How To Do Grad School

Kaila Crosse recently completed her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2020, closing out her dual degree program after spending 3 years at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, one of the premiere historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the nation. In this conversation, we get a look into HBCU life as we talk about Kaila's development at Spelman as well as her transition to Michigan and what she's learned about herself and working with others as a budding engineer and designer.

Lester K. Su is a lecturer at Stanford University. He obtained his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1995. He was a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin as well as Stanford University before serving as a Congressional Fellow (through the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) in the U.S. Congress in 2000-2001. Before returning to Stanford to teach, he was a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

"Quantification of diversity in engineering higher education in the United States" 

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Alec D. Gallimore is the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering and Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education from 2011 to 2013 and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering from 2014 to 2016. He is a member of the Applied Physics graduate program, and from 2005 to 2011, Professor Gallimore served as an Associate Dean at the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies where he was the Graduate School liaison to Michigan’s graduate programs in engineering, the physical sciences, and mathematics. Professor Gallimore’s primary research interests include electric propulsion, plasma diagnostics, space plasma simulation, electrode physics, nano-particle energetics and hypersonic aerodynamics/plasma interaction. In our conversation, we talk about Professor Gallimore's youth and early career, including his dream to be an astronaut, his passion for justice and for building a culture of inclusivity at Michigan, and the people who have had the most positive impact on his life.

This episode is part of the Black History Month Audio Series we worked with Michigan Mechanical Engineering to put together.

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Kaitlyn Mallett earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in at the University of Michigan in 2017. While completing her Ph.D., Kaitlyn worked to experimentally characterize native ACL and replacement grafts to elucidate their material properties. Her work led to the development of accurate theoretical constitutive models that capture the mechanical response of biological specimens. Kaitlyn then went on to work on an innovative team at Intel Corporation, looking to address problems at Intel sites and ahead to the future of the company. In our conversation, we talk with Kaitlyn about her early education as a home-schooled student, some key lessons she learned as a graduate student at UM, and what Black History month means to her.

This episode is part of the Black History Month Audio Series we worked with Michigan Mechanical Engineering to put together.

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Check out the new website(!): how2dogradschool.com

Robotics Makathon:

(1) Questionnaire for prospective makeathon participants (undergraduates at UM)

(2) Questionnaire for volunteers (grad students at UM)

(3) Questions? Email [email protected]

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This episode is part of the Black History Month Audio Series we worked with Michigan Mechanical Engineering to put together.

David Kwabi is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Michigan. He obtained his PhD in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. His research group investigates the interplay between electrochemical charge transfer reactions and bulk phase transformations, involving expertise in mechanical engineering, physical chemistry and materials science. In this conversation, we talk with Prof. Kwabi about what it was like to grow up in Ghana and move to the United States for college and grad school. We also discuss his research, his thoughts on the role we can play to mitigate climate change, and how he has benefitted from the kindness of his community.

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Check out the new website: how2dogradschool.com

Robotics Makathon:

(1) Questionnaire for prospective makeathon participants (undergraduates at UM)

(2) Questionnaire for volunteers (grad students at UM)

(3) Questions? Email [email protected]

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Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Amanda X. Chen obtained her PhD in Biological Engineering from MIT in 2020. While there, she worked on "microlivers," which could enable next-generation cell therapies that could help, or maybe even replace, organ transplants for end-stage diseases. She is now a scientist at a Cambridge startup called Satellite Bio.

Amanda was also recognized by the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Science list for her work.

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Check out the new website: how2dogradschool.com

References:

MIT Communication Lab – https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/

Blog posts: Grad Life: 45 Dreams Deferred, The Qualified Match Approach to Personal Statements

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Robotics Makathon:

(1) Questionnaire for prospective makeathon participants (undergraduates at UM)

(2) Questionnaire for volunteers (grad students at UM)

(3) Questions? Email [email protected]

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Changing World by Ben Beiny www.premiumbeat.com

Nia Johnson is a PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. She holds a B.S. in Biology from Howard University and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellow. 

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Ram Vasudevan is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan with an appointment in the University of Michigan's Robotics Program. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and an Honors Degree in Physics in 2006, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering in 2009, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2012 all from the University of California, Berkeley. Subsequently, he worked as a postdoctoral associate in the Locomotion Group at MIT from 2012 till 2014 before joining the University of Michigan in 2015.

His research focuses on the development and application of novel data-driven optimization and systems theory to quantify and improve human and robot interaction with one another and the environment.

http://www.roahmlab.com/

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Applying to graduate school can be a maze with questions that are difficult to find answers to. On this episode, we try to answer some of those questions with some help from current grad students, Chelsea Onyeador and Wilka Carvalho.

Chelsea is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, with plans to continue to receive a Ph.D. with the Hypersonics Research Group. Her current research interests lie in fluid mechanics, computational methods, hypersonic boundary layers, and aerodynamics. She is also heavily involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion advocacy work at MIT.

Wilka is pursuing a PhD in Machine Learning at the University of Michigan where he studies how object-centric representation learning and reinforcement learning can bring us closer to human-level artificial intelligence. He is interested in developing computational and mechanistic cognitive theories of learning that help us understand how humans infer, reason with, and exploit the rich structure present in realistic visual scenes to enable sophisticated behavioral policies.

Resource for Personal Statements

Resource for Research Statements

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Anita Shao is a PhD student in Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Originally from Tianjin, China. she earned her B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on electrochemical sulfur recovery from anaerobic effluents to facilitate fertilizer production.