46 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

Industrial engineering undergrad gets

bird’s-eye view of aerospace industry

By Madeleine Pollack

Like most kids, I grew up with a fascination for

space. I remember the ﬁrst time my dad aimed our

telescope at the sky, pointing out Saturn’s rings and

a crescent-shaped Venus. I wondered how Galileo

must have felt to behold the same sight, centuries

ago. We would go on different adventures, the pin-

nacle of which was seeing the 2017 total solar eclipse about

an hour away from our hometown near Charlotte, North

Carolina.

While these adventures were fun, I never expected space

to be more of a hobby. I matriculated into Georgia Tech

in fall 2019 as an industrial and systems engineering major,

thinking my space-gazing days were behind me.

In fall 2020, I heard of a unique opportunity – the Brooke

Owens Fellowship, a professional program for exceptional

women and gender minorities interested in pursuing a ca-

reer in the aerospace industry. The fellowship was created

in honor of Dawn Brooke Owens, a pilot and space industry

expert who made a lasting impact on both public and private

sector space initiatives as an advocate for underrepresented

groups in aerospace.

Selection as a fellow includes receiving a dedicated peer

mentor and professional mentor, a paid summer internship at

a “host” aerospace company and an all-expenses-paid ﬁve-

day summit with other fellows, traditionally held in Wash-

ington. The host companies span all aspects of the space

industry, including ﬁnance, education, consulting and engi-

neering, and range from well-known giants such as NASA,

ISE undergrads learn the ropes

Internships help students settle on their career paths

March 2022 | ISE Magazine 47

SpaceX and Blue Origin

to smaller companies and

startups.

I initially wrote myself

off as being completely

underqualiﬁed, as my

educational background

in industrial engineering

did not seem to tie directly

into aerospace. However,

after meeting a few of the

2020 fellows whose back-

grounds spanned more

than just aerospace engi-

neering, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. My appli-

cation cycle required two letters of recommendation, two

written pieces (a short essay, a long essay), a creative piece

of work, a resume and my academic transcript. The goal of

the application process, I would later ﬁnd out, is not just to

identify the most academically gifted individuals but those

who have exhibited grit and growth in extraordinary ways.

A month or so after submitting my initial application, I

got an email that informed me that I was a Brooke Owens

Fellowship semiﬁnalist, which meant I was in the top 15% of

applicants. I then had a 15-minute phone interview with one

of the executive members to talk a bit more in-depth about

my experiences and preferred work environments. After a

few more weeks, I was told I made it to the ﬁnalist round in

the top 10% of applicants.

At this point, the selection process was in the hands of the

host companies. I was given four companies with whom to

interview, primarily in venture capital or aerospace consult-

ing spaces. After each interview, the company and the ﬁnalist

rate each other anonymously; if there is a ﬁt, the company

selects the individual for a paid internship and three paid days

off for the Fellowship Summit in July. About half of the ﬁ-

nalists are eventually accepted as fellows.

In December 2020, I received news that out of more than

800 applicants, I was one of 44 fellows, also called “Brook-

ies,” for the class of 2021. My host company was Space Capi-

tal, an early-stage venture capital ﬁrm investing in space-

enabled technologies. Beyond securing a summer internship,

a stressful task for any undergraduate, I gained an incredible

community of Brookie alumnae, executive board members,

professional mentors and academic mentors. Because my ex-

posure to aerospace had been limited , the Brookie com-

munity was crucial to getting me interested and involved

in the industry. After receiving the fellowship, alumnae and

executive board members brought the new class of Brook-

ies into panel discussions, graduate school boot camps and

company info sessions.

The largest part of the fellowship experience is the sum-

mer internship. Space Capital was eye-opening to me be-

cause it invests in parts of the space economy nobody talks

about. While most people think of rockets and astronauts,

Space Capital speciﬁcally looks at “space-enabled technolo-

gies.” Some examples are geolocation, climate tracking,

communications and autonomous vehicles, some of which

we interact with daily. In a general sense, they invested in

technologies that use satellite data to make our lives better.

My role at the company was somewhat broad and I was

able to experience different aspects of the business. Some

projects included independent deal-sourcing, creating a

three-part article series on the state of the space-enabled in-

surance technology market and creating a research-backed

guide to founders on how to approach the hiring process as

a young startup. Beyond those personal projects, I had the

opportunity to attend deal ﬂow meetings and founder intros,

which offered a deeper insight into the world of startups and

how venture capital allows for the incredible innovation I

was witnessing.

