Samarie Wilson

• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2020

• Princeton University, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, ‘21

• Host Institution: Avascent

• Mentor: Clay Mowry

Samarie Wilson is a junior at Princeton University pursuing a dual Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Originally from a small town in North Carolina, she is the first female engineer in her family. She was inspired to study engineering by watching her dad run his solar business and provide clean energy to many people in her community. She decided to study mechanical and aerospace engineering in high school when she fell in love with calculus and applied maths, and she continues to love her major the more she studies it.

Samarie is also interested in computer science, and has worked on several research projects for the Princeton University Computer Science Department and is an active member of the Robotics Club. Her favorite projects have been several medically assistive robots and an iOS app to combat domestic violence. She is currently working on building a drone from scratch and training it to fly autonomously.

From a family of artists, art is a large part of Samarie’s life. In her free time, she loves dancing, drawing, writing, and volunteering in the youth arts communities in Trenton. She thinks of herself as 40% artist and 60% engineer and is excited to see how she can combine these two identities.

Samarie’s first word was ‘moon,’ and she has loved space ever since she could speak. She is currently interested in making space more accessible to everyone.

As a 2020 Brooke Owens Fellow, she is very excited to be joining Avascent and hopes that she will be able to contribute to making space a more accessible environment during her internship.