#picker engineering program

Ford Hall is my favorite building on campus. While it’s hard to say exactly what I like about it, it was definitely a memorable part of my visit as a prospective student. Just looking at Ford makes me happy, so it's awesome that I can see it out my dorm room window. Ford Hall is a modern science building housing engineering, computer science, molecular biology, chemistry, and biochemistry. While not exclusive to engineering, I still consider it the “engineering building”. Ironically, the first-year engineering courses (EGR 100 and EGR 110) are actually in Burton. Calling it the engineering building is actually sort of accurate since it was built to help accommodate the Picker Engineering Program. Ford Hall has its name since the lead donor was the Ford Motor Company Fund. 

Ford Hall consists of laboratories, classrooms, offices, study spaces, and the main atrium. The lower level of Ford has a study space that is affectionately called the Mol Hole. 

During my time at Smith, I have only had one class in Ford. However, as an engineering major, I am sure to have many more in the future. I have also attended multiple talks in Ford. As an engineering student, I have 24-hour swipe access to the Mechanics Playground, which is an engineering lab space located on the lower level of Ford. 

During my engineering class last semester, I got to use the laser cutter in Ford. Ford also houses the engineering department’s wind tunnel. 

This week, my engineering class (EGR 110) visited Ford for a special tour. We got to visit the upper level where the air ventilation system is located. 

We asked so many questions that we didn’t have time to visit the mechanical room during class. However, our tour guide, Lab Technician Sue Froehlich was gracious enough to lead an extra tour during lunch the next day. 

We also got to go out on the green roof. The green roof has sedum plants that filter rainwater into grey water. This grey water is later used in the toilets. My group decided to study this system for our engineering assignment about analyzing mass. 

I am extremely excited to announce that I have officially declared my major as a Bachelor of Science in engineering science! As you may know, the engineering program here at Smith is a large part of why I chose Smith. You can read more about my college decision process here. It is really exciting to have declared, but in many ways, nothing has changed.

Deciding to officially declare was somewhat spur of the moment, but the intention to major in engineering has been a constant in my life for the past few years. That being said, I was open to the notion that being in college could change my mind. If not engineering, I think I would major in computer science or statistical and data science. To declare, I went to the engineering office (in Ford Hall) to pick up two forms. The first form had me rank the engineering professors so that I could be matched with a major advisor. The second form was the official declaration of my major. I filled out the forms and obtained a signature from my liberal arts advisor/ pre-major advisor. Next, I turned in the forms to the engineering office. This all happened on Thursday, November 21st. On Monday, November 25th, I received an email that my form had been processed. The next step was to pick up the official declaration form and turn it into the registrar’s office. At the registrar's office, my declaration became official as they entered my major into BannerWeb. I was happy to learn that I had been assigned to my top choice major advisor. My advisor is Kris Dorsey, my current engineering professor as well as my former liberal arts advisor.

It is my understanding that declaring in other departments is even easier. I think only the form needed is the official declaration form (with signatures from your liberal arts advisor and major advisor). To declare a second major, only the signature from your new advisor is needed. Most Smith students have until the end of sophomore year to declare their major. Engineering majors are expected to declare by Spring break their first year. Being a declared engineering major is important for registering for sophomore-level engineering classes.

As an intended engineering major, I am taking EGR 100 this fall. While it is required for engineering majors, EGR 100 is open to all (its official title is Engineering for Everyone). My specific section of the course is called Bits, Bots and Thoughts. If you are curious about my other fall 2019 courses, check out this post. In class, we work in teams through design scenarios to better understand the engineering design process and the concept of human-centered design. We have also been introduced to the basics of AutoCAD and Solidworks. (Above, see a project that I drafted in Solidworks. In the near future, it will be 3D printed!)  More recently we have been learning about Arduinos. We have just started an exciting project in collaboration with first-year engineering students at Tufts University. 

Outside of class, but as a required assignment, all EGR 100 students make a hammer-screwdriver at the Center for Design and Fabrication (CDF). The CDF is Smith’s machine shop and it is seriously one of the coolest (and least well known) places on campus. Over the past 4 weeks, the awesome team at the CDF (Dale, Eric, and their student intern) has guided me through constructing my very own hammer-screwdriver. I used a variety of machines (see below) including two lathes, a 3-axis mill, and a laser cutter. To strengthen the screwdrivers, we got to heat treat the metal which was a lot of fun (see below). Overall, the end of this project is bittersweet. I am really happy with the final product and the overall experience, but I will really miss my weekly CDF sessions.  

On Thursday of last week, the engineering department held its annual celebration of seniors! This was a really fun event during which we were called up one by one to receive our hard hats. I don’t know the full history, but the hard hats have been a tradition since the very first graduating class back in 2004. While they are a bit dorky, it was super cool to receive mine and I look forward to wearing it during commencement! 

Speaking of commencement, I also picked up my regalia from the bookstore on Friday! While it may seem a bit early for all of this, I’ll actually be wearing my regalia for the first time on Thursday for Rally Day. What is Rally Day? Honestly, I don’t really know, but I’ll hopefully share more next week! What I do know is that afternoon classes are canceled, our commencement speaker is announced, and seniors wear fun hats. I’ll probably be boring and just wear my new hard hat as is, but perhaps I’ll find a cool way to decorate it. 

This year, I am the co-president of Tau Beta Kappa (TBK) which is Smith’s engineering honors society. We run our society under the same bylaws as the national engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi but don’t yet have enough graduates to be an official chapter (hence the different name). As co-president, I had the great pleasure of extending invitations to our new members (the top eighth of the junior class and the top fifth of the senior class). To make these invitations a bit more special, we printed out physical letters and sent them out via campus mail. We also held an informational session (with pizza) a few weeks ago. To become official members, invitees were tasked with reflecting on one of the following prompts.

How do you envision using your engineering background to influence the world or your local communities? 

How has your background and past experience shaped you into the engineer you are today?

On Wednesday of this week, we held our induction ceremony at Osaka! Osaka is a Japanese restaurant in downtown Northampton. To read about more restaurants in Northampton, click here. Osaka has been the location of choice for many years, but due to COVID policies, we were unable to go there last year. Okaka was a lot of fun because we got a cooking show as some folks ordered hibachi. I personally ordered the avocado roll and pad thai. 

Other TBK traditions include leaving a small and meaningful object in a box of treasures and signing a book. This book is really cool because it has signatures dating back to the beginning of the Picker engineering program. We also distributed certificates to our new members that were signed by five engineering professors. I got a certificate and a rose when I was inducted last year, but it turns out the certificate was never signed! 

views from work

I work as the Student Office Assistant for Smith’s Picker Engineering Program, the only program in the country that offers an ABET-accredited B.S. in Engineering at a predominantly women’s college. As a humanities person who has never touched a STEM in their life, I love getting to see a different side of Smith and meeting all the Div III students, staff, and faculty. My office is located in Ford Hall, which has (in my humble opinion) the best natural light and most state-of-the-art facilities on campus.