Can Pinewood Derby Racing Lead to a Successful STEM Career?

Getting to Know Dr. Jess

PWP: Hey, how are you, Dr. Jess?

Dr. Jess: Good! So excited to talk to everyone today!

PWP: In the spirit of derby season, it would be really cool to tell a little bit about you, who you are, and some of the work that you do, because you're a pretty awesome woman in engineering. You are also a professor at Penn State who builds some really cool stuff, and you are a toy designer. How did all that come together for you?

Dr. Jess: Yeah, I would be happy to! First of all, I just want to say congratulations and good luck to all of the folks competing; that's super exciting. Pinewood Derby is so much fun. Please enjoy it and please know that everything you've done leading up to this point: the design of the car, building it, testing it, that is all engineering, and that is all the fun stuff I get to do on a daily basis. You are all engineers for all intents and purposes, so congratulations on that, too.

I think what I do on a daily basis, or what my job looks like as a professor, is kind of the best job in the entire world. And how I got here: I mostly was just really, super curious while growing up as to how things worked. I wouldn't say I was necessarily good at math. I just want to make that known. I was okay at math, but it wasn't my favorite subject. But I really loved taking things apart, building things with my hands out in the backyard with my sister or brother, or building faux tree forts, just building. And taking washing machines apart to see how they work, which is a whole other story.

So then, I got into engineering. I fell in love with engineering design in particular, and I decided to pursue my PhD in engineering design and product design. Along the way, as I was getting my PhD, I got the opportunity to start a few companies, one of which was building toys with one of my really good friends. I've always been interested in building toys. There's actually a ton of engineering involved in toys, which is kind of really cool and fun. And how great would it be to grow up and get to play with toys every single day? And it sounds like a dream job. At the time,we were building toys for repurposing and reusing cardboard, and now I am getting the opportunity to build lots of new product offerings for Pinewood Pro, re-imagining what Pinewood Derby toys might look like, and how we can bring Pinewood Derby into people's homes by making it more accessible.

PWP: It's funny when you say I'm a professor, and then you say, oh, I can also design toys and I've started companies. My first thought is: have you ever blown up anything for science?

Dr. Jess: The answer is absolutely yes. I had a dad and a mom who were incredibly supportive of my curiosity. One day, our washing machine was seemingly broken. It was making a super weird noise. I asked my dad what was going on, and he was like, "let's take it apart and find out."

PWP: Oh my gosh, dad of the year.

Dr. Jess: And speaking of blowing things up, we took this washing machine apart, piece by piece. We were trying to be really good in laying out all the pieces. And my mom came home in the middle of this and was like, "We have a family's worth of laundry to do, what is going with the washing machine?"

And eventually, we did get the washing machine back together. I don't know that it ever worked at peak performance again. My mother did have some choice words.

PWP: Words that we will not repeat here.

Dr. Jess: Right. I would say we blew it up piece by piece in that we took it apart.

PWP: Maybe your mom blew up?

Dr. Jess: Maybe my mom blew up. No, but that was probably the first one.

And more recently, I teach a really, really fun class here at Penn State focused on robots. All of my mechanical engineering students have the opportunity to use mechatronics and build these kind of autonomous robots. You place them in a ring and they fight another robot for control of the ring, right? They try to push the robot out of the ring. And the rule is, you can't spend more than $20 because we don't want people buying their way to an A. We want people to use what's around them, using recycled stuff, whatever they can find. We also really encourage, like, get destructive with it. We actually hold this in the Forum Building here at Penn State, which if you're familiar with Penn State's campus, is not a building that's amenable to things being blown up.

We had to have safety glass. I mean, shrapnel's flying. These robots were tearing each other apart with all sorts of defense strategies. That's probably the last time that I was actively involved in blowing things up. The students really had a blast. We set it up like a March Madness bracket to see who's winning, etc.

