Engineer gives up building cars to build careers

By Cynthia Lee

When Audrey Pool O'Neal recalls growing up in Inkster, a predominantly black suburb of Detroit, she ponders the question her math and science teachers could have asked her, but never did: "Have you ever thought about becoming an engineer?"

Instead, it was an English teacher who saw something in the precocious ninth-grader that made her predict out of the blue: "You're going to be an engineer." O'Neal naively replied, "But an engineer drives a train. I don't want to work on a train!" Eventually, the persistent English teacher had her way. She persuaded O'Neal's parents to send their daughter to Purdue University for a two-week summer engineering program, where she and other underrepresented students of great promise built trusses, bridges and race cars and learned about this visionary science called engineering.

Today, the tables are turned. O'Neal is now that pivotal teacher who puts underrepresented UCLA students on firm footing to develop their potential as engineers in industry and academia. As associate director of the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity (CEED) at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, she eases their way into one of the most rigorous curricula taught at UCLA.

O'Neal grew up in the shadow of Detroit's auto plants, where her father, brothers and uncle all worked for Ford. She, however, rebelled early and came under the tutelage of General Motors, which accepted her into its highly competitive, highly accredited GM Engineering and Management Institute in Flint, Mich.

But her dad took his revenge when he gave her as a high school graduation present a bright-red Ford EXP, which she had to discreetly park every day in GM lots.

After getting her degree in mechanical engineering, she went to work at Powertrain, which develops and manufactures GM engines and automatic transmissions. Under GM, she earned her master's degree in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She later applied to the General Motors Fellows Program for a master's degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in fluid mechanics, at UCLA.

It was while working as a UCLA teaching assistant that O'Neal discovered her new mission — providing that "light bulb" moment. "It's that expression a student gets when it finally clicks in. Bing! That's why I've found more enjoyment in teaching than in any other job I've had," she said.

In a program she directs called RISE-UP (Research Intensive Series in Engineering for Underrepresented Populations), undergraduates work intensely on research projects with faculty mentors. She also runs a summer program for incoming transfer students, who get an intensive preview of engineering core courses.

"To me, all things CEED are more interesting, more exciting and more necessary," said O'Neal, who is closing in on her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. "I put the program ahead of my own research. It is the purpose I've found for my life that drives me; it's what I have found that fulfills me."