STEM on FIRE

Latest Episodes:

96: PHD Nanomedicine – Embedding messages into Nano Particles – Joy Wolfram Oct 06, 2019

Show notes

Joy Wolfram Earned her undergrad in Biology and a PHD in Nanomedicine. Joy’s mission is to use science to save lives.

[1:25] Careers with undergrad or graduate degree in Biology could be a writer for scientific journals or magazines. You could also go get a law degree and work on patents in the Biological arena.

[2:30] Joy describes what Nanomedicine is and how it spans physics and chemistry disciplines.

[4:40] What a day looks like running a research lab.

[6:00] How did Joy make the decision to go into Nanomedicine and her specific area of expertise along with what has her fired up!

[10:00] An Ah-Ha moment from Joy – at 11 years old her dog got sick and saw biology in action and from there created her own little lab at home.

[13:00] Getting through college – Have confidence in your unique ideas, ask questions, network and find a mentor

[14:40] Key skills – you need to be comfortable with failure.

[16:30] Best advice – be part of something bigger than yourself, and refuse to take no for an answer.

Joy’s Lab: Link

Joy’s TedX talk: Link

Book recommendation: The Immortal Life by Henrietta Lacks.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

95: PHD In Quantum Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics-From Professor to Sales-Eva Vankova Sep 22, 2019

Show notes

Eva Vankova earned a PHD in Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Chemistry. She worked as a professor, travelled to different areas of the world and then took a position in sale at Exxon Mobile

[1:50] Eva goes into a little background about Quantum Chemistry – studying the smallest particles around us and they do not behave exactly like matter. This science is very much related to math as well as related to philosophy. Quantum chemistry is use in technology like lasers, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

[4:50] The difference between Chemistry and Quantum Chemistry – Quantum is more in the direction of Physics and Math.

[6:30] Do you need a PHD? Yes, a PHD may be needed to really pursue Quantum Chemistry.

[7:10] Eve went from Teaching at the college level to sales at Exxon Mobil. She likes to learn and work with a group of people and teach. Eva learns a lot from just listening and when you explain it, explain it simply not in a complicated fashion. This translates directly into sales.

[11:00] and ah ha moment – a simple book on relativity when she was a child. Her father was an engineer and she was an only child and passed his love for math and physics to Eva.

[14:50] Lightening round – best advice – too work hard and to be honest. And a book is any works from Karel Capek – he invented the word Robot in is book R.U.R. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R

[17:00] Parting piece of guidance – do sports!

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

94: PHD Biomolecular Structure and Design – Wants to make the world a better place – David Beck Jul 21, 2019

Show notes

Dr. David Beck earned a PHD in Biomolecular Structure and Design and is the eScience Institute Director of Research and a Research Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering. Dr. Beck has been associated with eScience since 2009, formerly serving as the Director of Research for the Life Sciences. Beyond his biology and chemistry domain expertise, Dr. Beck provides experience in scientific data analytics and mining, parallel programming techniques for data intensive computing and high performance computing applications, and general software design & engineering support.

[1:10] What does post-doc mean: undergrad->PHD->post-doc (2 to 3 years to polish your skills): Biomolecular structure and Design (DNA/RNA/Protein design). How can you design new proteins/molecules.

[3:05] Why start with computer science. Grew up when computers were becoming a commodity, so knew he wanted to do something with computers. His internship shaped his direction into biology/chemistry. The degree today would be bioinformatics, using computing with biology.

[5:45] How David is leveraging his computer science degree, they use computers to find hidden structures in experimental data around biomolecules.

[8:40] what is bio-informatics – a lot of data is generated, you need to know the right statistical models to apply to the data.

[9:20] Opportunities exists in the pharmaceutical companies and also design microorganisms to remediate a contaminated site are some examples for careers.

[12:10] What has David fired up is the broad adoption of data science methods in all domains of technology. There is a data revolution – called data science.

