Hi, I’m Ellie! I moved around a lot as a kid (everywhere from Alaska to Azerbaijan), but I’m proud to now call McMurtry my home. At Murt, I’m involved in a handful of intramural sports (go powderpuff!) and I recently participated in O-Week as an advisor.

I’m majoring in mechanical engineering and thinking about doing the engineering design minor. I’ve been passionate about engineering since getting involved in robotics in high school (don’t get me started about my love for FRC), which is what inspired me to take ENGI 120 my freshman fall.

For the past year, I’ve been working on medical device design with the Texas Heart Institute (THI). My ENGI 120 and 200 team, Team Heartthrobbers, was tasked by THI with developing an AED accessory device to help defibrillate obese patients. Since the end of ENGI 200, I have continued working for them on different projects in the same field of Cardiac Electrophysiology. I absolutely love my job because of how creative and self-directed it is and because my coworkers (many of whom are Rice grads!) are really helpful and encouraging.

Interning remotely this summer was a bit of a challenge (but very fun and rewarding!) when trying to prototype my designs at home. In the end, it all worked out and I learned how to use a lot of household items in “interesting” ways that were definitely not intended by their manufacturers. During quarantine, I was proud of successfully curling cable (think old phone cords) using my oven and freezer.

This semester, I’m looking forward to learning about post-processing methods, as all of my projects in the past have focused on functionality rather than appearance. I’m excited to finally learn how to finish wood so I can up my laser-cut Christmas presents game next winter!

I am also excited to learn casting and molding, since I recently got into making chocolate from scratch, and the next step in my chocolatier journey is to make all sorts of cool shapes and designs.