Talent abundant in new POETS staff

 

When launching the new Power Optimization for Electro-Thermal Systems (POETS), center director and MechSE’s Ralph and Catherine Fisher Professor Andrew Alleyne had the opportunity to assemble his own talented team that works well together. 

 

Alleyne’s group of outstanding individuals include Karen Bender, Sonya Chambers, Jodi Gritten, and Joe Muskin. 

 

POETS, the center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems, is an $18 million NSF Engineering Research Center with the long-term goal of increasing the power density of current mobile electrified systems by 10-100 times over current state-of-the-art systems.  

 

During the hiring process, Alleyne prioritized work ethic and skill over experience.

 

“I’ll bet on talent over experience every time, and that’s done me well,” he said. “The skills and particular techniques can be learned through repetition and talent. It’s like the old adage in sports – you can’t coach speed, but you can coach technique.”

 

Office Manager Jodi Gritten has both talent and experience. She has worked for the College of Engineering, the Illinois Applied Research Institute, and the College of ACES Office of International Programs. Her job is to make sure the multi-university POETS Center runs smoothly. 

 

“One of the great things about Jodi is she makes sure the job gets done,” said Alleyne. “Whether it’s her job or someone else’s is not the question. The question is what needs to be done, period. And it gets done very, very well.”

 

Karen, Director of Industrial Collaboration and Innovation Ecosystem, shares a lot of these same qualities. Alleyne worked with Karen when he was the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and she was in the campus’ Office of Corporate Relations. With a PhD in economics, she collaborates with companies to become members of the center and works with them to ensure they are extracting value from the relationship. 

 

“It takes someone who’s able to talk to a lot of the corporate reps, understand within the company how to address some of the points, understand the key value points that they’re trying to satisfy, and then match and marry those,” Alleyne said. “It’s not something everybody can do. That’s why she was hired—she was the primary choice.”

 

According to Alleyne, Jodi and Karen complement each other very well, and their strong teamwork has been welcome during the challenging process of getting POETS off the ground. 

 

“This year is a learning process because we’re doing things for the first time, and it’s absolutely challenging. But when they approach it with positivity, it’s a nice balance from my slightly more measured approach to things,” Alleyne said. “That’s part of the reason we function really, really well as a team.” 

 

That can-do attitude also carries over to Sonya Chambers, the Associate Director of Operations and Finance. 

 

As a certified financial manager and certified management accountant, and with an MBA under her belt, Sonya worked outside the typical academic system prior to starting her position with POETS. Previously she was with Facilities and Services in a managerial role. Her job entails setting up the center’s operations, and her financial skills have proven invaluable, particularly in purchasing, according to Alleyne. 

 

She has also started the challenging task of creating an information management infrastructure system to record center data and communicate through an on-line portal for financial tracking, annual report writing, corporate recruiting, and other activities across all partner institutions.

 

Alleyne said previous research centers had constructed bespoke aspects of this system but these died when the centers went away. Hopefully, this approach can be modular and reusable to meet the needs of POETS as well as subsequent centers at Illinois. 

 

“It sounds great, but it isn’t easy,” Alleyne said. “There are a lot of pieces to it. Trying to architect something like that is a tall order, but that’s what’s on Sonya’s plate.” 

 

Rounding out the team is Joe Muskin, who works on outreach and education efforts around the university and nationwide. POETS’ outreach will target students in lower grades, with a particular focus on young women. 

 

“He does a lot of the outreach activities, which is central to what we do, and that’s part of our overall education plan that he’s executing,” Alleyne said. 

 

Karen, Sonya, Jodi, and Joe have hit the ground running, but Alleyne still has one position left to fill. 

POETS needs an associate director for education and inclusivity to lead and execute the plan to broaden the participation of underrepresented populations in engineering and their potential impact. This is one of the obligations for the center’s NSF funding. 

 

“One goal of a center like POETS is to develop high-impact science and technology to strengthen our nation,” Alleyne said. “But there is also a crucial aspect of human capital development that broadens participation to capture talent across all demographics. We need both the people and technology to be successful.”