RosePod: Classes to Careers cover art

RosePod: Classes to Careers

RosePod: Classes to Careers

By: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Listen for free

About this listen

 RosePod is a thought-provoking and inspiring podcast from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. We’re here to help guide future STEM leaders through the maze of undergraduate degree options in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Join our student hosts, Reese Sieger & Isaac Towne, as they delve into topics such as choosing the right major, navigating the college application process, and uncovering hidden opportunities within the world of STEM. With interviews featuring forward-thinking educators, successful professionals, key industry insights, and practical advice, RosePod is your one-stop shop for discovering how a STEM undergraduate degree can pave the path to a rewarding career. Tune in and let RosePod be the catalyst to achieving your wildest dreams in the STEM universe!All rights reserved. Science
Episodes
  • Engineering a Diverse Future in STEM

    Engineering a Diverse Future in STEM
    May 29 2024
    When we talk about diversity in STEM fields, most people immediately think of the race or gender gaps. But for today's guest, promoting diversity in STEM means encouraging diversity in thought, behavior, interaction, and much more. Dr. Carlotta Berry is the Lawrence J. Giacletto Endowed Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose Hulman. Her areas of expertise include educational mobile robotics and enhanced human-robot interfaces. Also specializing in recruitment and retention activities for underrepresented populations in electrical and computer engineering, she helped found the Rose Building Undergraduate Diversity (ROSE-BUD) program, which she co-advises. In this episode of RosePod, Dr. Berry joins our student hosts Isaac and Reese, and shares her journey from aspiring math teacher to esteemed professor, touching on her educational experiences from Nashville to Vanderbilt and her commitment to diversifying STEM. Dr. Berry discusses her initiatives to inspire young and diverse demographics through STEM outreach, including writing children’s books and engaging in hands-on STEM activities. The episode also highlights Rose Hulman's supportive environment promoting group work and practical experience, aiming to produce well-rounded graduates prepared for challenging engineering and science careers. Episode Quotes:On promoting STEM for people with diverse backgrounds10:17: I write children's books so that little kids can see themselves doing robotics, can see themselves doing programming at a level they understand. My engineering research is in robotics education, engineering education. I have flower bots, open-source robots that are modular, that grow with the student. So if you're a little kid, then you are doing graphical programming, and I can still tell you the basics of robotics. If you're a high school student, you may be doing Arduino programming, Raspberry Pi, or something like that. But you start to grow them into STEM so that when, especially if it's a young lady or if it's a black or brown student, they're in class, and they're in middle school, and somebody goes, "girls aren't good at math" or "there's no such thing as a black or brown engineer," they go—no, I saw one in a book. I know I can do this.Why humanities is important in STEM05:30: Something I talk to, especially when I teach freshman design, is humanities. Students are notorious. I hate how many humanities courses I have to take. Why do I have to take ethics? Why do I have to take writing? Why do I have to write all these papers? Why do I have to do all these presentations? Well, you have to do it because if you're going to be an engineer, you want to be able to convince people to give you money for your great idea. And you want to be able to explain to people how it works. You're not designing in a vacuum here. You're designing as an engineer for people. So if you don't get some people skills in there, you're going to have all these cool things down in your garage or in your basement that nobody is going to use. That's why the humanities courses are equally as important as the STEM courses, the engineering and all of that, because of the major you have selected.Pushing for multidisciplinary interaction0743: Another thing I push a lot, along with diversity, is multidisciplinary interaction. Can you, as a computer engineer, work with a mechanical engineer and help them understand the perspectives you have about your major so they can give you some of theirs as well? Because you're not going to only be working with computer engineers when you graduate. Sometimes, you're going to be working with a manager who doesn't even have a technical degree. Can you help your manager understand what you've been doing for the last week? Right? That stuff is equally as important. Show Links:Carlotta Berry | Rose-HulmanDr. C.A. Berry – Rose-Hulman Institute of TechnologyCarlotta Berry, Ph.D. | LinkedInCoded Bias | A.I. Bias & Facial Recognition Discrimination | Documentary | PBSFIRST Robotics Competition TeamBranam and Kremer Innovation Centers | Rose-HulmanRose PowerCarlotta A. Berry: Children’s books, biography, latest updateThese Romance Novels Represent Black Women In ScienceRosebud
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
  • What It Means To Be a Fightin’ Engineer: How To Get Involved With Athletics at Rose

    What It Means To Be a Fightin’ Engineer: How To Get Involved With Athletics at Rose
    Mar 27 2024

    At Rose-Hulman, athletics and academics go hand in hand. And no one knows how important the balance between classes and practices is than head football coach Jeff Sokol.

