Bringing compassion to engineering and design

"...I like the challenge of stepping into uncomfortable places and asking questions that most people won’t.  One example is hair. How can mechanical engineering impact hair care? When you have a mechanical engineering background and combine that with being a Black woman, questions about hair care become obvious. We have a unique hair texture and there is a lot involved with our hair care, so a mechanical engineering lens provides opportunity to think about it differently.  When I became a professor, I collaborated with another faculty member, and we worked together and did some things that garnered a lot of media attention, because it was just different. When do you see mechanical engineers working on hair?"