Student spotlight: Aleksa Petric

At Carnegie Mellon, Aleksa Petric has realized how powerful it is to be able to look at something and understand how it works. "All the classes I've taken have given me a tool set, both technical and interpersonal, to be able to build things when I leave," he says.

Petric took introductory courses in both mechanical engineering and chemical engineering his first year. He chose to major in chemical engineering when he saw fundamental science, math, and computation intersect. "You get to design things and then model them very accurately with math," he says.

Petric shares this perspective with the sophomores and juniors he helps as a Supplemental Instruction (SI) leader and peer tutor through CMU's Student Academic Success Center.

In the first half of each weekly SI session, Petric and his friend and fellow SI leader Chetan Chilkunda go over review sheets they've made with key concepts. "We look at the homework and the lectures to identify what students commonly miss, in our experiences," Petric says. In the second half, they give students problems to work on in small groups, then review them together. They tailor each session to the students they're teaching.

"It's almost like problem solving. You try saying it one way, and if they don't understand, then you say it in a different way that's more relatable," Petric says. "I love the moment when I see something click for another student."

In addition to serving as SI leaders for thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, Petric and Chilkunda also helped introduce peer tutoring for higher level junior classes, including heat and mass transfer, unit operations, and chemical reaction engineering.

Petric is able to personalize his methods because of the close-knit community within the Department of Chemical Engineering. "We all hang out in the lounge downstairs. When I walk in, I know everyone's name, and I know approximately what they're working on. The younger students know they can ask me and my friends questions. It fosters much more collaboration," he says.

To demonstrate the closeness of the ChemE undergrad community, Petric can rattle off a fun fact about each of his peers. One of his own is that he's played guitar since he was a toddler and now plays with a band in his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha. This semester, Petric is taking a guitar class through the College of Fine Arts.

Petric is also minoring in business analytics and optimization. To further prepare for a career in industry, Petric has interned with Procter & Gamble (P&G) for the past two summers. He first helped to roll out new designs from corporate engineering in a Bounty and Charmin plant. "The internship fell exactly at a point in the ChemE curriculum where I knew how everything worked, so I could model it well," he recalls. "What was most valuable is the way that I was taught to approach these situations and problems."

Last summer, Petric returned to P&G, this time at Gillette. He was in the engineering group for the lubrastrip, the soap strip on the top of a razor.

He describes it as a natural progression from unit operations and his other chemical engineering courses. "Here at school, we learn how a reactor tank works and how it's supposed to model. My internship allowed me to go into CAD and design the different parts to make it function the way I want it to," he says.

As his internship concluded, Petric was recognized by senior leadership at Gillette for his technical skills, business acumen, and leadership skills. He was also praised for applying his core engineering skills to work that was critical in driving value for the company.

Petric says the judgment-free environment he experienced in the Department of Chemical Engineering and its small classes gave him confidence in his internship. "Especially as a ChemE who has never done mechanical design before, it was intimidating to connect with senior designers. I talk to professors every day here, and that made it more natural to talk with experts in the field," he says.

In February, Petric received a Professional Promise Award from the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He was selected by CMU faculty based on both his academic accomplishments and his potential for achievement in the field. "I was nervous about the transition from college to the workforce," says Petric. "Receiving this award and being recognized by senior leadership at Gillette shows me that everything I'm gaining here is directly transferable." Petric will return to Gillette full-time after graduation.