64 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

How did you get started in industrial and systems engineering?

My older brother and my uncle actually are both ISEs. I also am more STEM-

minded than anything, so majoring in ISE really just made sense. I love

making things more ecient. I love streamlining processes and just going

through life with how can I make things beer.

When did you ﬁrst learn about the cheese rolling contest?

I’ve seen videos on YouTube and I always thought it was a really intriguing

competition because, I mean, who rolls down a really steep hill aer cheese?

In 2020 before COVID, I was actually studying abroad in England and I

wanted to partake in this, but we got sent home right before and I don’t think

they had a competition that year. So when I remembered the event this year

(2022) in March, I looked it up and it happened to be when I was going to

be doing my postgraduation trip touring Europe. I kind of planned my trip

around it and made sure to do it.

And this isn’t the ﬁrst crazy event you’ve done, either?

I’m a very competitive person. I do love interesting competitions. I’ve

participated in the Krispy Kreme Challenge, which is an N.C. State tradition.

It’s where you run 2.5 miles to the local Krispy Kreme in Raleigh, you eat 12

doughnuts and then you run back, and the object is to do it under an hour. I’ve

done it twice and I still can’t get it under an hour. It’s really fun because people

dress up in costumes when they run.

Tell how you prepared for the competition

I actually practiced on a hill near campus called Dorothea Dix, a local park

in Raleigh. So I was with my boss and we were just walking around and I saw

these hills. It was about a week or two before I was taking o for my Europe

trip and I told her, “Maybe now’s the time to practice.” So we went and we

rolled, and she actually videoed it. It was not a very steep hill so it didn’t really

take too much time. It was just not exciting in the sense of the Cooper’s Hill

cheese rolling in comparison. So it was good exposure rolling, but it denitely

did not help in the general scheme of things.

What did you think when you saw the actual hill?

Wow, so this hill is really, really steep. It’s probably a black diamond, if you’re

thinking skiing. It’s one of the steepest hills in England so it was a bit terrify-

ing, I’m not gonna lie. It is a very intimidating hill and it has a lot of potholes,

too. It has uneven footing and rocky surfaces.

How did you strategize before the race?

My friend and I got there around 10. e weather has been raining for a few

days – not a surprise, it’s England. We get to the top of the hill and it’s very

misty. You can’t really see the boom and there’s a lot of people.

As an ISE, our main goal is the most ecient way to do things to save time,

and in competition, that’s really important. And not only the fastest way, but

also how do I also not get injured? So watching two races beforehand, I re-

corded them. I had some time between those two races to look over the lm

essentially to see, where did the people who won start and how did they com-

pete and how did they win? I think I applied some ISE mindset skills, not

necessarily like strictly ISE but the problem-solving skills we learn in school.

Really, how do we look at this from dierent points of view?

With Abby Lampe

Abby Lampe earned her bachelor’s degree in

industrial engineering in spring 2022 from North

Carolina State University. That summer, she applied

her industrial and systems engineering skills in a

unique way by winning the women’s division of the

Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake event June

5 near Gloucester, England. The event – chronicled

in written records as far back as 1826 and possibly

up to 600 years old – involves participants tumbling

down a steep, 200-yard hill in pursuit of an 8-pound

wheel of Gloucester’s ﬁnest cheese. Lampe, 21, a

native of Smithﬁeld, North Carolina, has deep ties

to engineering at N.C. State; her great-grandfather,

J. Harold Lampe, was dean of the School of

Engineering from 1945-1962, the longest serving

dean in school history. After claiming her pungent

prize, she took part in numerous media interviews

while touring Europe over the summer and recently

began her postgraduate career as a technology

consultant in the cloud and digital ﬁeld. And, yes,

she ate the cheese. She shared her adventures in a

recent episode of Problem Solved: The IISE Podcast

at link.iise.org/podcast_s4e5.

What’s

Your

Story?

January 2023 | ISE Magazine 65

So my strategies were: One, do I start sprinting right o

the bat and then just go with everyone else and see where that

goes? Two, do I wait, kind of shue and then sprint later when

they’re falling down? Or three, since it’s a very steep hill, do I

just launch myself from the top of the hill? I called my mom and

dad right before the race that morning and they said, “Abby,

whatever you do, do not do No. 3, you’re gonna injure yourself.”

I went with the sprinting o the bat and I kept rolling. I think

the momentum of the roll made it so that I won because there

was a woman who was behind me but she didn’t catch up be-

cause of my momentum.

When did you realize you had won?

I was really dizzy at the end. I got up, I said, “Did I win?” And

the lady who carried the 8-pound block of cheese came run-

ning to me and said, “You just won the Cooper’s Hill cheese

rolling.” I got it and put it over my head and I was so ecstatic.

It was a great moment, and aer tumbling down that hill and

geing dirt in my teeth, it made up for it.

You’ve done quite a few interviews since winning

Yeah, It’s been so surreal. So many opportunities have opened

up from this that I never even thought would be possible. It’s

been a really fun experience coming back from Europe and just

doing all these lile things here and there.

And how was your prize?

I like the cheese. I don’t know about all my other family and

friends, they would probably disagree, but my grandparents

also like it and they are quite the cheese connoisseurs. I had the

cheese with the (N.C. State) chancellor; we had a big charcute-

rie board. I brought some ham from Spain back, which paired

well with the cheese. Now, if you eat it alone, it’s a bit strong,

very pungent. e chancellor kept saying, “at’s some funky

cheese.”

– Interview by Frank Reddy

Abby Lampe celebrates with her prize, an 8-pound wheel of Gloucester

cheese, after winning the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake event

June 5, 2022.

Photos courtesy of Abby Lampe

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