Hi everyone! My name is Alli, and I will be entering my junior year at Pitt in the fall. I am an Engineering Science major on the physics track with a minor in Physics and (tentatively) Electrical Engineering, as well as a certificate in Quantum Computing & Quantum Information. Since I know none of you know what Engineering Science means, it is basically just the intersection between engineering and science. I do Electrical Engineering and just more physics than the average engineer. Some things that I am involved in on campus are Society of Women Engineers, Society of Physics Students, Pittsburgh Electric Propulsion, and I am on the club swim team! In my free time, I love to stay active (swimming, walking, running, climbing) and spend as much time outside as possible!

This summer, I am going (or have already went) to the Czech Republic on the SSOE Plus3 Transfer Plus program. I was initially motivated to take part in this program because I am a transfer student into SSOE, and so I never got the opportunity to take part in a Plus3 program my freshman year. The timing of this program (2 weeks in the beginning of May) also gives me the opportunity to come back to Pittsburgh and pursue a different research opportunity for the rest of the summer. Prague is somewhere that I have always wanted to visit, and I have never been to Europe before, so it just worked out perfectly for me! I am also very interested in the recent history of the Czech Republic, and how historically rich Prague is.

The course that I will be taking on this program is called Engineering at the Crossroads of Europe, and it is an engineering and society focused class. Since the Czech Republic has such a recent and rich history, this is the perfect place to study the impacts of political and societal changes on engineering industries. This is important because industries are going to continue to change in the future, so for someone who is planning on entering industry it is beneficial to know how they have changed in the past. Also, I believe a global experience is beneficial to any engineer because the goal of engineering is to improve people’s lives through innovation. However, you cannot do this effectively if you don’t understand the lives of the people who you are designing solutions for. Being in an unfamiliar place immersing yourself in a different culture is a great way to expand your understanding of the lives of people who live differently than yourself. I am hoping that this global experience will help me to become a more conscientious engineer and help me to understand more about the field that I will be entering. I am also hoping that this experience will help me to become more culturally aware in general, because in this evolving world it is ever so important to keep other people in mind when making decisions.