Robin Ott Florida
Being non-traditional isn ’ t always the goal , but sometimes it provides the best results . Robin Ott is non-traditional in that she spent more than 20 years in industry as an engineer before coming to Virginia Tech as a professor of practice and she is the driving force behind the department ' s senior design capstone experience . It ' s a break from tradition that has its advantages .
“ I liked to argue a lot growing up and my parents thought I should be a lawyer ,” Ott said . “ I joined debate in 8th or 9th grade and would be given a topic and had to prepare both sides of the argument . I was really excited and researched my topic , pored over the microfiche to get all this data , and got my butt kicked by kids I don ’ t think tried as hard as I did . What I learned was that you can work really , really hard at something and still not win . I hated that . It was then I knew I wanted to do something where I can prove that I ’ m right . That meant math and science .”
One of three daughters , Ott ’ s father was always doing hands-on projects like refinishing old cars , building furniture , and working on model trains . That experience is partially what led her to mechanical engineering . “ I realized ME was by far the most practical choice .”
Her school of choice was Virginia Tech . “ We came out here on one of those March days when everyone was on the drill field and the weather was beautiful and everyone was so friendly and I just fell in love with it . Oh , and it didn ’ t hurt that I could be a ski instructor on the weekends .”
In a class of 250 , Ott was one of 11 women .
“ There were so few of us that all the guys knew us but we didn ’ t know all of them . There were teachers then , in the college , who were not in agreement that there should be women in engineering . Some of the older professors carried some of that attitude over , not so much in mechanical , but in the fundamentals classes . We stood out , there was no doubt about it .”
Despite graduating in 1995 , there was still blatant gender discrimination in the workplace , and Ott was confronted with all of it .
MOMENTUM SPRING 2018
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