• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Electrical Engineering News and Products

Electronics Engineering Resources, Articles, Forums, Tear Down Videos and Technical Electronics How-To's

  • Products / Components
    • Analog ICs
    • Connectors
    • Microcontrollers
    • Power Electronics
    • Sensors
    • Test and Measurement
    • Wire / Cable
  • Applications
    • Automotive/Transportation
    • Industrial
    • IoT
    • Medical
    • Telecommunications
    • Wearables
    • Wireless
  • Resources
    • DesignFast
    • Digital Issues
    • Engineering Week
    • Oscilloscope Product Finder
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • White Papers
    • Women in Engineering
  • Videos
    • Teschler’s Teardown Videos
    • EE Videos and Interviews
  • Learning Center
    • EE Classrooms
    • Design Guides
      • WiFi & the IOT Design Guide
      • Microcontrollers Design Guide
      • State of the Art Inductors Design Guide
    • FAQs
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
  • EE Forums
    • EDABoard.com
    • Electro-Tech-Online.com
  • 5G

I Became an Engineer: Because I Went to Work with My Dad

March 8, 2019 By Jennifer DeLaOsa

***Editor’s Note: The “I Became an Engineer” blog runs every Friday. To share your story email jennifer.delaosa@advantagebizmarketing.com***

This week’s story comes to us from ECN reader Patty Felts, principal product manager—product strategy, cellular, u-blox Americas.

 

As a kid, I gravitated toward math and science, I really enjoyed it.

My dad was a civil engineer. Often he would bring work home and invite me to help him with simple tasks. Examples were growing spores in a petri dish and counting their growth after a few days, or reading a strip chart recorder of water flow measurements (those were the old days!). On a few rare occasions, he also brought me with him to work to show me his office and tasks in the field (this was before the days of ‘Take Your Daughter to Work Day,’which we now have in U.S.). This greatly influenced me.

My mother instilled in me that I would be educated, graduate from college, and support myself and my family. It wasn’t an option.

I attended an all-girls private high school, Girls Preparatory School, in Tennessee. In that environment, all girls are encouraged to follow their dreams, all leadership positions are filled by girls, we were programmed to go-for-it and to achieve. One hundred percent of students went on to university (that also was not an option). There weren’t any boys around so we never had any stigma, competition, embarrassment, or discouragement from STEM topics. 

In high school, my chemistry class went on a field trip to the Tennessee-American Water Company, a water treatment facility. The tour guide was a chemical engineer. He showed us the unit operations of how raw or used water is treated/cleaned and then released into the river. On that trip, I decided on chemical engineering—that was it. The lightbulb went on!

I graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga., with Bachelor of Chemical Engineering.

Graduating is one of my proudest accomplishments. I think my graduating class was 20:1, male:female (something like that).

Fast forward ‘too many years than I care to tell you’…and here I am.

Read other stories, here:

  • A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
  • I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math 
  • I Became An Engineer: By Just Being Myself 
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of MacGyver And Comfortable Clothes
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Model Airplane Contest
  • I Became An Engineer: So I Wouldn’t Have To Go To Vietnam
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of Sci-Fi Novels
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Watch
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of A 1930s Vintage Radio
  • I Became An Engineer: Because I Kept Asking “Why?”
  • I Became An Engineer: By Studying The Fundamentals
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of Microscope Modifications
  • I Became An Engineer: Because I Drew A Flower​
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Paperback Book On Electricity​
  • I Became An Engineer: Because I Wanted To Travel
  • I Became An Engineer: Because I Tinkered With A Radio
  • I Became An Engineer: Because Of Math, Science, And Serendipity
  • I Became An Engineer: Because I Loved Discovery And Fixing Things​ 
  • I Became an Engineer: Because It Was Hot That Day
  • I Became an Engineer: Because of Viktor Frankl and Existentialism
  • I Became an Engineer: By Turning Curiosity into a Career​
  • I Became an Engineer: Because of the Air Force Technical Applications Center

Filed Under: STEM

Primary Sidebar

EE Training Center Classrooms

EE Classrooms

Featured Resources

  • EE World Online Learning Center
  • CUI Devices – CUI Insights Blog
  • EE Classroom: Power Delivery
  • EE Classroom: Building Automation
  • EE Classroom: Aerospace & Defense
  • EE Classroom: Grid Infrastructure
Search Millions of Parts from Thousands of Suppliers.

Search Now!
design fast globle

R&D World Podcasts

R&D 100 Episode 8
See More >

Current Digital Issue

June 2022 Special Edition: Test & Measurement Handbook

A frequency you can count on There are few constants in life, but what few there are might include death, taxes, and a U.S. grid frequency that doesn’t vary by more than ±0.5 Hz. However, the certainty of the grid frequency is coming into question, thanks to the rising percentage of renewable energy sources that…

Digital Edition Back Issues

Sponsored Content

New Enterprise Solutions for 112 Gbps PAM4 Applications in Development from I-PEX

Positioning in 5G NR – A look at the technology and related test aspects

Radar, NFC, UV Sensors, and Weather Kits are Some of the New RAKwireless Products for IoT

5G Connectors: Enabling the global 5G vision

Control EMI with I-PEX ZenShield™ Connectors

Speed-up time-to-tapeout with the Aprisa digital place-and-route system and Solido Characterization Suite

More Sponsored Content >>

RSS Current EDABoard.com discussions

  • Unstable output voltage with LM317 regulator
  • [cadence] plot waveVswave problem
  • Avalanche Pulser
  • pmos folded cascode vs nmos folded cascode for LDO
  • Advice for my disabled son please (timer for rotary film processor)

RSS Current Electro-Tech-Online.com Discussions

  • Disabled son needs advice please
  • DIY bluetooth speaker
  • Question about ultrasonic mist maker
  • RF modules which can handle high number of bytes per second
  • Pet Microchip scan

Oscilloscopes Product Finder

Footer

EE World Online

EE WORLD ONLINE NETWORK

  • 5G Technology World
  • Analog IC Tips
  • Battery Power Tips
  • Connector Tips
  • DesignFast
  • EDABoard Forums
  • Electro-Tech-Online Forums
  • Engineer's Garage
  • Microcontroller Tips
  • Power Electronic Tips
  • Sensor Tips
  • Test and Measurement Tips
  • Wire & Cable Tips

EE WORLD ONLINE

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Lee's teardown videos
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
  • About Us
Follow us on TwitterAdd us on FacebookConnect with us on LinkedIn Follow us on YouTube Add us on Instagram

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy