Olivia Wanless is a senior at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan. She studies electrical engineering with a business minor. Kettering University is a co-op-based school. That means every three months, Olivia alternates between working at a company and going to classes. She works at an automotive supply company called Nexteer. There she fixes and maintains machinery on the factory floor.
Wanless also mentors young people interested in engineering, especially girls. She’s a team captain for the AutoDrive Challenge, a tutor, and a former president of the Society of Women Engineers.
WHAT EXPERIENCE INSPIRED YOU TO GO INTO ENGINEERING?
When I started high school, I figured out that I really liked math, which I had hated in elementary and middle school. My teacher suggested that I try engineering. It hadn’t even been on my radar.
I joined the LITES program at Kettering. (That’s Lives Improve Through Engineering & Science, a program for girls entering their senior year in high school.) There I took an optics class, and it was absolutely inspirational.
WHAT ABOUT ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING INTERESTS YOU?
We all have individual problems on the manufacturing floor, so each day I get to inspect something different. There are all sorts of interesting problems, and I am always learning.
Esta historia es de la edición May/June 2020 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Esta historia es de la edición May/June 2020 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