[13:20] Getting through college: try new things, don’t get stuck with just the classes to get your degree expand outside of the core classes. We joked about gaming, but check out Foldit Game

[15:50] ah ha moment – during graduate work was focused on simulation of proteins, he wrote those simulations. So he thought if we simulated thousands of molecule simulations and generated tons of data – but in the end the data was not really knowledge, they just had a lot of data.

[18:40] – Best advice – you are not an impostor, this is a self-inflicted wound – it is all in your head and no true. And a habit – make sure there is something everyday in your job that you really love to do.
Favorite Books both by Richard Rhodes:
“Making the Atomic Bomb”
“Energy: A Human Story”

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

93: PHD Biomedical – Nano Technology For Medicine and Drug Delivery – Alessandro Grattoni Jul 07, 2019

Show notes

Alessandro Grattoni earned a PHD in Biomedical Engineering and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Nanomedicine at Houston Methodist Research Institute:
Houston Methodist Research Institute

[0:00] Goes into what Nano-Particles is one of the fields of nano-technology – little engineered molecules; you are essentially engineering matter.

[2:45] Why a Mechanical Engineering undergrad vs a Biomedical undergraduate degree. He had a passion from racing bikes and really liked Mechanical but after his masters in Mechanical Engineering, he really wanted to apply this to life sciences.

[3:50] Going a little more in-depth – it is a very broad field and there are a lot of opportunities for research.

[5:20] Is a PHD required? No, can start research after a Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree.

[6:15] One thing we don’t know about Nano – an area to develop new engineering technologies at the microscopic scale.

[7:30] What would a day look like? Spend a lot of time of learning new techniques, very multidisciplinary. Try to get an internship in a lab.

[8:50] What has Alessandro fired up – opportunity to work with cells for drug delivery mechanism. Use cells and engineer it to respond with other molecules.

[11:50] An ah-ha moment – spent a lot of time training for bike racing and determined that he could study and do racing/training at the same time. The 2nd ah-ha moment – attended a talk on nano-technology and he immediately realized that was where he wanted to focus.

[15:00] Getting through college – take an opportunity to travel the world and do internships is different laboratories. Get to know all the different areas in Nano-Technology.

[18:00] Couple attributes for succes – need to work to figure out your path forward, creativity, commitment, and never give up.

[19:00] Best advice is get serious and start studying and a personal habit is being consistent and focused. A book he would recommend is “The Sky Below” by Scott Parazynski

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

92: PHD Chemical Engineering – Stretchable Electronics – Michael Dickey Jun 30, 2019

Show notes

Michael Dickey earned a PHD in Chemical Engineering for the University of Texas at Austin and is a professor at NC state and has experiences with Nano Fabrication, liquid metals and stretchable electronics: The Dickey Group at NC State

[0:45] Little background of Michael – in high school he took a tour of a clean room, where electronics are made, and learned that computer chips are all done with chemical processes and that had an impact on his choice of majors in college – chemical engineering.

[3:20] Goes into the difference between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering – Chemist come up with the chemical reactions and chemical engineer works on the processes of these chemical reactions to build at scale.

[8:50] Stretchable Electronic discussion – one example is putting electronics directly on the skin, also fordable electronics and putting electronics into clothing. They are using liquid metal – Gallium straight of the periodic table.

[15:30] Getting through college – he has always been self-motivating. In college he took on a lot of activities, and some he was not passionate about – try to go deeper on a smaller number of activities would be his advice.

[17:40] Attributes in students who are the most successful; mature, self-starters, driven to do well, curious, strong math background, ask questions in class and come to office hours. You also need to develop good communication skills.

[19:20] Best advice – value of hard work and treat others the way you want to be treated and a favorite book is about the history of the periodic table The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean.

[21:30] Parting piece of guidance – take all advice for what it is worth, just someone else’s opinion – not all advice is great advice.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

91: Aerospace Engineer – You will fail a test or class along the way – Erin Young Jun 09, 2019

Show notes

Erin Young earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and works as a flight controls engineer at Boom – Supersonic.

