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As a high school freshman, I became interested in prosthetics after joining a high school robotics team. I was in charge of the mechanical arm, and the robot was supposed to throw balls into hoops and retrieve balls too. Our robot functioned well, and our team was awarded the Rookie of the Year Award! I was fascinated with robots and decided to research and build my 3D printer from scratch since my parents told me it would be too expensive to buy one for me. I tutored and raised money to pay for the parts and after almost a year was able to complete my first 3D printer during 9th grade. I began printing prosthetic hands and arms for limbless children in Uganda. I customized the hands and arms and created colorful prosthetics that appealed to the limbless children. While applying to high schools, I decided to take a step further and submit an application for the STEM program at the high school I had selected to attend. I was accepted into the STEM program, which had only 50 students out of 1200. I learned through four years of instruction a variety of engineering skills including AutoCAD, free-form drawing, an overview of all the engineering disciplines, 3D printing, laser printing, creating a marketable engineering product, and much more. It was a great program that further instilled in me a desire to take the next steps to pursue a degree in engineering. The head of the STEM department, Mr. Jones, became my mentor and helped guide me toward pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering.
Mr. Jones encouraged me to apply for the Applied Physics Lab (APL) ASPIRE STEM Summer Internship Program. It is a competitive selection process, and I was the only one selected to be an ASPIRE STEM intern from my high school during the summer of my sophomore year. After that first summer, I applied and was accepted as an APL STEM intern, in my junior and senior years of high school. I was fortunate enough also to be selected for a separate STEM paid internship during the summer of my sophomore year, so I juggled two back-to-back STEM internships; one at APL and one at Decision Point Corporation. I had a jam-packed summer that year, working for six weeks at APL and immediately starting my second summer internship for the remainder of the six weeks. These four internships helped fuel my interest in robotics, prosthetics, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). I decided to major in mechanical engineering after working under several mechanical engineers at APL who worked in the Artificial Intelligence Robotics Division. I learned how to make a stair-climbing robot, laser-cutting specific spacers for military drones, assemble multiple 6-foot wide wingspan UAVs, and test them for short in-field landings.
Engineering is a relevant field, both exciting and challenging. Engineers from all sections use science-provided models and a combination of innovative thinking and problem-solving skills to solve significant problems in society by creating new designs that contribute positively to humanity. Albert Einstein's famous quote highly motivates me 'Scientists investigate that which already is; engineers create that which has never been'. Engineering is an exciting field as it provides lifetime-lasting solutions to various challenges, for instance, creating less sophisticated vehicles that are easy to drive even for the physically challenged. My desire to solve problems in society, for example, helping limbless people walk or build adaptive assistive technology devices for the handicapped is my greatest motivation to study mechanical engineering. Despite the challenges and complexity of the field, the benefits outweigh the challenges hence worth a career investment.
Many people have been educated in engineering skills and utilize them in their daily jobs. However, they are not referred to as engineers since the vital importance of engineering is difficult to recognize. Engineers are people who take credit for various items they design and share credit when they work as a team. I find a career in engineering fascinating and fun at the same time. The field of engineering is a lifelong process of learning and a continuous adaptation of new aspects of technology in society. I agree with the saying that engineering drives the technology and infrastructure sector. It is with no doubt that engineers are at the forefront of future technologies. Specific challenges to the field of mechanical engineering are that it is a very challenging major so I will have to devote more hours to study than my friends in less time-consuming majors. However, the benefits outweigh the challenges, and I look forward to earning my degree in mechanical engineering and obtaining a minor in computer science so that I can contribute to society in a meaningful way by solving solutions to improve the quality of living for the disabled.
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