Harper Behrens Fry Age: 21
Student, Wichita State University Wichita, KS
UNDER THIRTY F
or some 30 Under 30 honorees, the path to their degree or career wasn’t always clear. After graduating from her alternative high school with honors at 16, Harper Behrens Fry wasn’t exactly sure of her next step.
In high school, she had shown real potential in math and science and wanted to pursue an advanced degree, but she wasn’t sure what she wanted to study. After spending a year at a community college, Harper decided to pursue mechanical engineering and trans- ferred to Wichita State University. She chose mechanical engineer- ing, she said, because of the potential the degree offered her. “I see mechanical engineering as a very open field, and I wanted a more general engineering de- gree that would lead me to either
cites Dr. Malzahn as a mentor who encouraged her to pursue mechanical engineering.
“I was really excited when he approached me about the position,” Harper said. “It really made me want to be more hands-on in my studies.”
“Harper is a down-to-earth,
hardworking and humble young woman who has shown great strides in advancing herself and others while being involved in the field of her studies.”
design or to being more hands-on,” she said. “It’s given me more options for what I could do with my degree in a career setting.”
She was encouraged by Ken Winder, a facilities equipment engineer with Spirit AeroSystems and a long- time family friend who nominated Harper. “Harper is a down-to-earth, hardworking and humble young woman who has shown great strides in advancing herself and others while being involved in the field of her studies,” Winder wrote.
As part of that involvement, Harper is a library student assistant at WSU. This past academic year, she was an undergraduate research assistant with Dr. Don- ald Malzahn, an industrial and manufacturing engineer- ing professor. In her position, Harper worked with him on revising and editing papers for publication. She also
The 2013 academic year also had Harper work- ing with her school’s Robotic Implementation Group (RIG) to design a robotic drawing machine—a Com- puterized Numeric Controlled (CNC) machine that will draw with a marker. Using three motors, each running a single axis, the ma- chine will draw any design that is uploaded to the software. The machine can move a marker up, down, and around a page, allow- ing it to draw almost anything. The project also reinforced Harper’s desire to study
mechanical engineering. She sees it as a way of understanding various engineering processes, which she says is necessary no matter what field she ends up in.
“I designed this machine, but the result is nothing like what I designed,” she said. “I think that’s going to happen across the board in engineering, so I think understanding the manufacturing process is key.” In addition to the Robotics Implementation Group, Harper is a member of The Society of Women Engineers and a member of SWE’s student chapter at Wichita State. This summer, she is interning full-time at Spirit AeroSystems in a quality engineering position. She’s also working with her Robotics Implementation Group to start a summer outreach program to get kids interested in robotics and manufacturing. ME
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | July 2014
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