Sandy Awad

I guess, first of all, God, of course, but I think hard work and determination as well. It's not a matter of luck. It's a matter of being consistent and trying even when you don't understand something. And always wanting to learn - I think that's a big thing. My university has a motto that says, I'm always learning, and that's something that I try to carry with me in my career.

I've had a lot of great mentors in my career. A lot of them are men, surprisingly, which is common in engineering, of course. I think some of the good advice that I've gotten is to go with your gut, in some cases. Sometimes you know what's best with your own instincts. And then, I guess one other thing is something I try to carry through, is to make sure that you stick to your level of integrity, so you don't compromise your level of integrity for anyone. Even if, for instance, product needs to be rushed out the door, that doesn't matter. What matters is what you're sending out is accurate and representative of the true part.

I would say be persistent. Something that I've learned in my career is to always ask questions, even when you look dumb, even when you're the only woman in the room. And always go after what you want. I think I had a hundred applications for a job before when I was first in university, and I finally got internships, and I went on from there, but it really took a long time to get to even a few job interviews. So, to be persistent and to always ask questions would be my two main things.

I'd say a big challenge is making sure everything is accurate, so the data that we send out is accurate to our customers. We want to make sure that there's no counterfeit parts that we're sending out, so the powder isn't something different than what we say it is. So a big part is making sure that we have material traceability and following that throughout the entire life cycle, throughout the powder's life cycle in the plant. That's a very big thing for me, making sure that there's integrity in all the work that we do and that it's accurate, and we're not misrepresenting the data in the lab that we're sending out.

A big one for me is integrity. That's something I try to follow through throughout the lab, throughout quality. And then, determination. It's a big one. And having an inquisitive nature.