Women in Engineering
Engineering a career in robotics and flight Leslie Langnau • Senior Contributing Editor
Years ago, in 1979, Ella Atkins was one of the first students to participate in a Johns Hopkins University SMPY program, which began in 1971. In this program, she would study mathematics. A grad student from Johns Hopkins was assigned to her as a mentor. “In the very informal correspondence that went on between us, he was offering materials that would give me the opportunity to explore options,” said Atkins. “Some assignments were about math and science, some were about engineering, including aerospace. As I read those, I liked the look of airplanes.” Atkins grew up in a small, rural community in West Virginia that had a fighter aircraft training route over her house. She enjoyed watching the planes fly overhead. She was also influenced by the NASA space programs. “I don’t know that I ever really put astronauts as number one on my career list. I was more interested in designing the spacecrafts and have someone else fly them,” she said. Atkins is now a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan — also a core member of faculty in the Robotics Institute. Currently, she is on a yearlong sabbatical to work as a technical fellow for Collins Aerospace, which
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is now part of Raytheon. She is a senior member in IEEE and a fellow with AIAA, the aeronautics and astronautics group. Her undergrad and masters were in AeroAstro (aeronautics and astronautics) from MIT. In her master’s studies, she did research in space robotics. Then she went into the aerospace industry for three years. “One of the things you learn in space robotics,” she said, “is that the electronics and the software are a tremendous part of what you’re doing. The mechanical systems support the DESIGN WORLD
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