Jade Cutter

Experiment with a bunch of things that might not be passions right now. Something might hit you!"

TCC Engineering student Jade Cutter will transfer into University of Washington Seattle’s electrical engineering program as a Martin Family Scholar in the fall. But over the summer she’ll be a Cornell student, tracking gravity waves using pulsars as part in a nationally competitive nine-week program.

Cutter originally wanted to be an astrophysicist. She made the hard decision to switch to electrical engineering after researching employment opportunities in the field. But while doing a research paper for Bill Adams’ chemistry course, she stumbled across the field of laser propulsion. And she realized that she could make important contributions to astrophysics by inventing and refining the tools astrophysicists use. In a light bulb moment, she understood how to tie her new career path to her passions.

“I can’t remember when I fell in love with something so much,” said Cutter. “He just handed me the keys – here’s the passion that you want, here’s the stability that you want, pursue this! I now hit electrical engineering with the passion I once held just for physics.”

Cutter would like to go into photonics or avionics, working with electric propulsion. An initial burst of fuel excites the atoms, which continue to excite each other in a chain reaction, theoretically allowing space travel to take place across vast distances with very little fuel consumption.

“You tip the domino, and it just keeps accelerating,” said Cutter. “Laser thrusters is a branch of electric propulsion. I just read about all these for the research paper, and it just changed my life. And from a chemistry course! It wasn’t even required for my major. I just wanted to take chemistry.”

Like her choice of major, Cutter’s decision to start at a community college was prompted by financial considerations.

“I wanted to save money. As soon as I found out this school integrated really well with some of the state schools I was considering, it was exactly what I needed,” said Cutter.

Interested in Science? Get Involved!

Cutter joined the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) program on an instructor’s recommendation. And she found an unexpected new interest, robotics, through the TCC Engineering Club. Her advice for new students is to get involved in things – you might just develop a new interest.

“I’m not really a robotics person, but I’ve been loving it, I’ve absolutely been loving it,” said Cutter. “Experiment with a bunch of things that might not be passions right now. Something might hit you!”

Cutter is Vice President of the TCC Engineering Club, which recently sent a group of students to the ASME E-Fest West robotics competition in Pomona, California.

“It was my first robotics competition, and my first time leading an engineering team,” said Cutter.

Cutter heads the Engineering Club’s Robotics sub-group. She did all of the wiring for the two robots the team entered into the competition, and also had to teach herself megatronics and a little bit of circuits. She got credit for part of that learning through an independent study course. Blue robot “Omnivore,” designed by Cutter, made it to the competition’s Sweet 16. Black robot “Bud,” designed by mechanical engineering student Adam Oberstar, made it to the semi-finals and tied for 7th place overall.

Though she won't be here next year, Cutter hopes the Engineering Club will continue to flourish. And she'd love to see more of TCC’s student clubs working together.

“I’d love to see them working together – coding, robotics, engineering. I’d love to see more inter-club activity as a whole.”

In addition to joining the Engineering Club and MESA, Cutter says students interested in going into science should talk to as many people as possible, from TCC instructors to people working in a variety of fields.

“Ask them questions about their career tracks, because they’re probably not what you’re imagining,” said Cutter. “And know how flexible these degrees are – you are not locked in forever!”

Story photo courtesy of Jade Cutter.