3/6/2023 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
This year, aerospace engineering seniors Komol Patel and Bella Watters have been named Knights of St. Patrick in The Grainger College of Engineering for their outstanding leadership, excellence in character, and exceptional contribution to the college and its students.
About Patel, AE faculty member Laura Villafañe Roca said, “Komol is a star student, a born leader, communicator, and educator. Those skills, striving from a genuine passion for teaching and contributing to society and combined with her excellent character, make her extremely talented for leading new initiatives and successfully managing groups of people.”
Roca emphasized Patel’s respectful and humble personality, perfectly balanced with her outgoing character.
“She is one of those few people able to always maintain high group morale. She plays a critical role in our department in helping her mates and advising younger students—an attitude that reflects a natural talent for mentorship.”
Among her many extracurricular activities, Patel is active in the student group Illinois Space Society. She has taken leadership roles every year on NASA RASC-AL, which is one of the group’s technical projects.
She has served on the educational outreach board for ISS for the past three years. Last year she took on the enormous responsibility to be the lead for Illinois Space Day—an effort that took approximately 24 per week for 8 weeks.
Komol is also not short of professional engineering experience. She has done an internship every summer since she was a sophomore and has already secured her next summer internship with Boeing as a space and launch manufacturing engineer.
Since Watters’ first semester on campus, she has been an active member of ISS. That first year, she served on the executive board. Although the role of director, the highest position in the organization’s leadership structure, is typically held by a senior-year student, Watters’ held the position as a junior. This speaks volumes about her peers’ confidence in her management style and organizational skills.
AE faculty member Brian Woodard believes one of Watters’ proudest accomplishments has been to diversify the majors of the students who participate. “The number of aerospace students has remained about the same, or even increased slightly,” Woodard said. “But the dramatic growth in the organization has been from expansion to other majors. The group is currently about 60 percent aerospace students with other engineering majors making up the other 40 percent, giving it a collegewide presence.”
Woodard also had high praise for Watters as an engineering learning assistant for an introductory AE class.
“During the fall semester of 2021, I met with the aerospace ELAs,” he said. “Bella always offered thoughtful insights regarding her students and the topics in the class. I was not surprised when she selected to be the lead ELA for aerospace for the fall 2022 semester. The lead ELAs play a crucial role in ensuring the course content is offered consistently and at a high quality across the entire college. This semester was the first semester of letter grades for ENG 100, so strong student leaders like Bella were essential to the successful expansion of grading responsibilities for all the ELAs.”
Watters will graduate in May and begin working full time for SpaceX to support the Crew Starship program.
Learn more about the Knights of St. Patrick.