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College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

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Emma K. Rand

Emma RandEmma Rand 

Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering 
Food, Agtricultural and Biological Engineering - Biological Engineering
Guilford, CT 

2022 Distinguished Senior Award Recognition Reception Program (.pdf) 

2022 Distinguished Senior Award Recipient Reception Poster (.pdf) 

Coming to Ohio State from Guildford, Connecticut, Emma Rand found herself a ten-hour drive away from friends and family; within the Columbus chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), she found a new community here in central Ohio. Grateful for the learning experiences and leadership opportunities her involvement with SWE afforded her, Emma considers her membership with the club her most rewarding undergraduate experience. Through SWE, she attended conferences in Raleigh, North Carolina and Albuquerque, New Mexico, connecting with potential employers, hearing powerful stories from other women engineers, and building new friendships. Emma reflected, “SWE has helped me become the confident woman engineer I am today.”

Fulfilling a long-held dream to study abroad, Emma’s most valuable learning experience came in May of her freshman year when she participated in the Castles and Cathedrals Study Abroad program. Through the program, she traveled to England and Wales to learn the history and architecture of the regions, acting as a tour guide to her fellow OSU students by presenting information about one of the structures on their tour.

Her summer 2020 internship at Bio-Med Devices in Guilford, Connecticut, fueled Emma’s interest in manufacturing engineering. There she optimized the production of ventilators during the pandemic-driven demand spike. She developed test protocols for mass flow sensors and manifolds, analyzing the results to ensure they were within FDA specifications. She determined next to set her sights on a much larger company, settling on GE Healthcare. Over the course of the coming year, she reached out, with the help of OSU alumni in the industry, to GE. She also attended university networking events. Eventually, her hard work paid off, and she secured a summer 2021 manufacturing engineering internship at GE Healthcare in Madison, Wisconsin. She considers achieving this goal her greatest undergraduate accomplishment. While interning at GE, she worked on anesthesia machines, supporting daily updates during the investigation and reprocessing of legacy flow censors. In collaboration with a cross-functional anesthesia team, her work was useful in understanding daily defect reports and determining the possible causes of assembly errors in these critical devices.

Emma recognizes Dr. Ann Christy as her undergraduate mentor. She shares, “I had Dr. Christy as my professor for a professional development class. In the class, Dr. Christy talked about professional engineering, industry, and academia which made me realize that I had selected the right direction going into biological engineering. This course also helped me understand that I could work in industry and then come back to teaching/mentoring which has always been one of my passions in life. I am extremely grateful for all of Dr. Christy’s guidance and support throughout my past four years.”

After graduation, Emma will be joining the Supply Chain Development Program at GE Healthcare, where she will hold three roles over two years in various plants throughout the United States. Throughout the program, she will focus on developing her skills as a leader.

Service, involvement, and accolades: Society of Women Engineers, outreach director and other leadership roles | College of Engineering Ambassador, president | STEM Exploration and Engagement Scholars Program

Emma Rand - Press Release