While there was not a lot of overlap between my industrial

engineering studies and internship at Space Capital, it was

perhaps one of the best introductions to the space industry

I could have received. We looked at companies whose mis-

sions spanned from data science to autonomous vehicles, ro-

bots to on-orbit manufacturing and new insurance models

for rocket ride-share. I became aware that the space industry

requires more skill sets than those of astronomers and aero-

space engineers. We need businesspeople and policymakers.

We need lawyers, agricultural experts, computer scientists

and mechanics. I feel pretty conﬁdent the space industry

needs industrial engineers, too.

The vastness of space presents us with seemingly endless

opportunity but also with new and extensive logistical chal-

lenges. While humans have had a presence in space since

the mid-20th century, the last decade has seen exponential

growth in the private space industry, and with it new chal-

The space industry has been slow to attract

new and diverse talent, which has deeply

stunted its growth potential. We need

greater representation of “unconventional”

ﬁelds in aerospace like industrial

engineering, and to be conscientiously

inviting underrepresented communities to

help us in this monumental effort.

Madeleine Pollack

48 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

ISE undergrads learn the ropes

lenges are uncovered. As far as I know, one-day shipping

does not apply to space operations, and if we are hoping to

build longer-term settlements in space or support space tour-

ism, we need to ﬁnd safer, more energy-efﬁcient mecha-

nisms to get necessary supplies and people to their destina-

tions in a timely manner.

Beyond the fantastical ideas of space tourism and human

villages on Mars, we need experts to address the crowding

of lower earth orbit (LEO), which is packed with debris. On

the manufacturing front, we see ideas circulating about on-

orbit manufacturing and metal-mining operations on aster-

oids or other planets. Industrial engineers are well-equipped

to optimize and analyze these complex systems to get us to

space faster, safer, more efﬁciently and more sustainably.

I believe the space industry has been slow to attract new

and diverse talent, which has deeply stunted its growth po-

tential. We need greater representation of “unconventional”

ﬁelds in aerospace like industrial engineering, and to be con-

scientiously inviting underrepresented communities to help

us in this monumental effort. We have nothing to gain and

everything to lose when we miss out on incorporating the

invaluable experiences and perspectives of different groups

of people. That’s why so many initiatives exist to get under-

represented groups access to the mentorship they need to be

part of this revolution.

The Brooke Owens Fellowship, as well as sister fellowships

the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship and the Patti Grace Smith

Fellowship, exist to help bring these new ideas to the table. My

experience has changed the trajectory of my academic career.

It is my hope to see more industrial engineers represented in

these fellowship classes in the future. As Brooke Owens ex-

ecutive member Diana Trujillo told me in an interview, space

is a multidimensional problem. While we have brilliant people

currently working on tackling these problems, we need more.

And then we will need more than that.

After my fellowship summer, I joined Atlanta-based aero-

space startup Hermeus as an intern as part of its mission to

build the world’s ﬁrst hypersonic commercial aircraft. I’m

the company’s ﬁrst industrial engineering intern and the ﬁrst

person with an industrial engineering background to ever

work there. But if I learned anything from my Brookie sum-

mer, my background, even if currently unconventional, is

needed. Every fellow space nerd, regardless of background,

is needed in this ﬁeld.

Diversity is power when it comes to these multidimensional

problems and I am excited to see how we tackle them. 

Madeleine Pollack is a junior industrial and systems engineering

student at Georgia Tech concentrating in Advanced Operations Re-

search and Statistics. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in operations

research after her graduation in December 2022. She is an IISE

student member.

Walmart internship provides

hands-on supply chain experience

By Annie Dorsey

I have always loved Walmart. My family has shopped

almost exclusively at Sam’s Club and Walmart for our

family of seven. It took me ages to understand that Sam’s

and Walmart were both founded by the same man, Sam

Walton.

As I matured, I learned more and more about the

Walton family and my respect for them grew. One reason is

that when The Walton Foundation was founded, the family

set up board meetings not just with the adults in the fam-

ily but also brought in their young children to learn busi-

ness principles at their conference tables. I can’t imagine how

valuable it was for middle and high school age Walton chil-

dren to learn these principles, which also bred better leaders

for the foundation.

In college, I was chatting with someone about Walmart

and explained all the reasons I admired the company. I

summed up my thinking in the phrase: Walmart is the great

equalizer. What I mean by that is literally every kind of per-

son shops at Walmart. Walking through the aisles, you’ll ﬁnd

both young and old, rich and poor and people of all nation-

alities and races. There is no “typical Walmart shopper.”

Considering my admiration for Walmart, when I saw its

booths at the career fair, I had to stop by. At Auburn, both the

College of Engineering and the Supply Chain Career Fairs

included Walmart teams. After chatting with the recruiters,

we agreed to keep in touch. Here’s the catch – we actually

did! My hiring manager and I had a cadence of shooting a few

emails back and forth each semester. When it came time to

interview, I felt I had a relationship with my hiring manager

and was thrilled to receive an offer for a summer internship.

