Mbu Waindim

Mbu Waindim is a Cameroonian aerospace engineer who earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University, worked for NASA, and is the first Cameroonian woman to achieve this. Quotes “I am passionate about women’s roles in innovating the future,” “Question everything; Challenge the status quo. World solutions come from people trying to make their lives better.” “Work hard early. It gets harder as you go up and a strong foundation is invaluable. Establish a strong support system.” “I wanted to go into aerospace engineering because I’m fascinated by flight and for the intellectual stimulation, aerospace engineering answers questions that are not obvious, such as explaining how an aircraft—a huge chunk of metal—can float in air. I wanted to learn how it worked and figure out how I could contribute to that space.” “By existing in the spaces that I do, it allows other young women from the place that I come from and who look like me to dream beyond the things that are immediately available to them and to push themselves to see how far they can go.” “I find that technology is an incredible way to equalize people in society. It gives a voice to the people who don't have one,” she said. “Equality is something that is super important to me. I felt that exposing young people to computer programming was one way to help them improve their chances in life.” “It just set the basis for the rest of my career because a lot of things feed into each other—your first experience kind of helps the next one and the next one and so on, having that solid foundation has been invaluable.” “I am definitely leveraging the problem-solving skills I developed as an engineer to figure out solutions for our clients. My academic background allows me to quickly synthesize the issues our clients are facing and come up with impactful solutions.” External links