[1:10] What are careers available for Aerospace Engineering? – 2 paths space or aviation. – Erin went the Aviation route while at first thinking she was going the space route after going to space camp at the age of 13.

[3:15] What do you actually focus on during college? – focus on aerodynamics of flight – similar to mechanical engineering, a lot of fluid dynamics.

[4:20] Specific systems for supersonic (faster than speed of sound) aircraft vs standard commercial aircraft. The aircraft at supersonic speeds; everything heats up – they have to work to cool everything down. They have to fly through shock waves at a continual basis. When you break through the sound barrier, it is a continuous shock wave.

[7:30] Are there enough careers for a very specific STEM degree like Aeropace? – since it is very close to mechanical you can flow back to mechanical but would be very tough to go from mechanical to Aerospace.

[9:10] Fired up about the future of supersonic speed – today we still travel at the same speeds we did back in the 1950’s! The concord (first supersonic jet) was very expensive to fly – the Boom solution will be very fuel efficient.

[11:40] Ah-ha moment – interesting that up to graduation it is a very clear path, but after that the roadmap is very wide open – the ah-ha moment was when she realized the number of paths she could pursue

[13:10] Getting through college: have a good support network – her first calculus test was a 53, and she failed it. The support network was so very important to get through that – she felt like she was not cut out for engineering after that test.

[16:20] Best advice – focus on the fundamentals. Habit – always ask questions and use Onenote (or Evernote) to write everything down.
Book Erin recommends Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien.

[17:30] parting advice – get hands on experience!

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

90: Mechanical/Robotics/Computer Science – Nothing Cooler than Being a Woman in STEM – Alexis Block Jun 02, 2019

Show notes

Alexis Block earned a Bachelor’s Degree BS in Mechanical and a Masters in Robotics from the university of Pennsylvania and her final degree will be a PHD in Computer Science. Her research: “HuggieBot”

[0:50] Her undergrad is in mechanical, but her PHD is in Computer Science, how is that possible? – Her first programming class was during her sophomore year in college, and her masters in Robotics blended mechanical, electrical, and computer science.

[2:10] Goes into the interactions of robots with humans and how people react to the robot.

[4:00] Alexis talks about some of the experiments she ran – people prefer to be squeezed somewhat tightly by a robot and what she plans to do after her research.

[8:20] She takes us through her journey of college and how she found a great advisor

[9:40] What does a typical day look like for Alexis – in her research, every day is different

[10:55] What has Alexis really fired up today? the ability to use robotics for social good.

[11:30] Ah-ha moment – in high school they had to do a science project and made it all the way to nationals – that is what really was needed to invalidate what everyone was saying about how it is so nerdy to be in STEM as a female.

[13:20] Getting through college – take risks and follow your interests. There is no shame in asking for help.

[16:20] Best advice – don’t let anybody tell you can’t. A habit is to take breaks to refresh and clear your head. And a book she recommends is “Getting More” Stuart Diamond

[17:50] Parting guidance – asking for help does not make you weak, it shows how courageous and driven you are.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

89: Mechanical Engineer – From Sales to STEM Ambassador – Jay Flores May 19, 2019

Show notes

Jay Flores earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is heavily involved in STEM advocacy.

[0:0] Started out in Sales at Rockwell Automation but over the last 3 to 4 years has been an ambassador for STEM. Jay is very passionate about helping kids find passion in STEM.

[1:20] Why Jay chose to go directly into sales out of college – through his internship’s he got clarity and what is strengths were from the book “Strength Finders” by Tom Rath. He also took on some side projects within the sales organization. (This goes into the concept of architecting your own career).

[3:20] Are you wasting your STEM degree by going into Sales? – Many of these jobs require a lot of technical aptitude, so no you are not “wasting” your STEM degree by going into sales. You can have tremendous impact in many industries. We always talk about the good things, one of the challenges with sales, especially when you are in an manufacturing side, is if your products fails and the plant stops manufacturing, customer can get very upset during this time.

