Katie Talda graduated from the U in May 2017 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation, she moved to Seattle to be a Nuclear Engineer at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Her job is managing work and retesting on nuclear reactors of aircraft carriers which has allowed her to spend a few weeks in San Diego as well as four months in Japan. During her time in SWE, she was most involved with the Outreach Committee and became the Co-Vice President of Outreach from 2015 – 2016. During the 2016 - 2017 school year, Katie was the Mechanical Engineer Representative and a senior SWE member that helped with planning and event setup of numerous events throughout the year. Learn more about Katie's journey in the Q&A below.
How did you first hear about SWE and why did you decide to join?
I heard about SWE at Plazafest during my freshman year and was inspired by the number of female engineers I met at the first social. I got fully hooked when I joined the Outreach committee and I started attending meetings to attend to help plan Girl Scouts Night.
When did you decide to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree and how come?
I decided during my senior year of high school after talking to my math and science teachers about what careers are a good choice to follow my love of sciences. My dad is also a mechanical engineer and growing up he was always designing and building projects around the house. I got inspired by his creativity and wanted to pursue a career like that.
Describe one of your most unique college experiences.
I had an internship at Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman) and saw the cold weather test fire of the solid rocket booster motor that is part of the Space Launch System NASA is developing to take people to Mars. I was actually in the manufacturing group and we were about to sit about a mile and a half away from the rocket which was closer than NASA group. Afterward, inspections were performed by a select number of people on the inside of the motor and I was invited to be one of them. It involved getting into a special suit with a respirator and walking the length of the inside of the booster motor to verify the burn characteristics were as expected.
One of the reasons I decided to go to the U was for the closeness of the ski resorts to campus. There were multiple times I was able to go skiing in the morning and come back in the afternoon for class and even a SWE social event.
Are there any specific techniques you developed throughout college that helped you succeed academically?
Getting homework done earlier rather than later so you can have time to compare with other classmates and help each other understand it. I found that the best way to fully understand a concept is to be able to teach it to someone else. I had difficulty with my basic electrical class at first but after time with the professor, YouTube, and the textbook, the material clicked. My classmates were still struggling so I was able to walk through problems with them and we all successfully passed the exams.
What are some exciting activities or projects you have been involved in? These can be related to anything.
For my senior design project, my team and I designed and built a coffee maker that heated water in three minutes by spinning magnets to generate an electromagnetic field on a copper tube. We faced a number of challenges on that project like designing a square copper tube that ended up costing 3 times what we expected to manufacture and while testing our spinning magnets, we discovered not all glues are able to securely hold a magnet and we sent one flying across the room. Luckily, it did not hit anyone and after that, we created a plexiglass box to put around it, just in case.
How did participating in SWE as a student assist your career?
As a member of SWE, I took advantage of the resume workshop to transform my three-page, double-spaced resume after high school into the one-page showcase of my experience it is now. I actually used the template of another SWE members resume to make mine. This gave me the confidence to take part in Mock Interviews. Most of all, the event that truly helped my career was the SWE conferences. The career fairs were a great way to get facetime with a recruiter and a much higher chance of getting moved onto the interview phase. At the national conference, I was able to get three interviews after speaking to the recruiter at the career fair.
What was it like moving across the country to Washington and starting your new employment?
I am originally from eastern Washington and western Washington was always a place I wanted to live. Initially, it was hard being in a new place where I didn’t know anyone but I was excited to explore the area and as soon as I started work I bonded with coworkers and other new hires. I ended up finding that a lot of my coworkers have similar interests in the outdoors as me and we were able to go out on adventures together. As for starting the new job, it was initially a strange feeling to have free time. I didn’t have any assignments I needed to work on and I actually had time to do things I enjoy.
What activities cause you to feel you are living life to the fullest?
I love to travel the world and experience different cultures and then share it with others through photography. I also have a love for nature so hiking in Utah and the Pacific Northwest is something I love to do in my free time. Whenever the weather is cooperating I love to get outside to go road biking, scuba diving, or during the winter, enjoying the snow through skiing and snowboarding.