{"426101":{"#nid":"426101","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Catherine Ferrie, Ph.D. AE, \u002798: \u0022The respect we have for engineering is huge\u0022","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAE alumna Catherine Ferrie is in a sweet spot, career-wise.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe former GT-AE doctoral student has parlayed her love of aerospace engineering and her passion for leadership into a career that combines both.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs the senior vice president for engineering at Bell Textron, she is surrounded by the technology that has always fascinated her.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve been interested in aerospace since I saw\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003ETop Gun\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003Ein high school,\u201d the Connecticut native said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt was the airplanes that got me, though. Not Tom Cruise.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022200\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00225\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAs a doctoral student under the mentorship of Prof. George Kardomateas,(left), Catherine Ferrie researched fracture mechanics. Since graduating in 1998, she has climbed the ladder at Bell Textron to become the Vice President of Engineering\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a newly appointed member of the GT Aerospace Engineering School Advisory Council (AESAC), Ferrie is also using her leadership skills to shape the future of a school that shaped her.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI loved my time at Georgia Tech. And what I see now when I look at the heart of AE\u2019s leadership is a place that has a fabulous direction. Listening to [AE Chair] Dr. Yang I am convinced that the School needs only to focus on its immense technical talents -- the quality of its technical education -- to do incredible things.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFerrie made these comments Tuesday, when she visited GT-AE to give a talk, sponsored by the GT chapter of the American Helicopter Society (AHS). That talk, entitled, \u201cEngineering in the Global Marketplace,\u201d laid out some of the lessons she has learned during her 17 years at Bell Textron.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany of those lessons center on the Leadership Development Program (LDP) that Bell offered her as a new employee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFerrie said the program helped her transition from a meticulous engineer working on fracture mechanics to a respected business leader at Bell who oversees engineering operations around the world. The training helped her develop a solid leadership philosophy.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can have 20 or 30 years of really solid technical experience, but it\u2019s a mistake to have that as your top criteria for selecting business leaders, especially in a technical career like this,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou need to look specifically at the business skills \u2013 forecasting, establishing goals, strategizing \u2013 and how they can be applied. Then, having a technical background will help you ask the right questions. You\u2019ll always be depending on engineers who know more about something than you do, too. You can\u2019t know everything.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen she took to the podium Tuesday night, Ferrie encouraged GT-AE students to consider following in her footsteps, by joining Bell\u2019s Boot Camp program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is a program where we have a problem, real engineering problem that needs to be solved, and we bring you in for a week, usually during your break, to solve it,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDuring that week, you learn to solve a problem and we make a connection with you. That connection can lead to an internship which can lead to another internship, and, eventually, we might invite you to join our team.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat invitation could be the beginning of an all-consuming adventure.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEngineering is an important part of our work at Bell. Nothing leaves the ground at Bell unless an engineer says it\u0027s safe, that it\u0027s ready to have passengers. And people get very very focused as they approach that point. It\u0027s an awesome responsibility,\u0022 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022As a result, you\u0027ll find, the respect we have for design, for building, and for testing is huge.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFerrie\u0027s Bell\u0026nbsp;Textron colleagues (and fellow GT alums), Albert Brand, Ph.D. AE \u002789, and Randy Willnow, BS\u0026nbsp;ME \u002787, were also on hand this week for the GT\u0026nbsp;Career Fair, where they identified many prospects for Bell\u0027s Boot Camp and other opportunities.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022500\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00221\u0022 align=\u0022center\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003Cem\u003EJoining Catherine Ferrie on her visit to Georgia Tech this week were two of her Bell colleagues who knew their way around campus almost as well as she. From left, Albert\u0026nbsp;Brand, Ph.D AE \u002789, Catherine Ferrie, Ph.D.\u0026nbsp;AE, \u002798, Randy Willnow, BSME, \u002787, Bell Helicopter executive Jill Morgan-Frost, and AE Professor Marilyn Smith.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"AE alumna Catherine Ferrie has parlayed her love of aerospace engineering and her passion for leadership into a career that combines both."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-07-16 15:03:08","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:12","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-09-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-09-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"135341","name":"Catherine Ferrie"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}