How a job promotion led to a capstone opportunity

Charlotte Morrison’s (‘25) journey to a Mechanical Engineering degree at UW Bothell began after she picked up a manufacturing job at Ventec Life Systems, a local medical device manufacturing company.

Working as an assembler, Morrison connected with engineers at the company, later taking on some material-analysis tasks that led her to want to become an engineer herself. She began studying engineering at Cascadia College and later transferred to UW Bothell to major in Mechanical Engineering.

Over time, her skills and experiences at Ventec grew, and she was promoted to an engineering role.

Part of her role involved failure analysis. When one part kept failing regularly, she suggested it to Ventec as a capstone project. Both her industry team at Ventec and Associate Teaching Professor Bill Anderson in the Department of Engineering & Mathematics were essential mentors, guiding her as she bridged practical engineering issues with academic research. Read about Morrison’s capstone experience in the UW Bothell story, “Bridging the classroom and industry with engineering capstone projects.”