“Working on a project that impacts the real world is a fascinating experience, especially with a diverse group of engineers.

I am currently fortunate enough to be a part of SCOPE, as I work with Amazon Robotics on developing a human interactive rescue system for the supply line at Amazon's supply centers. As both a project manager and software engineer, being able to ideate and bring these plans to fruition is a deeply rewarding and valuable experience.

Collaborating with both experienced industry engineers and motivated students is fun and a critical aspect of my personal and professional growth in today's society.”

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"I really like that at Olin, engineering is something you apply to the real world. I like the whole teamwork approach because once you graduate and are working in the real world, you're going to have to interact with people all the time. Leaning how best do that is really, really helpful.

When I was in high school, I signed up to go to an Olin information session and then decided that I didn't want to go. It was this school of less than 400 people. Why would I want to go there? One of my college counselors was just like, maybe you should give it a shot.

So I went with my mom and was just really shocked that Olin had this crazily different take on engineering. The really strong community aspect was also something I didn't really get at a lot of other places.

I definitely could imagine myself going to all these club meetings, being on campus, interacting with the people here. When I visited, I liked that everyone wanted to be helpful. The really tight knit atmosphere was the thing that did it for me. That, and knowing that the way people thought about engineering -- something that had been around for so long -- was just very radically different.

My mom is an electrical engineer. She also really liked Olin a lot. A lot of the stuff she did in college was highly theoretical. Both of my parents were very onboard with Olin, which was really nice.

We liked the thought that goes into Olin's curriculum and that professors really take in feedback and incorporate it into the course, changing it for next year. I think the dynamic nature of how Olin's courses are taught really lends itself to evolving what the engineering curriculum looks like.

The Design Nature project I did in my first year is a quintessential Olin project. I've obviously worked on teams before, but it was just an entirely different dynamic because we had all of this scaffolding on how to work as a team, and there was a lot of reflection. This was all kind of new to me. We were trying to think about the fourth graders we were designing for and what their experience would be like. That was something that I hadn't really done before. I had a really great time doing it."

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"Since I applied to Olin during the height of the pandemic, I never got to visit the campus or attend Candidates’ Weekend or talk to current students to get a real feel for the community. Saying “Yes” to Olin was sort of a leap into the somewhat-unknown, but I had gathered enough from the glimpses of Olin through my computer screen to know that it was somewhere I wanted to be. My first time stepping foot on Olin’s campus, and in Massachusetts, was move-in day.

It’s interesting that I ended up at Olin. For all of my childhood, I was set on becoming a lawyer—an international space lawyer, to be exact. I’m not even exactly sure how I chose that. It wasn’t until I was messing around with hydroponics during quarantine that I realized that I wanted to work with my hands. I wanted to make tangible, visible, environmental and societal impact (not that lawyers don’t make huge impacts on people’s lives, because they do!). I just never knew quite how to explore that type of career path until I was looking into hydroponic systems and their impacts on the communities around them.

For someone who hadn’t really explored engineering at all before coming to college, Olin has been the perfect place for me to grow. I’ve learned to build circuits and design intricate parts in CAD and code games in Python, all in my first year of college. It’s crazy to think that I didn’t even know what a breadboard was when I started here—that I had never heard of the term “computer-aided design”.

The way that Olin throws you into things makes the fear of failure wither away. From my experiences at Olin, I feel like I can do anything I set my mind to. Accomplishing some things may take longer than others, but I’ve learned that I will always find a way to get it done.

I’m grateful that my stressed 17-year-old self decided to take the leap to come to Olin. It has changed the trajectory of my future — I’ve finally found something that I’m passionate about and can see myself doing 40 years from now: working in the field of clean energy as an electrical engineer!"

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"It was the season of Balam Pichkari, my favorite Bollywood song, on repeat and skies dowsed in bright colors to welcome spring. It was Holi! I had always dreamt of celebrating Holi with my college friends and making the memories of a lifetime. In my junior year, I had the chance to lead this effort with the Office of IDEA to share something so close to my heart and bring it to my Olin family.

We hosted an outdoor Holi event in April 2022 and extended the invitation to students, faculty, and staff. This was a chance to celebrate and foster a stronger bond within the Olin community, especially since this was the first large-scale all-community gathering post the pandemic. We even custom designed white t-shirts which by the end of the event were uniquely dyed for each attendee and became a souvenir of this cherished memory! This energetic afternoon spent with my friends made me feel like Olin was truly my home away from home.