By the time I began with Walmart in June 2021, I was

embarking on my third fully remote internship. I felt I was

ﬁnally getting a handle on how to onboard and work ef-

fectively without ever having met my team. I knew the

importance of setting up

coffee chats with cross-

functional teams and was

encouraged to do so by

my manager.

I was put on an efﬁcient

and effective startup team

within the Transporta-

tion Department. With

Walmart being a Fortune

1 company, we joked that

we were the best funded

startup ever. My team was

super agile and growing

Annie Dorsey

March 2022 | ISE Magazine 49

like crazy. For reference, we planned to increase by nine

times, adding more than 50 new full-time employees just

to our team.

I was tasked with modeling the transportation problem for

all intermodal (rail) business. Speciﬁcally that meant model-

ing out the peak season to choose which routes Walmart

should take and which carriers should take other routes. Af-

ter using the transportation problem model, my team cre-

ated the business case for how many additional containers we

would need to execute the optimal transportation problem

formulation. We compared peak needs with needs the rest of

the year. We then plugged the costs and container constraints

back into the transportation problem model to solve exactly

which routes we should run internally and which we should

outsource. The recommendation was no small ask; we pro-

posed increasing our ﬂeet by 240%. However, in increasing

the ﬂeet by this amount, Walmart realized a $21.7 million

savings.

In addition to an awesome project and the support of

an incredible team, the summer had a great surprise. The

transportation leadership invited all interns and new hires

on a trip to Southern California to see Walmart’s operations

there. I spent a week soaking up all of the transportation

information I could possibly absorb. It was akin to drinking

from a ﬁre hose. For all of the technical training I received

in my engineering degree, we only had a few classes that

covered broader supply chain and transportation topics. I

was very thankful to have knowledgeable and patient leaders

willing to answer all of my questions.

As we went from sortable to nonsortable, to high velocity

to grocery distribution centers and even fulﬁllment centers, I

got a great view of every type of distribution center. We also

got to visit cross docks, rail yards and the Port of Los Angeles

and Long Beach. The port visits were my personal favorite

because like any industrial engineer, I was pretty certain I

could help clear out the 60-plus ships waiting to dock at the

ports. I was quickly humbled. It was fascinating to problem-

solve and think through all of the solutions they have em-

ployed to try to alleviate the congestion there.

The transportation leadership invited

all interns and new hires on a trip to

Southern California to see Walmart’s

operations there. I spent a week soaking

up all of the transportation information

I could possibly absorb. It was akin to

drinking from a ﬁre hose.

Annie Dorsey, a 2021 Auburn University industrial engineering graduate, poses before a Walmart truck. Dorsey served an

internship with the retail giant where she began a fulltime job after graduation.

50 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

ISE undergrads learn the ropes

We took a boat out through the port and got to see loading

and unloading of containers. We even had our ocean team

on the boat as we moved through the ships and they were

able to recite what products were on which ships and how

long we had been waiting for the ship to dock.

This summer was such a great learning experience. My

manager pushed me to solve hard problems and my team and

the cross-functional teams supported the success of the proj-

ect. I think my director put it best when he said that 30% of

your time here should be spent actually achieving your proj-

ect, 30% will be learning, seminars and courses, etc., 30%

should be networking and the ﬁnal 10% should be fun! 

Annie Dorsey is an industrial engineering graduate from Auburn

University, where she was an IISE student member and served as

student chapter president. She now works fulltime with Walmart.

Learning the basics of ﬁnance

and teamwork at Citi Colombia

By Ana Sofía Cavallo

I’m an industrial engineering student at Universidad de

La Sabana in Colombia ﬁnishing my last semester. I’m

interested in most ﬁelds of my major, so when I was look-

ing for an internship, I was ﬂexible and focused on how

much I could learn more than a speciﬁc industry or sub-

ject matter.

My university has a career fair where companies visit and

tell us about the different internships they offer. Citi was one

of the companies attending, and they presented four types of

internship opportunities, one in operations. I was initially

drawn to the fact that Citi doesn’t just provide internships as

standalone offers but as part of a program that includes train-

ing and networking events with other interns. I perceived that

it was a great learning opportunity.

During the recruitment process, the interview with two

potential managers was a big factor in accepting the intern-

ship. I was able to ask questions about the nature of the role,

including what the day-to-day looked like and what was ex-

pected of me. I was told the position required involvement in

different projects so most days would be different and there

would be variability during the six-month period.

