Nicole Obriecht: how working for NASA changed an engineer’s career path #WomenInSTEM #NASA

NewImage

imanengineer.com has a great list of profiles of different engineers – this one is about Nicole Obreicht a Fielded Systems Hydraulics Engineer at Parker Aerospace.

  • Nicole dreamed of working for NASA when she was a kid and got the chance to intern at their office in California.
  • Nicole competitively races mountain bikes and always pushes herself to improve.
  • Nicole loves animals and would be a surgical veterinarian if she weren’t an engineer.

When you think back to the path you took to get where you are, is there a time you can point to and say, “That’s when I knew I wanted to become an engineer.”?

Yes! I was too young though to know that it was “engineering.” But I knew what I wanted to do when I was 10 years old. I watched the space shuttle launch on TV and I knew I wanted to design them.

Is it fair to say you’re doing what you thought you’d be doing when you were growing up?

No, because originally my dream was to work for NASA and design space shuttles, but then I had an internship with NASA and realized it wasn’t for me, because I didn’t like design. I went through a bit of a crisis. I was three years into my degree program and thinking this isn’t what I wanted to do. Then I got an internship in the private sector with Stryker and I realized there’s more to engineering than design. There’s sustaining, there’s quality, there’s manufacturing. When I saw all that, I realized I needed to finish my degree because there were options for me and what I wanted to do. I just needed to get more experience and rotate among the different fields to see what I liked best. Now I’m a sustaining engineer, so I don’t do much design work. I do more problem solving and trouble shooting.

Read more.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.