Student Awards- Spring 2022

Eleven-year-old Sierra spent her free time sketching up diagrams of all the contraptions she would someday invent, dreaming of being best friends with Lemony Snicket’s fictional inventor-extraordinaire, Violet Baudelaire. While my parents were always supportive of my creative endeavors, there were very limited STEM opportunities available to me as a young girl in rural Idaho.

In 2014, I was crowned Miss Idaho and wore my insulin pump on the Miss America stage. After going viral for breaking beauty standards, I published my memoir, “Sugar Linings” and gave over 100 motivational speeches in 30+ states across the country.

Boise State has since shaped my entire life and identity, part of which is top secret. The highlight of my college experience has been hiding my alias: I have spent the past few years crawling into a sweaty horse costume several times a week in order to have the honor of being Bronco Nation’s best friend: Buster Bronco. It has been thrilling and humorous how my time as the mischievous, big-horse-on-campus has contrasted with my public persona as the Elle-Woods-of-Engineering, who can often be found wearing pink from head-to-toe while CNC-milling in the Engineering Innovation Studio.

Merging my jokester, fun side with my love of pink and engineering led me to launch my toy company, 3D Printcess. I am now running fifteen 3D printers full-time. In my first year, I have had over six figures in gross sales, and am on track to expand to fifty 3D printers and hire my first employee by the end of 2022.

I owe so much to Boise State for creating the learning environment that has gotten me to a place where I will be able to pursue a successful, rewarding career that I deeply enjoy.

Long before I knew I would be graduating from Boise State, I worked on cars in the garage with my dad. It was here that I fell in love with Jeeps and developed a passion for the off-road industry and community. This passion led to a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a career in the aftermarket off-road industry. Boise State provided me the opportunities and resources to reach my goals. I have gotten there by excelling in internships and networking at automotive conventions. My first internship was in the Gear Lab at Dana Incorporated, where I developed a solution to fixturing parts to be measured. During my second internship with 4 Wheel Parts, I designed and fabricated a cargo solution for Ford F150 trucks. My current internship at Smokeguard Inc. has me developing a prototype for a vision panel in fire rated curtains.

As a scholarship recipient, I attended the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) conventions in 2019 and 2021. During this most recent visit, I was chosen as a top student and offered an exclusive chance to be a part of the Truck and Off-Road Alliance and meet leaders in the off-road industry.

At Boise State, I was named the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers’ Top Junior Mechanical Engineering Student in 2021. I have also been the president of the STEM sorority Phi Sigma Rho for three semesters. I have promoted an inclusive and welcoming environment for women in STEM while also providing a social outlet. As president, I planned multiple retreats, attended virtual national conferences, and hosted the chapter’s first Orchid Ball. I want to continue promoting the inclusion of women in engineering, especially the automotive field.

In addition to this, I have been involved in the Honors College, SAE Baja Club, Tau Beta Pi Honor Society, the Engineering and Innovation Residential Community, Intervarsity, and the Boxing Club. I worked to help my fellow students by being a Student Athlete Tutor and a Peer Educator for Machine Design I.

I am going to complete my goal of working in the off-road industry by starting a position in the Development Program at 4 Wheel Parts in San Diego, CA. The program rotates through the Quality, Manufacturing and Engineering departments and focuses on the production of aftermarket parts for trucks and Jeeps.

Being the first member of my family to attend university, I had no guidance in my academic pursuits, resulting in transferring several times in search of an opportunity that sparked my interest. It wasn’t until I did an exchange to Boise State that I finally discovered a sense of purpose in my education. Transferring to BSU in 2020, I connected with engineering professionals that inspired me to pursue a variety of opportunities and give back to my campus community.

I originally came to BSU for the biomedical engineering program, as the idea of combining technology and biology to improve human life interested me. In pursuit of this, I accepted a research assistantship in the Northwest Tissue Mechanics laboratory (NTM), where I assisted doctoral students in developing a 3D imaging method to quantify cartilage degeneration. Assisting in the lab eventually resulted in my own research project, where I published and presented an abstract on the kinematic alignment of cadaveric knees at the BSU Undergraduate Research Showcase and as a finalist in an undergraduate research competition at a national conference (SB3c). Not only did working in the lab help me establish an academic path, but the relationships I formed with my coworkers provided me with valuable mentorship and the confidence to pursue other opportunities within mechanical engineering.

As I discovered a passion for mechanical design through my lab projects, I decided to further my technical skills by pursuing other engineering opportunities on campus. I joined the Autonomous Robotics Systems VIP, earned my shop tags to work in the Engineering Innovation Studio, designed and manufactured a Furuta pendulum for my capstone project, and received a supplemental research internship where I am designing and fabricating a pin-on-disk test fixture to measure wear in cartilage tissue.

After graduation, I will pursue professional career developments in mechanical design before returning to academia to earn a Master’s or doctorate in mechanical engineering. With a graduate degree, I hope to teach engineering at the university level and inspire the next generation of engineers to pursue their passions, as I know how valuable mentorship and community is when discovering the right academic path.

“It is pretty well known that there are statistically more male engineers than women. Why is this? In 2017, it was recorded that only 20.6% of undergraduate engineering degrees were awarded to women. I wanted to figure out why this is and what stops young girls from pursuing an engineering degree through surveys and online research.”

Thus begins a study that Richelle published in 2020 as she sought to help encourage and increase the number of women in the engineering field. Her curiosity and dedication to engineering has driven her to seek learning opportunities throughout her time at Boise State, and she’s dedicated to helping others do the same.

Richelle joined the TRIO Rising Scholars program in 2019 as a tutor for first generation, low income, and disabled students pursuing a college education. This was followed by two years in the Advising and Academic Support office as a learning assistant in courses such as Differential Equations. She has also supported engineering faculty in such classes as Machine Design.

Richelle has been active in her time at Boise State, from intermural soccer to the Mechanical Engineering Club to leadership in the Society of Women Engineers. As a student intern with the Bonneville Power Administration, she has worked with project engineers on diagrams and templates for transmission lines and learned the fundamentals of electrical power and transmission operations. She’ll be leaving Boise State with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a minor in Applied Mathematics, and a Certificate in Mechanical Engineering Design. She also achieved her Engineer-in-Training certification this year.