• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2021

• University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Electrical Engineering, ‘21

• Host Institution: Planet

• Mentor: Diana Trujillo

• Brookie Mentor: Luc Riesbeck

Marie Wulff was adopted from the Hunan Province of China and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a senior studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, expected graduation: May 2021. After attending a STEM camp for girls in 6th grade, she realized that she wanted to be an engineer. From there, she did all she could to pursue STEM. From founding an app development club, starting a computer science class at her high school, to leading her high school FRC robotics team, she fell in love with engineering.

She is the Chief Engineer of the University of Minnesota Small Satellite Research Laboratory and oversees the systems for two cube satellites, EXACT and IMPRESS . Marie originally joined the team as a sophomore. She grew quickly into leadership as the power subsystem lead and after a year transitioned into the Chief Engineer position. As Chief Engineer, she is responsible for drafting requirements, technical decisions, verification and validation of the system, interface consistency, and personnel management.

At the University of Minnesota, she is well known within the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) community. Her freshman year, she helped found the Diversity and Inclusion Committee for her Society of Women Engineers chapter. From there, she wanted to get involved with the policymaking for CSE. She gained influential connections helping orient new students to the college, which she was able leverage while serving in the Science and Engineering Student Board. She has been involved within her major community having been IEEE vice chair and social media coordinator for Women in Electrical Engineering. Marie has also been involved with Engineers Without Borders, serving as the pumping and piping lead for a project in Ethiopia. She was part of the travel team and really enjoyed being able to learn more about Ethiopian culture as well as gain field engineering experience.

Besides her academic and professional interests, Marie’s hobbies include hiking, travel, photography, and being active. For summer 2021, she will be living in San Francisco working for Planet Labs. She is excited to explore hiking trails in the area and to be living in a new city! There will be a lot of photos taken for sure! Marie enjoys all kinds of athletic activities such as ballroom dance, soccer, swimming, and running.