Melinda Piket-May was initially bored with her electrical engineering curriculum at Illinois. “I had no idea what EE- or engineering- was about!” Piket-May said. “I did not feel I was doing very well in the program, so I thought I would drop out of engineering.”
However, Piket-May discovered her love for engineering while working as a co-op in the Particle Instrumentation Group at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory during the fall semester of her sophomore year. She went on to earn her Bachelor’s in electrical engineering at Illinois, and then her Master’s and PhD from Northwestern University. She is now an Associate Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
“I challenge people to think in unusual ways and consider alternatives to the traditional solutions,” Picket-May said. “Value your unique experiences.”
Read more of her story here.
Article: EngineerGirl
Vignette: Taylor Tucker, December 2018