PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
​Amanda currently works at Columbia University as the Manager of Instructional Laboratories in the Mechanical Engineering department, managing the Teaching Laboratory and Mechatronics Laboratory. She oversees the operation of both laboratories and manages supporting roles in the spaces including staff, super users, and work studies. She is responsible for organizational, administrative, safety, and financial services for the labs, and most recently led a $200K+ renovation across the laboratories to update spaces and improve the student lab experience.
Amanda maintains and operates laboratory equipment including laser cutters and 3D printers and instructs students in the operation of all equipment. She coordinates with faculty on lab use for courses, sets up and provides support for experimental apparati to be used, and works with professors on grant proposals for new projects. She also provides assistance to students in the design and implementation of various class and research projects.
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Amanda is a founding member of the departmental DEI Committee, and member of Lab Enhancement Committee, Undergraduate Committee, and Shop Safety Consortium. She also is an advisor and competition chaperone for Formula SAE team.
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More about Amanda's work at Columbia can be found on her resume.
FISHER-PRICE AND FRIENDS
During the summer of 2018, Amanda worked as an associate product development engineer for Fisher-Price and Friends in New York, NY, where she worked mainly on the Thomas and Friends line of toys. She assisted in reviewing product samples of toys in various development stages, collecting team feedback, and communicating changes to the overseas team. She also supported the Development team by estimating product costs and driving cost reduction efforts, as well as advised in the design of mechanisms used in upcoming toy sets.
UNIVERSAL CREATIVE THEME PARK EXPANSION
During the summer of 2017, Amanda worked as an engineering intern for Universal Creative in Orlando, Florida, where she assisted in the design phase of special effects and ride systems for the Super Nintendo World park expansion. She designed, coordinated, and implemented a test plan and mockup apparatus to prove feasibility and facility integration impacts of water based special effects. She also coordinated between the Special Effects Team, Show Production team, and Technical Effects Vendors to determine feasibility of creative intent and production of effects equipment within project constraints.
Amanda authored and edited contract documents, including Scope of Work, Creative and Technical Criteria, and Facility Input Spreadsheets, for the contracting of multiple vendors. She also utilized Building Information Modeling software (Navisworks) to assist in the placement of special effects equipment within a larger facility model to ensure proper integration with all adjacent scopes.
SPAETH DESIGN
During the summer of 2016, Amanda worked as an animation intern for Spaeth Design in Queens, NY. She worked on a Tiffany & Co. elevator display, a Saks 5th Ave Nutcracker Christmas display, and a Lord & Taylor woodland Christmas display.
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Amanda led the main animation for the Tiffany & Co. window watch display from prototype to final product, fabricating three 4 foot steel elevator track systems as well as designing and fabricating a limit switch homing system for the elevator bases. She also programmed three stepper motors with MDrive Plus to operate the elevators stopping at pseudo-random floors.
Amanda assisted on holiday displays for Saks 5th Ave. and Lord & Taylor in fabrication, pneumatics, and microcontroller programming. She programmed the Saks bouncing animation of the flower, nutcracker, and hat using BASIC Stamp. She also built the pneumatic system for the nutcracker and fabricated steel pieces for the flower's internal structure. She fabricated the internal animation structure of the Lord & Taylor baby owls, including both pneumatics and electrical work.
