Katherine Kuchenbecker
University of Pennsylvania
New York, NY USA
"We're not going to grow if we don't challenge ourselves. Your brain is a muscle, and your skills improve over time through effort, by working hard and expending effort."
Career Roadmap
Katherine's work combines: Education, Engineering, and Teaching / Mentoring
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
People are always surprised when I say I'm an engineer, which is sending a clear message that I don't look the way they expect an engineer to look. I find that it is fun to violate people's expectations of you and surprise them. In doing my work, regardless of people's expectations, I am helping to expand the view of what it means to be an engineer.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Mechanical Engineering
Stanford University
Graduate Degree
Mechanical Engineering
Stanford University
Doctorate
Mechanical Engineering
Stanford University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
In high school, she felt pulled in several different directions: she loved sports, art, design, math, and science.
2.
To try to cover as many of her interests as possible—especially in math and design—she decided to major in engineering.
3.
After college, she thought she wanted to go into product design, and she was lucky enough to get a few internships in the field.
4.
However, once she was working in product design, she realized she didn’t like it, and that terrified her; for a moment, she thought she’d taken the wrong path.
5.
Instead of panicking, she decided to follow the threads of the things she liked back to the beginning and start down a new path; she decided to go back to graduate school.
6.
She went back to Stanford University for a master’s degree in mechanical engineering; while there, she realized she loved teaching.
7.
She continued on to get her Ph.D. so that she could become a professor; she now teaches engineering and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania.
8.
Known as the “Queen of Haptics,” she studies and teaches the science of touch; in 2010, Popular Science named her one of its 10 most innovative minds in science and engineering.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You're an engineer? Wow, that must mean you're really smart.
How I responded:
People are always surprised when I say I'm an engineer, which is sending a clear message that I don't look the way they expect an engineer to look. I find that it is fun to violate people's expectations of you and surprise them. In doing my work, regardless of people's expectations, I am helping to expand the view of what it means to be an engineer.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
When I was younger, I always had a desire to do very well in school and work. There have been times where that edged beyond what is reasonable into perfectionism and depression. I didn't work well under that pressure I put on myself.