With the autonomy of organizing an event at such a large scale and sharing a part of my culture, I felt like an “Oliner” in its truest sense – empowered to make a positive impact in the community.

As I enter my final semester, I am excited to continue hosting more community wide events and learn about the diverse cultures at Olin."

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"One of my favorite memories at Olin is Hopper Night, the night before the first big project due date for Design Nature. Every year, frantic first-years, including myself, are tinkering and fixing up their hoppers for demo day and upperclassmen who have been through the same process head to the DesNat rooms to show support. I remember coffee and hot chocolate being served in the hallway, a barbershop quartet serenading us as we scrambled, and munching on a freshly baked cinnamon roll as a midnight snack.

Last fall, Hopper Night looked a little different. This time. I was a course assistant, and instead of 3 densely packed chaotic rooms, students were spread across classrooms with their family groups. Myself and one of my fellow course assistants held socially distant office hours in one of the classrooms and on zoom, and ran from the stockroom to the various classrooms to drop off last-minute materials. Upperclassmen still stopped by to wish good luck and drop off snacks. Even though it looked a bit different, it was wonderful to bring a bit of that fun and comfort to a new set of Oliners, and I can’t wait to do it again."

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"Hands down some of my favorite memories have been with The MIX. The MIX stands for the Multicultural Innovators eXperience. It is a club on campus that celebrates different cultures and backgrounds and is open to everyone. I have been very fortunate to be able to make memories with the MIX even before I got into Olin. Since my application season was during the pandemic I had a lot of time to look through my emails and read all the love letters that several colleges were placing in my inbox. One day, I saw a new kind of love letter. It was The MIX, telling me to apply to their virtual fly-in program for Olin. Since Olin was already high up on my priority list, I filled out the application immediately. An acceptance love letter, a new Olin hoodie (which I am actually wearing right now), and a zoom link later, there I was hanging out with the MIX on a Sunday evening. Even though we were on zoom, we were still able to make fond memories, arguing and laughing over a drawing game during game night.

For the second day of the fly-in, we were able to sit in on an Olin class. This was when I met one of my favorite Professors, Emily Tow. Being from Cali, Emily’s class was scheduled for 9pm eastern time but 6am pacific time. I had stayed away too late the night before, so I woke up late! I was so worried that Emily was going to be mad at me for showing up late but when I popped into the zoom room she was very happy to see me. Even as I gave her my bad explanation for waking up late, she looked at me very compassionately and told me that it was ok and guided me to a breakout room. Once I was in the breakout room, I was surprised to see just how much fun the Oliners were having with their topic. My favorite was when they were talking about measuring the loss of heat from hot chocolate to determine the speed of wind in a wind tunnel. This was when they introduced me to Transport Phenomena, The Emily Tow class. I couldn’t believe I was late to HER class. As everyone signed off, I stayed behind to excuse my tardy one last time. As I did, I could tell that it was something that did not bother Emily, because there she was with her warm smile and compassionate eyes.

Even though Olin was already high on my list after the MIX fly-in, I knew that Olin was the place where I wanted to be.

Now fast forward, a few years later, here I am at Olin in the Commons! This space is meant to be a hub for several clubs on campus that collaborate with the Office of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access). The biggest and most frequent club here is the MIX. Now as the MIX co-vice-president, I help run our own game nights and meetings in

this room. Since the Commons was just released this year, we are still designing this space to best capture the different aspects of all the clubs that call this place home. As someone who helped work on it last year and now this year, I can’t wait to see what we create.

(fun fact: I have taken the Emily Tow class, Introduction to Transport Phenomena, just this last semester! It is definitely worth it!)"

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"Acronym has been one of my favorite ways to connect with the Olin community. Acronym is a pop-up coffee shop where students make free coffee and tea for students, faculty, and staff at Olin. I have always loved how Acronym provides a space for the Olin community to slow down and connect.

I joined Acronym my first year at Olin and ended up running it my Junior year. I loved meeting new folks at Olin every week and helping provide such a cool space for gathering and connection. People would often meet to share coffee or do work and would leave their mark by drawing or writing something on a Post-it which then got pushed under the glass surface of the table. Now Acronym has passed into the hands of some awesome students a bit younger than me. I love that they are keeping Acronym alive and making it work for the ever-changing community here."

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