    Sokol has coached at Rose-Hulman for 13 years and played DIII football himself when he was in school. On this episode of RosePod, Sokol chats with student hosts Isaac and Reese about the variety of athletics offered at Rose, what coaching DIII football is like, and how Rose-Hulman supports its student-athletes on the field and in the classroom.

    Episode Quotes:

    Fostering a supportive community outside the field
    18:37: I always encourage our guys, especially during orientation, [to] reach out and become friends with guys on the football team. The easiest thing to do is just to have 40 friends of other first-year guys. You can be perfectly happy having those be your only friends. But if you go out and really start to meet the other people on your floor and in your resident hall and just reach out and befriend all the other people on this campus, hopefully other students that aren't student-athletes appreciate the effort that the student-athletes put into their sport, enjoy coming out and cheering them on, and take some pride in the success that we have.


    Coaching is instilling love for the game in your athletes

    05:20: The big challenge in coaching is: you have to make your players love playing the game. Like they have to really enjoy being a part of the team. You're going to ask them to do difficult things in order to be competitive and to be successful. But they've got to enjoy doing it, 'cause there's no scholarship to hold over their head. They can walk away anytime. So, the student-athletes are here playing the games because they love them. And for us as coaches, our challenge is just to make sure we don't do anything to take that love away.

    On appreciating the academic commitment of student-athletes

    18:10: A lot of the students, when they come here, maybe they had a certain perception about the athletes in their high school and what it was like. But I hope when they go to a class and they see that all the athletes are in the classes with them, taking all the exact same classes, having the exact same struggles, and working through all these complicated academic issues that everyone hears. And I hope there's an appreciation for that, and they want to come out and support them.

    Show Links:
    • Rose-Hulman Football
    • Rose-Hulman Athletics
    Show More Show Less
    27 mins
  • From Brain Surgery to the Superbowl: Internship Opportunities at Rose-Hulman Ventures

    From Brain Surgery to the Superbowl: Internship Opportunities at Rose-Hulman Ventures
    Mar 13 2024

    One thing we pride ourselves on here at Rose-Hulman is providing our students real-world experience and exceptional internship opportunities.

    And our guest today is passionate about fostering innovation and solutions-oriented product design right here on campus. Brian Dougherty is the Senior Director of Rose-Hulman Ventures, a product design, rapid prototyping and development firm located on Rose-Hulman’s south campus. He is also a Rose alum from the class of 1993!

    Today, Brian will share what Rose Ventures is all about with our student hosts Isaac and Reese.
    He highlights the variety of projects students are working on through the program from software development to medical devices, and how these challenging projects prepare students for the workforce.

    Episode Quotes:

    Creating a best internship experience at Rose-Hulman Ventures

    09:15: People are sometimes shocked or a little skeptical of this, but the truth is that an internship experience at Ventures is among the best in the world. And primarily because myself and the full-time engineering staff down there—well, the whole staff down there—our jobs exist to make it the best internship in the world...09:49 So unless that company invests heavily in their internship culture, which some do, a lot of times, that experience can be a little bit lacking. So the way we create that experience, though, is by putting our interns in positions where they have to deliver.


    What’s unique about Rose-Hulman Ventures?

    30:19: That intersection of driving that value for the client. In a real project in a way that maybe the student interns never had any idea that they could even do.

    That's where that educational opportunity happens. And we're unique in doing that. We've been doing it for a long time now, and we've been a very open book about how we do it, but it's really a testament to the culture of Rose-Hulman that most other schools haven't really figured it out yet.

    Rose-Hulman Ventures is an engine for driving innovation

    24:32: Rose-Hulman Ventures is an engine for driving innovation for our clients. So usually, they have an entrepreneurial idea but no idea how to make it work. They don't have the resources, the building blocks, or the skills that they need to figure out how to make this idea come to reality. And we do that.



    Show Links:
    • Rose-Hulman Ventures
    • NICO Corporation
    • Innovation Grove and More Rose-Hulman Ventures Changes
    Show More Show Less
    24 mins
No reviews yet