Facing Challenges in Engineering and Functional Design

PWP: Wow, that's so fun. Was there a time where something specific maybe broke or didn't go the way you wanted it to, but it ended up leading to something that was actually useful? So despite the frustration, you kind of got something back out of it.

Dr. Jess: Yes! The first one that comes to mind: I started a prosthetic device company when I was in grad school called Amparo. We built prosthetic sockets for below-knee amputees or below-knee limb loss patients. I was coming in as an engineering graduate student and I was really excited to build something that moved, like an ankle or a knee. We were working with some designers from all over the world, and when we actually started to go out and talk to customers, we traveled around South Africa and Brazil and we met with different amputees, different clinicians. What we heard overwhelmingly was they have plenty of knees, ankles, feet on shelves. That's a commonly produced good. What takes time was the socket, which is the connection between the human and the artificial.

It takes so much time because it's like art. The prosthetist is kind of forming, sculpting that onto the residual limb of the patient. It was something I really had no interest in, but then we kept hearing how difficult this was, how it was so hard to process, it was the biggest bottleneck in the whole thing. We ended up pivoting and trying to redesign the prosthetic socket and that really was where the greater need was. I think putting aside what I wanted to build, which was kind of a failure, it would've been a failure on the market.

PWP: Yeah, I would imagine it's very custom. So, how do you deal? I mean, that sounds like a really hard problem. How do you design something that's basically custom but for everyone?

Dr. Jess: Yes, so that's a whole concept of mass customization, right? But it was really interesting; it was a great concept and a great product, and we ended up making something that worked really well. I stepped off the team to be a professor, but the team has continued on. After being based in Berlin, now we're based in the US and continuing on with the product and creating these sockets that are much easier to mold, much faster to mold, and provide a greater fit for amputees.

The Unexpected Path to a STEM Career

PWP: So you've become a professor at Penn State, you've started companies, you're building products for a toy company, you've traveled the world. How did you know that you wanted to become an engineer, slash, did you envision this? How did that happen for you?

Dr. Jess: No, no. People always are like, how did you know what you wanted to be when you were growing up? I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, and I will argue that I'm not grown-up for anyone who says otherwise.

Honestly, for the longest time, I was very much considering art school. In my physics class, my senior year of high school, we had to build spaghetti bridges and see how much weight they could hold. My bridge shattered all the class records by holding more weight. We were running around the classroom trying to find more weight to break my bridge.

It was a cool moment, and I had used concepts from art, like the golden ratio, and the golden rule of how to set up the bridge, and the different lengths between the pieces. I think seeing that art and engineering very much go hand in hand, and that you don't have to have one without the other, and in fact they can be improved with each other, really interested me in pursuing or spurred my interest in engineering.

I never expected to get my PhD. I explicitly told my advisor, I don't want my PhD. I want to finish my master's and then I want to get out. I ended up falling in love with research during my master's program and finding an area of research that I love, and now as a professor, it's kind of like having your own startup. You have to go after funding, you have to get your own money in the door. You propose products or grants or research projects, and so it's something different and something new every day, which works really well with my personality.

Exciting Current Projects

PWP: What's something that you're really excited about that you're working on right now?

Dr. Jess: In terms of product design, I would say I'm pretty excited about what we're working on at Pinewood Pro. I won't say a ton, but I think it's going to be a really cool way for Pinewood to come home, and to start experimenting and seeing how Pinewood Derby might grow beyond just the actual race; how it can become more about various science concepts and learning them in the home. Then, getting to be really creative with how you design the car, and understanding how different car designs affect movement on the track and speed and things like that. I think I'm pretty excited about what we have in store for Pinewood.

Outside of Pinewood Derby, we're doing a lot of really cool work right now in my lab with augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, and artificial intelligence. We've got multiplayer simulations, so you and I could put on our virtual headsets right now, and I could move a coffee mug closer to you, and you could pick that same coffee mug up. Those kinds of things are all really fun and we get to engage with really nascent technologies, which is great. And it feels like a movie, like Terminator or something, where we're all in this virtual reality world.

