Fall 2025 Winner of the Engineering Excellence Scholarship

Emma Claire Thompson

Emma’s passion for engineering began with a drive to push the limits of technology. With her mechatronics degree, she plans to design advanced prosthetics that change lives. Congratulations, Emma — we admire your vision, dedication, and commitment to improving the world!

Read Emma’s Essay:

My journey into mechatronics began with a stubborn question: Why can’t this robot do more? I was 13, working on a simple project in a middle school robotics club. Our robot could follow a line, turn around, and conserve battery by looping the same route, but I wanted more. What if it could detect objects? What if it could pick them up, throw them, or adjust to their surroundings? That one question lit a fire in me, and I began to explore how mechanics, electronics, coding, and sensors come together to create machines that think, move, and react. These robots weren’t just wires, motors, and circuit boards; they were powerful tools. They could inspire curiosity in others, spark creativity, and solve real problems in the world.

By the time I reached high school, I was all in. I took an engineering class. In our engineering class, I worked on hands-on projects and often spent my free time trying to push the limits of what we were learning. One of those projects was a small circuit I built that could perform multiple functions by changing the code and flipping switches. It played music, activated a fan, and even triggered a car horn sound. At first, it may have looked like just a bunch of components connected on a breadboard. Still, that little device helped me understand something important: engineering is where creativity and precision meet. Through trial and error, I learned how electrical systems, programming logic, and physical components could work together to create something both innovative and fun.

One of the projects I’m most proud of was building a geodesic dome. While it started as a classroom prototype, the purpose was ambitious: to create a low-cost, weather-resistant housing solution for people who couldn’t afford traditional homes. I designed the entire blueprint, created a 3D model, and worked on making the structure as durable and efficient as possible. Even though it wasn’t full-scale, the idea behind it felt real. That project taught me that engineering doesn’t just exist in theory or classrooms; it can solve human problems in the real world. It showed me that the things I create can matter to someone other than me.

Throughout this journey, one person who shaped my growth was my engineering and design teacher. He had a way of turning every problem into a learning opportunity. If something broke, he didn’t just say “fix it,” he asked why it broke, and what could be improved. He reminded me constantly that failure wasn’t a bad thing. It was simply part of the process. Every short-circuited board, every error in a design file, and every chunk of tangled code wasn’t a setback; it was a step forward. Under his guidance, I stopped being afraid of mistakes and started embracing them. That mindset shift changed everything.

What draws me most to mechatronics is its flexibility. It sits at the intersection of mechanics, electronics, and computing, three areas I’m passionate about. But beyond just being a combination of disciplines, mechatronics is about making systems that are intelligent, efficient, and adaptable. Whether it’s building smart factories, creating assistive devices, or developing autonomous machines, mechatronics is about solving problems in innovative ways.

One of my biggest dreams is to design advanced prosthetics, especially ones that can be mind-controlled without relying on direct nerve connections. I imagine a world where someone who has lost a limb could simply think about moving it, and the prosthetic would respond instantly. Even more, I’d love to expand that technology to animals as well, giving injured pets or wildlife the ability to live more freely. It might sound futuristic, but I believe mechatronics makes that future possible.

To me, mechatronics isn’t just a career path. It’s a purpose. It’s a space where my creativity, curiosity, and drive to help others all come together. It’s where ideas become inventions, and where failures become breakthroughs. That belief that innovation lives where disciplines collide is what started my journey. And it’s what drives me every single day.