Excited to meet everyone! My name is Tori Payne and I am a Junior from Brown! I am majoring in Biosciences with a concentration in Cell Biology and Genetics along with a double minor in Engineering Design and Neuroscience. I have engaged in multiple clubs here at Rice, such as Salseros salsa dancing, Peer Academic Advisors, Rice Alzheimer’s, and South Asian Society. All of them I have thoroughly enjoyed, but I am always on the lookout to try new things, so let me know of any other activities going on!

In high school, I participated in a Mechanical Engineering project at the University of Tulsa that focused on creating a kickstand for a stander in order to allow a 7-year old girl to stand without assistance and for her to play with the other children easier. This creation not only gave me a product that I was proud of, but it also gave me intrinsic happiness to see it help someone else in any way it can.

One thing I want to create is a type of glasses frame that contains machinery acting as a windshield wiper in order to easily clear any water on the lenses while it rains, the user swim, etc.  In addition, I am interested in prosthetics, so I would love to incorporate myself into building limbs and other significant parts of the body. Both of these would be future projects as I would need more experience with coding and building, but I am excited to gain the technique to achieve my goals!

I hope to learn the technique in building actual things and how to display my creative side by taking ENGI 210 so I can be more independent (with personal side hustles and group projects) when I am working on tasks. Because I have not had a lot of experience with Engineering in high school, I want to become skillful in creating what I imagine might be the best solution for any problem.