Undergrad Is Paving the Way for Underrepresented Women in the Field of Engineering

 

In the field of Mate­ri­als Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing, black women are high­ly under­rep­re­sent­ed. When she grad­u­ates this Spring, Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut MSE under­grad­u­ate Brit­tany Nel­son will stand for the less than 4% of black, His­pan­ic, and Native Amer­i­can women who are award­ed a bachelor’s degree in engi­neer­ing in the Unit­ed States. She will also be the first gen­er­a­tion of her fam­i­ly to earn a col­lege degree.

As a young black woman in a field dom­i­nat­ed by men, Nel­son has found inspi­ra­tion to work hard­er. “I see this as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for change. I would not be an MSE stu­dent with­out the sup­port of those who invest­ed in me aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, finan­cial­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, etc. I feel that it is my job to return the favor by set­ting an exam­ple and being a resource to those who are inter­est­ed in pur­su­ing MSE,” Nel­son said.

The MSE senior has strived to do that since dis­cov­er­ing her affin­i­ty for engi­neer­ing in mid­dle school. “In the 7^th and 8^th grade, I attend­ed UConn’s Pre-Engi­neer­ing Pro­gram (PEP) and gained an inter­est in engi­neer­ing,” she said. Accord­ing to Nel­son, it wasn’t until high school that she learned about MSE by attend­ing UConn’s Explore Engi­neer­ing (E²) Pro­gram. At the time, she was con­sid­er­ing Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing (CHEG) and Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing (ME). “MSE was not only fun, but it was a per­fect com­bi­na­tion of the two fields,” she stated.

Her pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence with the UConn MSE depart­ment impact­ed her deci­sion to study there. “I was specif­i­cal­ly impressed by how informed and pas­sion­ate the MSE fac­ul­ty and stu­dents were about their work. In addi­tion, I grav­i­tat­ed towards the wide range of lab equip­ment, the friend­ly atmos­phere, and the numer­ous options of areas to focus on with­in the MSE pro­gram,” Nel­son said.

Since decid­ing to join the UConn MSE pro­gram, Nel­son has been men­tored by Dr. Les­ley Frame and she recent­ly joined the Frame Research Group. Nel­son enjoys the sense of com­mu­ni­ty the group has. “All of the group mem­bers will­ing­ly pro­vide sup­port and advice to each oth­er in any way possible.”

Whether it was her men­tor­ship with Dr. Frame, sense of com­mu­ni­ty, pas­sion, ambi­tion, or a com­bi­na­tion of all of the above that moti­vat­ed her, Nel­son was able to pur­sue research as a  Ronald E. McNair Schol­ar dur­ing the Sum­mer of 2020. The McNair pro­gram prides itself in pro­mot­ing tal­ent­ed UConn under­grad­u­ate stu­dents for doc­tor­al stud­ies in (STEM) dis­ci­plines, specif­i­cal­ly for those from under­rep­re­sent­ed pop­u­la­tions in our fields, from under-resourced com­mu­ni­ties, or who are first-gen­er­a­tion grad­u­ates in their families.

Nel­son has also been hon­ored as a Gates Mil­len­ni­um Schol­ar, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minor­i­ty Par­tic­i­pa­tion (LSAMP) Schol­ar, Ronald E. McNair Fel­low, and UConn Day of Pride Schol­ar.

The research that Nel­son is cur­rent­ly con­duct­ing with­in the Frame Research group focus­es on the effects of tem­per­ing process­es on the mechan­i­cal prop­er­ties of alloy steel. The results of this research will inform fun­da­men­tal under­stand­ing of phase trans­for­ma­tions and changes in strength due to tem­per­ing process para­me­ters and will also have direct impacts on heat treat­ment in a wide range of indus­try applications.

“Brit­tany has real­ly tak­en charge of this project.  Even though we were oper­at­ing remote­ly for much of last sum­mer, Brit­tany was able to pick up the project, learn the fun­da­men­tals of steel tem­per­ing process­es, and ana­lyze a very large amount of data to dis­cov­er new trends and mate­ri­als behav­iors.  She is cur­rent­ly work­ing on prepar­ing a man­u­script on this project for sub­mis­sion to a peer-reviewed jour­nal.  I have been so pleased to have Brit­tany as a mem­ber of our team!” Says Dr. Frame.

Though this project and her under­grad­u­ate career will end in May, Nelson’s career in MSE is real­ly just begin­ning. She hopes to con­tin­ue doing research and is strong­ly lean­ing towards grad­u­ate school. “It is a bit­ter­sweet feel­ing. Grad­u­a­tion is a huge accom­plish­ment for me, espe­cial­ly as a first-gen­er­a­tion col­lege stu­dent with par­ents not born in the U.S. I am def­i­nite­ly going to miss the great peo­ple that I have met with­in the MSE depart­ment and the UConn cam­pus,” she says.

Her future con­tin­u­ing research also holds the poten­tial to con­tin­ue inspir­ing young under­rep­re­sent­ed girls who are inter­est­ed in MSE. “To any female stu­dents inter­est­ed in mate­ri­als sci­ence and engi­neer­ing, I would say go for it! Being an MSE stu­dent is extreme­ly reward­ing. You will learn so much about your­self and con­tribute to mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the world of STEM,” she stated.