Malia Kawamura is a multi-disciplined engineer at Raytheon Company. She received her B.A. in physics and mathematical sciences from Colby College in 2014 and a B.E. in mechanical engineering from Dartmouth College in 2015. In 2017, she received her M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her graduate work focused on modeling and hardware-in-the-loop testing for chemical processes and electro-thermal systems in the Alleyne Research Group. Currently, at Raytheon, Malia works as a process engineer for electronics packaging, where she focuses on process optimization, adhesive material properties, and statistical process control for automated machines.
Malia first became aware of what SWE could offer during her final year of undergrad, while on a grad school visit to UIUC. She was able to attend the annual weSTEM (Women Empowered in STEM) conference at Illinois and see what an amazing community SWE could provide and learn about how many different career paths would be available. In grad school, Malia served as the Professional Development Lunch Coordinator at UIUC. She organized 20 events with speakers from industry and academia, with participation of over 180 individual students, with the purpose of creating a supportive community and providing useful professional development opportunities. Her first Dallas SWE event was Design Your World 2018 and she is looking forward to this year’s Design Your World event and the opportunity to serve on the “Voices from the Field Panel”.
Outside of work, Malia plays soccer, travels to visit family and friends, and enjoys playing board games.
“My favorite thing about SWE is the people. I’ve been able to meet such talented, hard-working, caring, and fun people through SWE who inspire me. Additionally, SWE has exposed me to the great the diversity of both career options and career paths available. One main lesson I’ve learned is that there are so many great and challenging opportunities in engineering, there will always be a good fit for me and anyone else interested in engineering.”
Malia Kawamura