Testimonial

Stephanie Kladakis

[MSME 1999, Ph.D. ME 2002]
Senior Engineer, DuPuy Biologics
Raynham, MA

In addition to the faculty maintaining leading research laboratories, I found the faculty at the Woodruff school to be accessible and interested in creating the appropriate graduate education for the individual student. The faculty accessibility and genuine concern for education was the reason I chose the Woodruff School.

Several of the opportunities that I have at the Woodruff School prepared me for my career in industry. For example, I completed an internship at a company in my industry at the end of my first year. The internship gave me valuable industrial experience while confirming my interest in research and development in industry. In addition, workshops and seminars held while I attended the Woodruff School gave me the opportunity to meet visiting leaders in my industry. Finally, the research which I conducted while at the school gave me the opportunity to build a valuable, technical skill set for industry. Presenting and publishing the data from the research also gave me the opportunity to develop critical communication skills.

I found the strengths of the Woodruff School to be the breadth of research, the high level of collaboration with faculty research and the availability of funds to pursue cutting edge research.

The collection of graduate programs, faculty and students at the Woodruff School place them among the top engineering graduate programs in the nation. When I was attending Georgia Tech, I took the excellence of the faculty for granted because of the numerous excellent researchers, teachers and leaders. Since I have left Georgia Tech, I have realized that such a collection of leaders is truly a rarity. For this reason, I appreciate my experience of learning from such excellent role models more as time passes after my graduation.