Engineers Week Q&A with Carley Schaar, IMEG Chemical Engineering Designer
Q: What motivated you to become an engineer?
A: I was always interested in math and chemistry and have a passion for it. I knew in high school I wanted to become an engineer because of having those strong skills. Knowing that a lot of women are not in engineering, I also wanted to prove some people were wrong in telling me I should change my major and what I want to be because I wouldn’t be able to do it. All that motivated me to become a chemical engineer.
Q: What excites you about your chosen career?
A: What excites me is having design creativity at my job as well as getting to know clients and building relationships with them. Every day I learn something new about my job and I am always working on something different, and always learning.
Q: How do you see engineers playing a role in shaping the world of tomorrow?
A: Engineers are playing a big role because they are coming up with many different ideas to change and innovate what is already there and make it better. For example, taking an old building with no technology and updating it to have all the new technology. No matter what you’re doing or where you’re at, an engineer had some type of design, idea, or say that influenced your environment.
Q: How does innovation apply to what you do?
A: Every day I am innovating a better way of doing a certain type of project better than the last time. I always want to find a way to design something more efficiently and make it better because that is the only way to keep up with the technology coming out.
Q: How do you see yourself benefiting from the use of AI in design and engineering?
A: I see myself benefiting from AI by having a place where I can look up a certain thing I need for a specific project faster and work more efficiently instead of wasting time on Google or looking through many pages of a document. AI will be able to directly pinpoint the information I need.
Q: What advice do you have for those considering a STEM-related career?
A: My advice is to go for it—you never know what you are capable of until you try. A saying of Walt Disney, which is one I go by every day, is, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” Because the impossible is possible if you believe you can do it.
Learn how to apply for an IMEG Engineering Scholarship and find additional resources for engineering students on the NSPE website.