The department I interned for oversees operations and tech-

nology for Citi Colombia, identifying improvement oppor-

tunities and promoting and facilitating their implementation.

Because of this, I saw my role as very project-focused, which

allowed me to participate in several initiatives and learn from

different areas of the bank.

I was responsible for actively participating in innovative

projects that increase efﬁciency in operations and technology

processes and/or improve the control environment. Addition-

ally, I produced metrics to simplify monitoring different areas

in operations and technology and suggested improvements.

I was involved in a 10-week training program with opera-

tions interns from Colombia as well as the U.S. and Mexico.

It was very well-rounded because it touched on many topics,

March 2022 | ISE Magazine 51

including Citi’s culture,

global ﬁnancial markets

and useful technologi-

cal tools. Additionally, we

had presentations designed

to help us understand our

individual roles and de-

partments. We also had

networking sessions with

other interns and presen-

tations from senior em-

ployees to introduce us to

the different career paths

available at the bank and allow us to learn from other people’s

experiences. We also were granted access to several Citi plat-

forms that included courses and articles about many topics to

explore on our time, depending on our interests. These were

available during the six months of the internship.

Because of the pandemic, my internship was 100% remote.

In my ﬁrst weeks at Citi, I felt a little overwhelmed because

of all the new information I received. Organizing it was chal-

lenging as well as learning to ask the right questions when

something needed further explanation. Thankfully, everyone

at Citi was extremely patient and welcoming, and I was ori-

ented toward the answers I needed. My team was especially

helpful and took time to explain how the bank works and

what was expected of our area.

Managers from other areas also met with me to explain how

their departments contributed to Citi, allowing me to under-

stand how different teams work together. Regardless of rank, I

always felt people were eager to help me, and when they didn’t

know the answer to a question, they guided me to other paths

and resources I could try. Overall, I got a feeling that helping

others is part of Citi culture, which is great when you’re new

and have so much to learn.

From the moment I stepped foot (virtually) at Citi, I haven’t

stopped learning. One of the biggest areas I’ve strengthened

during my internship is my knowledge of the ﬁnancial indus-

try. Before my internship, I had a basic understanding lim-

ited to what I learned in university and read online. Working

at Citi expanded my awareness of ﬁnancial products offered

by banks, their roles in the market and the different actors in

the ﬁnancial system. I also learned about different innovation

tools that help collaborative brainstorming and guide sessions

to align those from different areas of the bank toward a com-

mon goal.

In terms of soft skills, I worked on time management and

resourcefulness. In an academic setting, all tasks have due

dates, whether they are a day, a week or a semester away. Con-

sidering that my role was very project-driven during my in-

ternship, I was sometimes given tasks to be completed without

a speciﬁc deadline. Learning to use my time wisely and clas-

sify deliverables according to their urgency and importance

without ignoring any activities is challenging, but it was ulti-

mately one of the skills I learned most.

A challenge I faced, and continue to face, is ﬁnding answers.

Sometimes the path to an answer isn’t as clear as I hoped so I

have to round up the resources that are available and ﬁnd a

way to use them. At the beginning, this was especially hard

because I wasn’t aware of all the resources I had while I was

getting settled in my internship. But by now, I’ve been able

to ﬁnd a group of tools to choose from when I need help or

have questions. In other words, choosing resources wisely to

ﬁnd answers can be challenging, but it is something I’ve been

able to practice.

The main ISE skill I’ve applied is problem-solving. In the

different classes I took for my major, I was given many tools

to solve various types of problems. The biggest takeaway from

all of that information was developing a structure to ﬁnd so-

lutions to problems that don’t always have a clear answer or

path. Communication is also key and goes hand-in-hand with

problem-solving because many of the challenges faced can be

solved with the help of the right people by asking the right

questions. Teamwork, from my experience, is crucial at Citi.

When I was looking for an internship, I was very ﬂexible

with its terms. All I knew was that I wanted an opportuni-

ty to learn as much as possible. In my time at Citi, I learned

something new every day, constantly felt challenged and was

pushed out of my comfort zone. I felt that the effort I put into

my work was valuable to the bank. I recommend this intern-

ship to any curious students ready to expand their knowledge

by taking what they’ve learned in class and applying it to a

challenging yet rewarding environment. 

Ana Sofía Cavallo is an industrial engineering student at Universidad

de La Sabana in Chia, Colombia. She is an IISE student member.

Considering that my role was very

project-driven during my internship, I was

sometimes given tasks to be completed

without a speciﬁc deadline. Learning

to use my time wisely and classify

deliverables according to their urgency and

importance without ignoring any activities

is challenging, but it was ultimately one of

the skills I learned most.

Ana Sofía Cavallo