Engineering a career where the sky’s no limit
Lauren Clar enjoys making things fly, understanding how they fly, and making them fly better. Drones. Rockets. Planes. You name it.
At Ohio State, Lauren wasted no time discovering what opportunities were available to meet her interests in aerospace engineering. Once she found numerous possibilities, she leapt into them and her career took off.
One of those included getting involved in Matt McCrink’s drone lab, where she incorporates her computer, electrical and aerospace engineering interests to work with UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).
“His lab is incredibly collaborative,” says Lauren, a computer science and engineering major. “Grad students are always willing to help me and (McCrink) is always willing to teach about aerospace, electrical, anything. Every time I talk to him, it turns into a free college lesson because he knows every aspect of the things we’re working on. I’ve really enjoyed the learning experience and working with grad students on cool projects.”
Lauren, in fact, oversaw her own research project measuring the relationship between temperature and drift in measurements on a sensor that would be on a drone during other tests in the lab. It’s research that could prove crucial to discovering how drones interact in city environments. Her research was even featured at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum this spring.
“It’s research that could allow us to better understand rotor mechanical power,” says Lauren, who will be building her own drone within the lab this summer.
Along with her lab experience, this semester Lauren is an intern in the soft matter research lab at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Her previous internships included working in Denver at Special Aerospace Services and at Parker Hannifin as a mechanical engineering intern.
Each opportunity came from not being afraid to apply for these positions and following up with emails. Her position in Denver came from emailing the Chief Technical Officer, Tim Bulk, an Ohio State alum. She also got some help from Ohio State’s John Horack, who sent Bulk a reference for Lauren.
Horack knew Lauren fairly well, in fact. She reached out to him for advice on opportunities at Ohio State before she was even a freshman. It turned into a video call in which Horack recommended she consider the Buckeye Space Launch Initiative, a student organization for which Horack is the advisor.
Today, Lauren is the club president.
Lauren on her Ohio State experience: “Ohio State was definitely the best choice for me. Academically, it has such a broad range of topics available. I’ve taken many different classes and really been able to explore all of my interests because it’s such a large school with so many different opportunities. I major in computer science and I do a lot of work within aerospace because Ohio State is very strong in those categories, so I’m able to prepare myself for my future career in every way I want.”
Her advice to students: “Making connections is very important. For my Stamps Eminence Scholarship, I was considering not even applying originally. Instead, I did and it’s been a big part of my college career. I gained a lot of my friends on campus through that program, and they were the ones who told us how to get connected with research. I was even able to use an enrichment grant (through the Stamps Eminence Scholarship) to go on the International Perspectives on Aviation study abroad trip last year to France, Spain and Andorra.
“Before I was even a freshman, I reached out to Dr. John Horack and asked him about aerospace opportunities and that’s how I got involved with the Buckeye Space Launch Initiative. Don’t be afraid to reach out and make connections — that’s how I got to where I am today.”