[8:40] Very important to grow your skills in other areas that may interest you.

[10:40] What is a STEM ambassador? Follow Jay on Instagram (@jayfloresinspires) and Twitter (@jayflores2032)

[13:10] Getting through college successfully – he knew he wanted to do engineering but did not do a lot of research. He was able to eliminate some classes and was only thinking about graduating early vs doing what he really loved.

[19:10] What has Jay fired up today – 40,000 people showed up for the FIRST Robotics competition in Houston, TX.

[21:00] Parting piece of Guidance – Kids are not driven by money at an early age, need to find the area of STEM where the student is already interested in and bridge that gap between interest and STEM.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

88: Chemical Engineering in Additive Manufacturing 3D Printing – Stacey Delvecchio May 12, 2019

Show notes

Stacey Delvecchio earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and is heavily involved in additive manufacturing (3D printing).

[1:10] goes into 3D printing a bit and how chemical engineering degree fits into 3D printing and manufacturing – as long as you continue to learn – opportunities will become available.

[4:20] Ways to investigate on 3D printing – youtube, linked in, pretty much anywhere on the web. — search for additive manufacturing .

[5:30] One thing we do not know about additive manufacturing – there are many metal parts being manufactured this way with high quality and there are many parts that the only way to make it is with additive manufacturing.

[8:10] How important to start getting involved in organizations – Stacey thinks this is very valuable.

[10:00]} What has Stacey really fired up are the use cases for 3D printing – something that has actually been design for additive manufacturing.

[11:20] An ah – ha moment – How 3D printing in space may help with mining planets in the future.

[14:20] Getting through college – wishes she would have taken some more risks especially when doing internships/co-ops.

[16:15] Best advice – be present – do not multitask – when in a meeting or at an event focus on that. And a personal habit is doing a lot of reading. And her favorite app is “good reads” and a book she would recommend is “The Notorius Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG)” by Irin Carman

[19:10] parting guidance is it is OK if you don’t know what you really want to do.

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

87: Bio engineering, Biomedical, Mechanical – Try as many new things – Juhanna Robberts May 05, 2019

Show notes

Juhanna Roberts earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and is in procurement at a large shoe manufactures, Nike.

[0:40] Juhanna also has a minor in engineering entrepreneurship, and has played rugby and Australian rules football.

[1:15] She goes into the sourcing/buying area which is not a traditional STEM position. She found it during the rotation program at Nike. This was a new challenge for her. Team work is very important and that is a skill that is developed during your college days in STEM.

[4:45] Does she miss doing design, sometimes, but she can always go back and do design at any point.

[5:40] what are some things she really enjoys being in the procurement/sourcing environment. She really loves being in a team environment and be able to communicate back in non-engineering terms. She also likes the negotiating side to build that as a new skill. A STEM degree is very viable even if you want to pursue a business path. A skill you learn in STEM is the ability to think and solve problems.

[9:35] what is one thing she really does not like about procurement – she misses some of the hands on aspects of a traditional STEM career.

[10:25] An Ah-Ha moment – engineering is much more than just learning information, she realized that engineering teaches you a way to think and that is what business want and need.

[12:55] If you are on the edge between STEM and a business degree, would highly recommend STEM and you don’t have to get straight A’s.

[14:10] Getting through college – wish she knew that everyone will struggle and you will probably fail some exams and take some classes out of your major. Also having some artificial intelligence classes would be helpful.

[16:30] Best advice, never lie and surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. And a habit is frequent exercise. Favorite app is Yelp and favorite book Fly Honey Bee Fly by Eva Robberts-Vankova, her mother!

[18:50] Parting piece of guidance – Try as many new things as you can!

Free Audio Book from Audible. You can get a free book from Audible at www.stemonfirebook.com and can cancel within 30 days and keep the book of your choice with no cost.

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