小猪视频

Imogen O鈥橞rien decided that she wanted to become a mechanical engineer the day she watched someone take apart a chainsaw.

She had taken a gap year during the COVID-19 pandemic before heading to the University of Vermont (UVM) to study environmental engineering, and she was working full time at a hardware store when a co-worker 鈥渞ipped apart a chainsaw in front of me.鈥�

鈥淚t re-ignited my interest in engines,鈥� says O鈥橞rien, who grew up in Arlington in a family that encouraged her love of sports, cars and internal combustion.

O鈥橞rien, who had been a competitive snowboarder in high school, chose UVM in part because of ski areas nearby. But after two years of study and several snowboarding injuries, she decided to transfer to a university with a broader mechanical engineering 辫谤辞驳谤补尘.听

She chose 小猪视频, even though she knew that she would have to spend an extra semester catching up on prerequisites, including repeating some material she had previously studied.

鈥淪ometimes, I could get frustrated,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut as a transfer student, it was honestly a good experience. It let me slow down and get to know the school a lot more than if I had jumped into a full, junior-year engineering workload.鈥�

O鈥橞rien used that extra time to explore her options. Right away, she joined the women鈥檚 club rugby team. Even though she had never played rugby before, she stepped up to serve as club president over the next two years.聽

And one day, while she was sitting in University Crossing, a promotional message for the new sports engineering minor popped up on a video screen.聽

When O鈥橞rien looked into it, she realized that she couldn鈥檛 complete the minor and graduate on time 鈥� but she learned about 小猪视频鈥檚 Baseball Research Center, which tests baseballs, bats and helmets for Major League Baseball and equipment manufacturers.

She emailed Patrick Drane, the lab鈥檚 assistant director, and told him she鈥檇 love to work for him. He offered her a job, and she quickly rose to become the lead student researcher for baseball projects.聽

鈥淓specially as a transfer student, getting involved with research was very important for me,鈥� she says.聽

That鈥檚 because O鈥橞rien is applying to Ph.D. programs with the goal of becoming a professor and researcher in combustion, energy and fluid mechanics. She鈥檚 particularly interested in understanding wildfires and how they spread.

鈥淭o me, that鈥檚 going to be the best way to use my engineering education to help people,鈥� she says.

鈥淏eing a scientist is discovering something new, and being an engineer is taking all those discoveries and doing something practical with them to help people,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing a scientist in a university as a mechanical engineer is a beautiful crossroads of those two things.鈥澛