation, and now he’s analyzing the merits of the five where he’s been accepted. “The problem-solving skills I’ve developed as an engineer can easily be plugged into medicine,” he explains. “It’s different words for the same thing. In engineering we call it troubleshooting. In medicine they call it differential diagnosis.” Berkowitz’s dream of going to medical school was in need of some troubleshooting last year. Although he had completed his pre-med requirements, his internships had focused on radar. He was lacking the connection between engineering and medicine that he was striving for. Assistant Dean Rubin performed a “differential diagnosis” and prescribed summer research at Johns Hopkins Center for Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technologies. There, Berkowitz resuscitated his medical dream. His research task was helping to create the prototype for surgical tools that use ultrasound transducers—feelers somewhat like in vivo radar echoes—fitted on their tips so surgeons, or robotic surgical assistants, can avoid accidentally piercing internal structures. “I really knew I was on track for medical school after that research,” Berkowitz says. This year Berkowitz further picked up the pace while working on his senior thesis for the Honors Program. He was part of a computer science team researching how to improve the 50-percent-accuracy rate of X-rays currently performed on tumors extracted during breast cancer surgery. Right now, a single X-ray of the tissue specimen is used to determine whether the cancer has been fully removed. Berkowitz is working on a system of multiple X-rays taken from different angles, creating a more accurate 3D representation. While at UMass Amherst, Berkowitz juggled jobs as a resident assistant, a teaching assistant for electronics, and positions as Outing Club treasurer and founding member of the UMass Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Just as he came to UMass Amherst for its variety of opportunities, he intends to find the same balance after graduation.

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Fab Four

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