Welcome to the woods! My name is Natalie and I'm from California (3035 miles away from Dartmouth)! I'm a political science and crossword puzzle nerd who's excited to dive into the millions of activities we have on campus. I'm a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major at Dartmouth, and am considering both a History and Human-Centered Design minor. I'm also the President of the Parliamentary Debate team! Go Big Green!
People often say your first year at Dartmouth can be a rollercoaster, but I didn't expect to be building a literal rollercoaster during my second week of classes!
In my Engineering class this week (I'm taking ENGS 12: Design Thinking), we brainstormed, drafted, and built functional rollercoasters out of foam core, wood, rubber bands, construction paper, and hot glue in groups of four students.
Our satanic pentagram in progress!
My group went through a 3-hour brainstorming session where we brainstormed potential themes for our rollercoaster. Design Thinking places a big emphasis on the brainstorming process — we've been talking about how Google and Pixar create strong teams and inclusive team culture in order to produce good ideas.
We went back and forth between a bunch of themes for our rollercoaster! Should we do a national park-themed rollercoaster? A spider-themed roller coaster?
My group collaborating in the Couch Lab!
We settled on heaven and hell and got to work constructing. Quickly, our coaster started coming to life, complete with a satanic pentagram, spiraling tunnel, slingshot, and rainbow-shaped bridge. We tested and tested our coaster, making small tweaks and structural changes until it worked perfectly and fit our theme.
The Couch Engineering Lab at Dartmouth is open 24 hours a day and is such a nice place to work on building projects. Dartmouth's engineering facilities are all grouped together on the west side of campus and are collectively called Dartmouth Engineering.
We presented our rollercoasters to our classmates on Thursday and it was so cool to see what other themes and design elements our classmates came up with. There was an under the-sea themed coaster, an apocalypse-themed poster (some liability with the bottomless pit in that one), and more!
An educational Under-The-Sea Coaster another group built! ENGS 12 students are so creative.
All in all, it was such a fun project and such an awesome introduction to engineering to Dartmouth!
Dartmouth changed my life. A large part of that change comes from the support I have received from professors. Learn more here about some mentor-mentee relationships I have made!
Exploring Chicago with my fellow women engineers from Dartmouth! We explored the city outside of the SWE conference and got to see how exciting Chicago can be.
In Solid Mechanics, we designed and constructed a bridge that held 10kN, around 1000kg! The process, from SOLIDWORKS design to laser cutting to gluing parts together, took us weeks, but it was one of the most rewarding projects I have ever done.
Walking around the Wellelsey campus, it's clear that it was built with intentional incorporation of the surrounding nature. The architecture of many buildings were also mindfully crafted to support Wellesley's unique principles.
My first time in Chicago at the Society of Women Engineers Conference in Chicago, Illinois! Fully funded by Dartmouth, I had a great time meeting amazing companies and getting to know fellow women engineers.
Through Dartmouth's Guarini Institute for International Study, I am getting to take classes and experience life at Wellesley College, an all-women's school!
