Laura Rosenbauer
Hello, my name is Laura Rosenbauer, and I’m an engineering major (class of 2018) in the Picker Engineering Program. I came to Smith as a STRIDE student, and began research my first year in the mathematics department. While I did interesting work that year, I knew I wanted to explore other options, especially within engineering. I began looking into the research other professors were doing, and proceeded to reach out to Professor Susannah Howe. Her research is on capstone design education, also known as Design Clinic, which engineering majors participate in their final year at Smith. Of course, many other colleges and universities have their own capstone programs, and this research aims to collect and analyze data on the various practices in engineering programs across the country (or even internationally!).
I started working with Professor Howe that fall, along with a senior engineering student (Sophia Poulos) who was already a part of the research team when I joined. I was immediately welcomed into the group, and was able to start making my own contributions from the time of our first meeting. Since then, we’ve written four papers and we’ll have presented our research at 3 conferences by the end of this summer. Going to conferences is an amazing experience, not only for the opportunity to share your work and learn about research other people have been doing, but also for the chance to travel – last summer I got to go to New Orleans and this year I’ll be going to Columbus, OH.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most is the fact that I’m not just assigned busy-work; I get to have input on decisions regarding everything from data analysis to what goes into a paper, and I’m given creative freedom when it comes to putting together data visualizations or poster presentations. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity, and am excited to continue working on it through the rest of my time at Smith.
I started working with Professor Howe that fall, along with a senior engineering student (Sophia Poulos) who was already a part of the research team when I joined. I was immediately welcomed into the group, and was able to start making my own contributions from the time of our first meeting. Since then, we’ve written four papers and we’ll have presented our research at 3 conferences by the end of this summer. Going to conferences is an amazing experience, not only for the opportunity to share your work and learn about research other people have been doing, but also for the chance to travel – last summer I got to go to New Orleans and this year I’ll be going to Columbus, OH.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed most is the fact that I’m not just assigned busy-work; I get to have input on decisions regarding everything from data analysis to what goes into a paper, and I’m given creative freedom when it comes to putting together data visualizations or poster presentations. I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity, and am excited to continue working on it through the rest of my time at Smith.