Some 50 MIE Alumni, Students, Faculty, and Staff Gather at Pratt & Whitney
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On October 25th, Raquel Rivera, a 1992 alumna of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department and the senior vice president of Operations and Supply Chain at Pratt & Whitney, hosted approximately 50 MIE alumni, students, faculty, and staff at the company’s facility in Middletown, Connecticut. As Rivera explained about the event, “We welcomed students, alumni, and faculty to our Middletown site to share our business and products and walk the assembly floor, as well as to learn more about all the great projects the current UMass students are working on.” See UMass MIE Fall 2023 Alumni Event - Photos.
The celebratory event featured a meeting of the College of Engineering (CoE) Industry Advisory Board, lunch, a facility tour of Pratt & Whitney, a poster session presented by current MIE students, and a networking get-together at the end of the day.
According to MIE Department Head Sundar Krishnamurty, “Our MIE department had a memorable alumni event at the Pratt & Whitney Middletown Engine Center. It was a pleasure to meet our alums, hear about their support for our department and our students, and talk with them about the exciting things that are going on in the department.”
Krishnamurty also said that “I very much enjoyed hearing about their college days with us, and I had a great time learning about their fascinating and fruitful professional journeys since graduation. My heartfelt gratitude to alum and board member, Raquel Rivera, and her team at Pratt & Whitney for hosting our event. I would also like to extend a special thanks to our Industry Advisory Board, faculty, and students, whose enthusiastic participation made the event that much more unforgettable.”
Rivera confirmed Krishnamurty’s viewpoint of the event. As she said, “I am proud to be a UMass Amherst alum, and I’m grateful that I have been able to be more involved as a part of the College of Engineering Industry Advisory Board with Sundar Krishnamurty.”
One of the current co-chairs of the CoE Advisory Board, Paul Washburn ('81 B.S., '84 M.B.A.), the Principal of Paul Washburn Consulting, spoke to alums regarding the various opportunities available to become engaged with the MIE department.
After the event, Washburn said, “I wanted to convey to the alums that there are so many ways to get involved, including participating in events like this, hiring recent grads, sponsoring student clubs, projects, internships, etc., and giving to the department. During my presentation, I looked out into the crowd and looking back at me was a classmate I had in several of my industrial-engineering classes so many years ago. What a surprise! It made the whole event for me.”
Washburn added that “You really can make a surprise connection at something like this. And, as an engineer who has spent years in design and manufacturing environments, seeing the world-class, jet-engine production line at Pratt & Whitney was of particular professional interest. What a great event!” (January 2024)