Encouraging more women and girls to pursue studies and careers in STEM is one of Tyrrell’s passions. Tyrrell was featured in an article published on NASA’s website which highlighted some of NASA’s Langley interns as part of Women’s History Month. She said the knowledge and skills she’s developed through her courses in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, CAD and Matlab have been useful throughout her internship experience. Through her internship she has also contributed to the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program by providing visualization of imaging systems that will go to the Moon in 20 as part of a payload called SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies). The internship is with Langley’s Advanced Measurement and Data Systems branch, and much of her work focuses on experimental visualization and simulation of research taking place in Langley’s wind tunnels, some of which can reach speeds of Mach 10 (10 times the speed of sound). Though the internship is through NASA’s Langley Research Center (located just north of Norfolk, Va.), Tyrrell has worked remotely from her university apartment in Ames. The internship started in January and will conclude in August. Michael has introduced me to a lot of opportunities for research in the future,” said Tyrrell, adding that she thinks the research experience helped her to land her current internship with NASA. By giving me the opportunity to work collaboratively and independently on a research topic, Dr. “The exposure to research at a graduate level and the strengthening of my technical reading, writing, diagnostics and data processing skills has been extremely beneficial. Tyrrell took ME 332: Engineering Thermodynamics II with Michael, and said she’s applied material from that course and others in her research. She considers music to be a stress reliever and a nice break from the rigors of the ME curriculum.Īs a junior, she got involved with research and joined the Multiphase Reacting Flow Lab, working under the guidance of James Michael, assistant professor of ME. She’s played alto saxophone in Iowa State’s jazz ensembles since she arrived on campus.
Music is also an important part of Tyrrell’s life. As a sophomore, she served as a learning community peer mentor for Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE).
She has been part of the Biomedical Engineering Society for the past three years and currently serves as the club’s vice president. Tyrrell further developed her diverse interests through participation in a handful of engineering activities on-campus. “It seemed like ME would cater more to my diverse interests and I felt more secure knowing that I could go into nearly any sort of technical industry with that degree.” Tyrrell stand and plays a solo on her saxophone during a jazz concern in November 2018. “I ultimately chose ME because I was interested in potentially working in the healthcare field on medical devices,” said Tyrrell. She said she was also attracted to the campus and its “big university feel.” Though she came in undeclared in engineering, she soon found her niche in mechanical engineering (ME). She picked Iowa State University because of its strong reputation for engineering as well as the scholarship support she was awarded. Though she always had an interest in science as a child, it was a visit to Argonne National Lab for Women in Science Day led by her high school physics teacher that sparked her interest to pursue engineering in college. As someone who benefited greatly from the encouragement she received to pursue studies in STEM, mechanical engineering senior Olivia Tyrrell wants other girls and women to also be inspired to go into STEM.
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