Misconceptions About Engineering & Advice for STEM

PWP: When you were first thinking about engineering or being an artist, what would you tell your younger self about pursuing engineering? Either advice or predictive crystal ball, what would you tell yourself?

Dr. Jess: I think the biggest misconception I had was I had to be a superstar in math to go into engineering, or I had to absolutely love numbers, and it's just not true.

You don't have to love it. You don't have to be carrying around your TI-89 calculator day and night, and sleeping with it under your pillow to be an engineer.

I think what's more important in engineering is just having a curiosity for how things work, and wanting to improve them, and being curious about why things don't work better. Because engineering is everywhere, like the chair I'm sitting on, the computer we're using, and you could truly get into any area. I have friends who work in the Mars Candy Factory, some who work at Disney designing rides and experiences, others are working in Hollywood on set design, so you could go into any field. I think that's the most exciting part about engineering.

You don't have to be this math superstar to get through engineering.

And that we all don't work on cars all the time. I feel like that was a big misconception, that we are all into engines and cars and things like that. I never thought I'd get to work on toys.

PWP: You said something that's really powerful. There is this misconception that you have to be super stellar at math to just be good at STEM and to be a good engineer. But, interestingly, you said you connected more with the art side without being the strongest at math. Do you have any thoughts or advice for kids who love science or love that kind of design component, but maybe are a little intimidated? How would you approach what would look like a scary math class?

Dr. Jess: I think the biggest thing I learned, and I learned this when I was an undergrad in Penn State going into engineering, is: find some friends to work through the problems with. Oftentimes, talking through the problems out loud can help you identify what you're not understanding or a critical step that you're missing.

The other thing I think I never did enough was go talk to the teacher. They are there to help you. Now I teach a 150 person class or more, and the kids that I really get to know and care about, and I want to see them do well, are the kids that are coming to my office hours and asking for help. I think reaching out and trying to find resources to help you understand is critical, too.

And for me, what always helps me understand math a little bit better was just doing a bunch of practice problems and getting a better handle on the ins and outs and the nuances of how things work.

There are some buddies you study with, and most of the time you're just kind of talking and you're having a lot of fun, and those study sessions are so critical and so worth it.

A lot of times, I think it helps some students solidify their own understanding of the math concepts by explaining it to others. Sometimes it might help you to try and tutor somebody else in it.

I think those would be my biggest recommendations: find those study buddies, talk to the teacher, and get some feedback.

PWP: That's such good advice. It's always easier when you have friends. You get more, you're smarter with other people. I love that approach. That's just gold.

The Life of a Penn State Engineering Professor

PWP: You've done so many cool things. You have built real world stuff, not just stuck in a lab doing whatever, but you've helped real people with real lives. There's so much you're doing that is powerful and reaches other people. What's something else that's cool about being a professor that most people wouldn't know from the outside?

Dr. Jess: One thing that is really a lot of fun is that as a professor, you get to work with students on so many cool projects all the time. I teach a mechatronics class, but also a startup class. Students have to start a company before the class is over, and the craziness of projects that come through there is so much fun. That's one of the coolest things you get to do is seeing the creativity that students bring to the table.

Last semester, I helped students build a magical harp that played on its own, so it looked like it was enchanted and would play. They were building it for cosplay stuff, but they got to do that in my class. It was fully allowed and it counted for a grade. At the same time, in that same class, I had other students building this really, really interesting weather device. It was this floating kind of cloud thing, and depending on the color, the sound it would make, and the vibration of the lights, it would let you know what was about to happen outside. It was meant to be a more visual cue that could be in a more permanent place in their apartments or homes so they would remember to bring a raincoat or something. Really weird, really crazy products, but so much fun to work with.

PWP: All these just different projects you've worked on, they seem so much more fun than the preconception of being all greasy under an engine somewhere.

To learn about Pinewood Derby racing and the engineering principles behind derby car success, follow us to Part 2 of our interview with Dr. Jess here.