ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

If you have news to share or would like to be featured in our alumni news section, contact Dean Griffin. Here, we spotlight Andi Wright, class of 2015, Engineering, who has done some amazing things since leaving RWU.

WHAT WAS YOUR ENGINEERING SPECIALIZATION?

Mechanical Engineering

DID YOU HAVE A MINOR?

Mathematics

WERE YOU A PART OF ANY EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, BOTH RELATED TO SECCM AND NOT?

Quite a few: RWU Rowing team, Orientation Advisor, Volunteer at the FIRST Lego League that SECCM hosted, SECCM tour guide during an Accepted Students Day, Volunteer at a local elementary school with Dr. Thomas to teach the students what an engineer is and help the students build bridges out of wooden sticks, Volunteer to rebuild houses in New Orleans with RWU’s InterVarsity club during two spring breaks, and Volunteer to help build a deck at a home in Providence with InterVarsity/Habitat for Humanity

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE COURSE AND WHY?

My favorite course was Mechatronics. Even though it was probably the toughest and most time-consuming course, I learned a lot of invaluable lessons and gained many “stressful but fun” memories. It also helped that I had a cool robot I could talk about during interviews.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION? HAVE YOU HAD ANY OTHER POSITIONS SINCE GRADUATING?

I’m currently an R&D Engineer II for spine surgery medical devices, which is my second position since graduating. My first job was as a Mechanical Engineer at a company that manufactures industrial/commercial combustion systems and products.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF YOUR JOB?

The coolest part of my job is going out into the field, attending spine surgeries and conversing with surgeons and scrub techs about how we can improve our product offerings to best serve their needs. My personal favorite part of my job, though, is when I get to spend time in SolidWorks working on new ideas and going through the iteration process of design -> prototype -> testing -> design again, and so forth. The SolidWorks models/drawings side of my job is definitely more fun than the FDA paperwork side (ha ha!).

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE RWU?

Honestly, I chose RWU because it had a rowing team, a great location, and overall impressive facilities that I could longboard around all day and not need a car to get anywhere. As a freshman I came in undecided, knowing I wanted to pursue something math-related, and it took me the whole semester to figure out that I wanted to be a mechanical engineering major.

ANY OTHER INTERESTING BITS OF INFORMATION YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE?

Besides my engineering job I’m also a drummer in a band. Having a solid Physics foundation helps me follow along in conversations with my nerdy audio engineer bandmates, and being a project manager in my full-time career directly lends to my ability to step up into a band manager role and be an effective team player. Who would’ve thought the two would be so related?