Here's Renee's interview with Hannah Aseltine, an Honors Program student at UConn from Longmeadow, MA.
She shares her experience with Pratt & Whitney and UConn's Summer Project Advanced Propulsion Concepts program. Her passion and dedication to enter and succeed in an industry that is traditionally male-dominated is inspiring. Working on a team focused on hybrid electric, her work is helping to create future air taxis!
Listen to the full interview here:
Whether college students face no classes or virtual classes, no internships or very limited experiential learning, the challenge to keep them focused on a career track is more important than ever. That’s why Pratt & Whitney has stepped up to host the P&W - UCONN Summer Project Advanced Propulsion Concepts program. Created to further support Pratt & Whitney’s long-term involvement with UCONN, the program provides the students a technical learning experience in lieu of an internship.
Led by Matt Teicholz, Pratt & Whitney executive director, program chief engineer and himself a dual-degree UConn alumnus (B.S. 2006; M.S. 2008 in Mechanical Engineering), Pratt & Whitney is training 32 UCONN School of Engineering students in three areas: alternate heat cycles, nuclear power and hybrid electric. The challenge to all students is to focus on disruptive new concepts that can reduce mission energy consumption 30% and CO2 emissions 30%-100%. And what better place to be challenged than at Pratt & Whitney, the worldwide leader in creating greener, more efficient technologies?
Teams of 4-5 students are now currently paired with 1 Pratt & Whitney coach. The mentors are providing guidance on industry-relevant technical, organizational and communication skills during the 6-7 week program. At the end, each team of students will present their findings to a Pratt & Whitney technical leadership panel.
Here's an example of the great work at P&W:
(Video credit: Aerospace Industries Association)