Engineering mentorship program provides valuable experience for high school student

Olentangy Berlin high school senior Abigail Harrell recently had the opportunity to be mentored at The Ohio State University’s Digital Design and Manufacturing Lab (dDML). Over the course of 10 weeks, she was mentored by SIMCenter Research Specialist, Satchit Ramnath and was shown different aspects of mechanical engineering (ME).

Harrell is on the STEM path at the Olentangy STEM Academy, and said she felt encouraged by her family to pursue that path. Within this STEM program, she found her niche: mechanical engineering. With that interest in mind, she was able to further pursue ME during her mentorship experience at Ohio State. Some of the things Harrell learned during her internship were stress analysis theory, finite element analysis, and different principles that are important when using simulation software like Ansys.

Ramnath said that he always tried to relate concepts from ME back to high school physics so that Harrell could see the connection between them and better understand their application. This in addition to being able to effectively communicate with each other, helped make this mentorship experience a success for both parties.

At the end of her internship program, Harrell was given the opportunity to showcase her learning and projects. She talked about her experience to a larger audience that included members of the dDML and project sponsors from Honda. Jami Shah, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of dDML, said, “I was impressed by the depth of her understanding of structural design as evidenced by the final report that she presented.”

Harrell explained, “I found that my mentorship at Ohio State has given me the resources necessary to succeed in Mechanical Engineering.”

Ramnath said that as her mentor, hearing that her internship reinforced her interest in ME was the most satisfying statement he could hear and would like to continue this program in the fall.

After high school, Harrell says she plans to study mechanical engineering at Auburn University and “hopefully something with race cars."

Written by Cassie Forsha, SIMCenter Writing Intern