The skills and techniques learned through the Aerospace Engineering curriculum are highly portable. Hear from alums who decided to take their career on an alternative path. Learn where their AE education overlapped with their new field, what led them to take the leap out of aerospace engineering, and what challenges they had to overcome to be successful in their new line of work.
Alumni panelists include:
Matt Miller (BS 1989) - Director, Product Development at Mattel
Matt graduated with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. He worked on the Space Shuttle program at Rockwell and Boeing for 10 years in Risk Assessment and Program Management. During that time, he obtained an MBA at California State University - Long Beach. In 1999, he started at Mattel as a Product Cost Engineer, then transitioned to Product Development managing the Program Management and Product Engineering teams on various brands such as Hot Wheels, Barbie, Action Figures, Uno, and Mattel Creations (Adult Collector product). His experience in the toy business has allowed him to become knowledgeable in areas such as materials, manufacturing processes, product and package design, finance, marketing, and supply chain, and allowed for extensive travel throughout Asia.
Violet Allmandinger (BS 2019) - Customer Success Consultant at J.D. Power
Violet Allmandinger is a Data and Analytics Consultant at J.D. Power, where her role involves working with the Helix dataset, a pivotal tool that combines vehicle content with sales data for in-depth automotive market insights. Violet previously worked as an Aerodynamics Engineer at Stellantis, focused on Jeep product development. She completed her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019, followed by an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Oakland University. Currently, she is an iMBA candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her professional journey began at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in the Chrysler Institute of Engineering (CIE) Program, where she rotated through seven engineering roles.
Ryan Noe (BS 2019) - Prototype Engineer at University of San Diego, Qualcomm Institute
Ryan Noe graduated with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering. While at Illinois, Ryan was active in undergraduate research, the Illinois Space Society, and the Astronomical Society. He also co-oped at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas for several semesters. After graduation, Ryan started his career in JSC's Center for Design and Space Architecture where he designed and fabricated spacecraft mockups for Human Factors testing in support of the Orion and Gateway programs. In 2023, Ryan left NASA and returned to a college campus- this time as an employee. At UC San Diego 's Prototyping Lab he provides engineering design and fabrication support to students and researchers at UC San Diego, Salk Institute, and nearby startups. He loves having the opportunity to educate and mentor students in the lab and never tires of the project variety.
