Regalbuto honored as Outstanding Young Alumna

4/12/2019 Stef Anderson

Written by Stef Anderson

Carol Regalbuto
Carol Regalbuto
Carol Regalbuto received a 2019 MechSE Outstanding Young Alumni Award at the department’s spring awards banquet at the end of March.

Regalbuto graduated from Illinois with her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2011. During her time in MechSE, she was heavily involved in ASME and held various leadership roles during her four years in the organization, including president her senior year. Her involvement with the organization helped her discover that she enjoys the social aspect of engineering and how much she likes to work in and across project teams.

Regalbuto went on to earn her master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford in 2013, and started in the ME PhD program at Stanford, but realized she was not content working in academic research. At the suggestion of her advisor, she decided to try working in industry and interned at Tesla during the summer of 2015. She found that industry was a much better fit for her and accepted a full-time position as a Battery Safety Engineer with Tesla that fall.

After working at Tesla for three years, Regalbuto transitioned to the position of Battery Engineer at Sila Nanotechnologies to dive further into the chemistry of batteries. Sila Nanotechnology is a battery materials producer in Alameda, California, that focuses on developing high-energy density materials that can be used in existing battery manufacturing processes. In this role, Regalbuto works on product development of new battery materials.

Regalbuto acts as an advocate for underrepresented groups in STEM and works part-time at Awaken, a company focused on developing inclusive leaders and teams by increasing awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion through interactive workshops. She strives to incorporate her enthusiasm for diversity and inclusion into the corporate workplace and hopes to integrate this even further into her engineering career.

Regalbuto said she is honored and humbled to be receiving recognition from MechSE.

“It’s quite meaningful to me, and it has allowed me to reflect and realize that I have accomplished a lot in life so far.”


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This story was published April 12, 2019.