Celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Integer Engineer Lily Lamb Reflects on Experiences in STEM

During middle school, Lily Lamb’s parents enrolled her in a girls’ coding summer camp, though she had no prior interest in engineering. Within minutes, she realized she was in the right place.

“Everybody was obviously signed up by their parents, and no one wanted to be there, but I thought to myself, ‘you know what, this is cool,’” said Lily, a Perception Engineer II at Integer Technologies.

“I don’t know exactly why I fell in love with it. Maybe it was the challenge of everything or maybe it was seeing so many working parts put together. But the whole experience was funny to me because no one in my group helped. I had to do it all by myself and I loved every bit of it,” she said, breaking into a broad smile. “Throughout high school I started taking more coding classes and fell deeper and deeper in love with coding, computers, and robotics.”

So began her passion for engineering, and today, International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Lily celebrates the accomplishments of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields and hopes to inspire young girls to pursue similar paths.

‘The Imposter Syndrome’

Lily Lamb tests code changes in the USC Reflection Pond.

Lily Lamb tests code changes in the USC Reflection Pond.
Lily pursued a computer engineering degree at The University of South Carolina (USC) and joined a research program focused on autonomous surface vehicles. This led to her acceptance into the Autonomous Field Robotics Lab at USC where she worked as the computer specialist for an autonomous aquatic surface vehicle designed to collect data about plumes in the ocean.

“The computer program we were using wasn’t working properly, and I had to create the theory of modifying it, then modify it, and then perform tests. It was a lot harder than I thought, but it was the first project that I did completely by myself,” she recalled. “That was a turning point for me, realizing I can take a project from start to finish without any help.”

Despite her success, Lily said she struggled with fitting in as a women pursuing STEM. She recalled a high school engineering class where she was one of only two girls.

“All the guys were helping each other out. I had to figure it out on my own. I had to prove I was good with it, and by the end of class everyone was coming to me for help,” she said. “I’ve always felt like I have to try harder and be better to get the same recognition.”

However, Lily said she was always surrounded by peers who supported and encouraged her to keep going.

‘STEM isn’t something you think of at a young age.’

Today’s holiday aims to raise awareness about women in STEM and encourage young girls and women to pursue careers in science and engineering. According to a World Economic Forum article, women make up 28 percent of the global STEM workforce and 22 percent of AI professionals. The Forum stresses the need to empower one billion people with better education and skills by 2030, and it launched The Reskilling Revolution to identify essential skills for the future workforce and drive scalable reskilling initiatives.

Lily agrees. “The biggest thing that is stopping women from pursuing careers in STEM is just a lack of knowledge about options. I’d like to see more representation in the fields so young girls can see themselves and believe it’s something they can do,” she said.

Lily Lamb presents research findings at Discover USC.

Lily Lamb presents research findings at Discover USC.
As for Lily, she is currently pursuing her master’s and Ph.D. in computer engineering at USC and working on Integer’s Sensors and Perception program. Integer’s multi-modal sensing systems enhance navigation and aid in object detection and collision avoidance to ensure mission success in any environment for crewed and uncrewed platforms.

“One of the things I love at Integer is we’re developing new things, we’re pushing the field and seeing what we can do,” she said. “Engineering is constantly changing. What I’m doing today isn’t what I’m going to be doing in a year or two, and I think that’s exciting. We’re part of that change.”

In the future, Lily hopes to keep pushing that envelope and see more efficiency and automation in fields.

“I don’t mean automation as in taking over jobs. I mean helping to do things where people can’t go like deeper in the ocean or exploring areas that are unsafe,” she said. “I want to help people gain knowledge and improve the human experience overall.”