While working at Rockwell Collins as a systems engineer, I have come to appreciate the value of the top-down approach to design. We are building very complex systems with large teams and it is impossible for any one person to know how every widget works and fits together. Because of this complex interaction my first boss, Bill Piche, always reminds our team that “we are all systems engineers.” When he said this he wanted to make sure that all of the software engineers, hardware engineers, and control law engineers considered how their changes impacted the rest of the avionics system, the airplane, and the crew. After participating in the development of a system from requirements capture through test, it became more apparent to me why it was so important.
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This year I decided to partcipate in the "Letter to my Young Self" project sponsored by the Science Club for Girls in Massachusetts.
Dear Becky (age 10),
You will go to a lot of interesting places that you cannot even imagine right now if you use your strengths and passions.
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Instead of a New Year’s Resolution, leadership coach and teacher Ginny Wilson-Peters selects a word to focus on for the year. It has become an annual tradition for her; this year I’ve decided to do the same. My word for 2012 is passion. I chose passion as my word for 2012, because I want refocus my time on my passions: controls and learning.
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This year for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is sponsoring a contest at WE11 (their annual conference) called the Mosaic of Memories Quilt. Each contestant was asked to submit an essay and a 6" x 6" quilt square illustrating their point of view as an engineer or SWE member. Each submission will be judged at this year's conference and the completed quilt will be on display at WE12. I was inspired to take advantage of the change to combine my crafty side with my engineering side.
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Recent Publications
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Tips for Creating a Functional Personal Knowledge Management System in Academia
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Preparing Women in STEM for Faculty Careers through a Job Search Workshop Series
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Adopting Alternative Grading in an Upper-Level Laboratory Course in Bioengineering
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Development of a Community of Practice for Rethinking Best Practices in Post-COVID Experiential Learning
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Converting a Biomedical Instrumentation Lab From In-person to Online