The College of Engineering Student Stories

Meet Fatima

I was a flight attendant before I came to UTA. Now, I’m studying to be an industrial engineer so I can work for an airline in a different role as an operational researcher.

I have three brothers who attended UTA, two in the College of Engineering, so that’s part of why I chose UTA, but I really like it. The campus is pretty and there’s lots of nature. The people are nice and friendly and the teachers are easy to talk to.

I’ve always questioned why things are done a certain way. Ever since I started working I’ve tried to find ways to complete my tasks faster and easier and really adopted the mindset of work smarter not harder (that doesn’t mean I don’t follow the rules – I do) but once I discovered that industrial engineering was really about just that, I truly found what I wanted to do for myself and it’s like my life finally fell into the right path.

I overthink a lot and like to find the logic to things, which I always saw as a disadvantage until I realized that being able to think outside the box and find solutions is part of what makes engineering. Now, I flip the script and use it to my advantage.