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It’s the year 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic has infiltrated every street and every home. At best, people were stuck in their homes, working in their living rooms and taking school exams on a browser. At worst, people were dying, and hospitals had fewer and fewer beds to treat the ill. Countries faced a stark loss of jobs and closed borders. Some faced acute shortages of personal protective equipment and face masks.
Enter Sowmya Raghu, a PhD in Mechanical Engineering candidate at the University of South Carolina. She had previously done research with 3D printing and electronics, so when the US was in dire need of PPEs, she created 3,000 face shields using the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing’s 3D printers and distributed them at the Medical University of South Carolina and the Columbia area where USC is located.
“The first thing she did during the pandemic was come to me and ask if she could make face shields,” says her advisor Jamil Khan. “That’s the type of person she is. She did that on her own.”
In the 2023-24 academic year, Raghu would go on to win numerous awards and accolades, including the International Gas Turbine Institute and ASME/STEM scholarships from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). She also won a USC Center for Teaching Excellence grant and a Southeastern Conference (SEC) Emerging Scholar Fellowship.
Raghu’s described as selfless by professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Travis Knight. Source: University of South Carolina
Raghu credits her success to USC’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. Being part of a Tier 1 research department – that is also ranked #31 nationally and #1 in the state by the National Research Council – brings big benefits. Graduate programmes here empower students like Raghu to create impact, while preparing them to advance careers or dive into research and academia. They stand out for their experienced faculty, state-of-the-art facilities, and vigorous research programmes.
But for Patrick Bailey, his time at USC was the realisation of a lifelong dream. He was about seven when a space shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Center lit the fuse to a lifelong fixation with aerospace. Fast forward to high school and Bailey was taking part in USC’s first aerospace summer camp, where he engaged in designing aircraft and learning about composite structures. He would go on to pursue an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and graduate degree in mechanical engineering at USC.
Bailey is currently an intern at Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida, gaining experience in thin film coatings and process development. “This current internship is working me harder,” Bailey says. “I feel like I have opportunities, and I’m constantly moving around, which I like. In my opinion, working on projects towards a bigger goal is fun because you can slowly etch away at it.”
Patrick Bailey Source: University of South Carolina
In the future, Bailey aspires to contribute to the aerospace industry, potentially starting his own company to address emerging needs. He’s likely to succeed, if the track record of USC graduates is anything to go by. Graduates here go on to do big things as inventors, entrepreneurs, project managers and CTOs.
Whether it’s a job, co-op, or internship, the college’s Career Center is always ready to support USC engineering students in their professional journey. The dedicated team vets resumes, sharpens interview skills, invites employers to campus, and provides a whole range of resources to ease the move from graduate school to career and further study. In the Spring 2023 Career Fair, for example, as many as 860 students and 170 employers attended.
Learn more about the Department of Mechanical Engineering at USC today.
