Mechanical engineer finds future in heart work

While life has presented challenges, it hasn’t stopped Abby McCormick, mechanical engineering major, from following her heart.

Coming from an Iowa-based family of Cyclones, going to Iowa State University was never a question. The other thing she knew? “I’ve always wanted to help people.”

McCormick wanted to either become a veterinarian to help animals or pursue something in a biomedical related field to help people like her older brother who has epilepsy.

Her interest became personal, however, when McCormick suffered a traumatic brain energy as a teenager after a horse accident which left her paralyzed for two days and with an uncertain future.

Fortunately for McCormick, in her recovery, she regained movement, but she continues to navigate and adapt to daily challenges from her injury (including epilepsy).

Deciding on a major happened soon after her arrival at Iowa State four years ago. “I liked that I could pursue my interest in the biomedical field but have the flexibility to go into many different career options with a mechanical engineering degree,” she says.

McCormick, who also has a minor in leadership studies, joined ISU’s Engineering Ambassadors Network (EAN) chapter in Spring 2022 where she serves as co-student director alongside Benjamin Schultz, mechanical engineering major, and Emily White, aerospace engineering major.

“The goal of EAN is to change the conversation around engineering,” she says.

EAN members receive professional development in both leadership and Assertion-Evidence presentation. Since being trained, McCormick has given her presentation titled Boats and Buoyancy to various local middle school age groups.

 “We are trying to reach audiences who have had limited exposure to STEM experiences,” she says.

In addition, the ISU EAN chapter recently finished up introducing the engineering design process to members of an after-school program for middle schoolers, Youth and Shelter Services (YSS) Teen Club in the Colo-Nesco School District by building a gaga ball pit for their school playground.

“Because of my own challenges from my traumatic brain injury, I was very interested in making the gaga ball pit ADA accessible,” says McCormick. The group came up with a way to add a gate to the gaga ball pit for easier accessibility.

For McCormick, her future started taking shape her sophomore year after speaking with Abbott Laboratories at the College of Engineering Career Fair and landing her first internship with them. She had two different internships with Abbott Laboratories in Plymouth, MN during the summers of 2022 and 2023.

This semester, McCormick has been working in mechanical engineering associate professor Jon Claussen’s lab alongside him and his graduate student, Zach Johnson, as they work on finding different ways to manufacture sensors used to test saliva for biomarkers.

McCormick plans to work for Abbot Laboratories post-graduation as a research and development (R&D) engineer in electrophysiology with medical devices, specifically for the heart.

What does McCormick attribute her success to? “I’m stubborn,” she says. Others might call it fortitude. Whatever the case, it’s fair to say with a future in heart work, she’s made her biomedical dream of helping others come true.