1/27/2023 Lexi Larson 4 min read
Written by Lexi Larson
Two-time MechSE alumnus Abby Pakeltis never questioned whether the University of Illinois was right for her. After attending the GAMES summer camp in high school, where Pakeltis had the opportunity to explore engineering as a major, she was hooked.
She completed her bachelor’s degree in 2019 and her master of engineering in mechanical engineering (M.Eng.ME) in 2022. During undergrad, Pakeltis was heavily involved with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). From being a committee chair all the way to president, Pakeltis said SWE is a great community where she met many friends and built incredible relationships within the community. SWE also has provided opportunities to gain technical experience from which Pakeltis benefitted, specifically Team Tech, a woman-run team within SWE that solves a new problem for a company sponsor every year.
Today, she remains involved through GradSWE as the Professional Grad Team lead. In this position, Pakeltis aims to connect professionals pursuing online graduate degrees with GradSWE sections at other universities as well as connect them to resources to support them while they are in school and working full-time.
“As a part-time graduate student working full-time, it is not always easy to find others in grad school to relate to, so joining the GradSWE community was a very exciting prospect for me,” she said.
As an undergrad, Pakeltis learned a lot from her design courses, which heavily improved her design thinking skills. However, it was the courses she took during her M.Eng. program that truly shifted her thinking as an engineer. The “Technology Innovation Strategy” course taught concepts such as sustaining vs. disruptive technology, definitions of success for large vs. small companies, and takeoffs for different approaches to introducing new technology. The course left Pakeltis thinking about engineering differently—she felt she had a “more well-rounded view than just the engineering viewpoint.”
“As a systems engineer at John Deere, this has really helped me think about future systems in a new way,” she said.
During her sophomore year, while serving as a director for the Team Tech committee, Pakeltis worked on a project for John Deere—the success of which led to securing an internship as a design engineer. Pakeltis was given authentic, challenging problems, which sparked her excitement for the company. Overall, she has really enjoyed her work within technology development, and she loves coming up with creative solutions as a design engineer. John Deere engineers have the opportunity to get involved with various facets of the project (e.g., idea creation, testing, and iterating), which Pakeltis said has kept her work very interesting.
“As I have gotten started in my career, I have learned that I love engineering for the creative problem solving,” Pakeltis said. “I see myself continuing to develop into a stronger engineer who is capable of approaching more complex problems. [And] as someone with a passion for design, I see myself as a designer forever, and I hope I am able to explore the many different worlds of design.”
Outside of her design experiences from Illinois, her creativity fuels much of her success at John Deere. A lover of live music, particularly musicals, Pakeltis maintains that “you can find inspiration to a future problem anywhere.” She also enjoys other hobbies such as upcycling and embroidering and is passionate about continuing her education beyond the M.Eng. program.
“I find myself with a list of new classes or certificates I want to pursue online,” Pakeltis said. “I think continuing to learn and expand my skills will always be a part of my future.”