When graduate student Dani Harkins (BSME ’16) isn’t studying, she’s most likely playing rugby.
Harkins has played on the Illinois Women’s Rugby team for four years. She is the current team captain and also served as captain and treasurer two years prior. Her current position is 8-man, which is similar to a quarterback.
Written by Taylor Tucker, MechSE Communications
When graduate student Dani Harkins (BSME ’16) isn’t studying, she’s most likely playing rugby.
Harkins has played on the Illinois Women’s Rugby team for four years. She is the current team captain and also served as captain and treasurer two years prior. Her current position is 8-man, which is similar to a quarterback.
“I love the competition and the team bonding that we have,” Harkins said. “All of my closest friends come from the rugby team.”
Harkins is also an avid Rubik’s cube collector. “I really enjoy challenging my brain at all times,” she said. “I probably have about 40-50 cubes in my collection.”
Keeping herself challenged has led her to become a part of the inaugural class of the Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering program (M.Eng.ME).
“I chose the M.Eng.ME program because I felt that my undergrad degree gave me a small amount of knowledge in a lot of different subjects and I wanted to have a lot of knowledge in one or two subjects,” Harkins said.
Harkins said she wanted to focus more on dynamics and controls. This semester she has classes in aerospace and civil engineering as well as finance and advanced engineering math.
“The program has a lot of flexibility to be able to take classes that are more interesting to me,” she said.
Harkins said she also likes the professional development aspect of the program.
“It’s great to have engineers that understand a little bit of business so that everyone can work together more efficiently,” Harkins said.
For students who want to go to grad school, Harkins advises that they first figure out what they hope to do, whether it’s research, teaching, or eventually going into industry.
“If they want to go straight into the work force, the M.Eng. program could be a perfect fit for them to narrow down their strengths and weaknesses on different subjects,” Harkins said.