Maya King

Tell us about a community you're part of, on campus or off. What have you done to make it stronger?

I joined the UMD Engineers Without Borders chapter my sophomore year. Our team was stuck on a water filter design for a school abroad, so I offered to build a test rig in the machine shop. We ran three rounds of flow tests and cut the cost per unit by about a third. I now help train new members on the rig, and two of them are leading the next round.

Think of a class that pushed you. What did you change about how you studied, and how did it turn out?

Thermodynamics was the first class where rereading my notes stopped working. I got a 58 on the first exam. I started drawing the system before touching an equation, joined a study group that met twice a week, and worked old exams under a timer. I got an 81 on the second exam and finished with a B+.

What problem do you want to work on in your career? What's one step you're taking toward it now?

I want to work on making older public buildings accessible without huge renovation costs. Over the summer I helped the campus facilities team survey door widths and ramp slopes in fourteen buildings. This semester I am taking a materials course and a CAD elective so I can design and test standard parts for these fixes.