What inspired you to become an engineer? Were you always interested in technology? If so, why? If not, when did you become interested and why?

A: As I was growing up, my parents were both working in STEM fields and they encouraged my early interest in science and technology. My father taught me the basic programming language when I was in elementary school and let me play with the research computers he had at work.

In middle school, I had a summer internship in a Navy research lab and heard a lot about engineering school from the college student interns who were working in the lab. I went to a science high school, and while I had a great time in the marching band, student government, pit orchestra and editing the school newspaper and literary magazine, engineering and problem solving were what always resonated the most with me.