Ep. 01 - Alumni Stories - Brianna Ankstitus

WBS Podcast #1 - Brianna Ankstitus

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Welcome to the WPI Business School Podcast, where we catch up with incredible alumni from the Business School and hear how their experiences have shaped their careers and lives.

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I'm your host, Professor Renata Conrad, and today I'm very excited to welcome Brianna and Stitus, a double alum with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, class of 2023, and a master's degree in Management, class of 2024.

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Brianna currently works at Affordable Interior Systems, AIS, and Minister of Massachusetts as an industrial engineer.

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Brianna, it's really great to have you here.

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Thank you for inviting me.

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I'm excited to talk about my experiences.

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To get started, let's talk about your journey to WPI.

0:48
How did you end up at WPI and in industrial engineering?

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Yeah.

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So I am local.

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I'm from Lancaster, Mass.

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So WPI was a natural option when I was looking for schools.

1:00
Beyond that, it just sort of knowing that Massachusetts is a great place to to get a higher education.

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So when I was looking into different schools, nothing really struck me as having this right community other than WPI.

1:14
That small like close knit atmosphere vibe was really what I was looking for and even my parents really agreed that it was the right fit for me as someone who loves to get involved wanted to be like overall important, you know, in in the different activities and experiences that I had.

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So my mom like boasts about the fact that she had me for as many times as I possibly could have to make sure that I secured that spot at the API and I was very happy to end up there for specifically industrial engineering.

1:44
So I had Professor Wolf my freshman year for was it leadership practice?

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So I took this a term my freshman year.

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It was just because it, you know, I had to pick some sort of elective to make sure I eased into my academics.

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And she, I, I did my typical teacher's pet situation.

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Like I sat at the front of the class and I was really excited.

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And she, she kind of stopped me at the end of one class and she was like, what are like, what is your major?

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And I basically was like, I have no idea.

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I'm here.

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I need to learn.

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I'm excited.

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And she was like, you know what, We're going to take you down to the Business School office and we're going to figure out what major you're going to be.

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It is great.

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She's wonderful.

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She's a great professor.

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Yeah.

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So I talked with Norm.

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I know he's not here at WTI anymore, but Norm sat me down.

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We went through all the different options and it took me a little bit.

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I was deciding between management engineering and industrial engineering at the time because my mom is more businessy and my dad is a mechanical engineer trying to find a happy middle.

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And I ultimately settled an industrial during and I I didn't switch.

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Like I came in undecided and I didn't switch after that.

2:53
So yeah, I remember meeting your parents at the end of your senior year and yeah, so they content like, so just a great fit for you and you're really happy.

3:05
So that's from you and for your parents.

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Multiple times during my college career, my parents were like, you are the college spokesperson.

3:15
Like I kind of had a better experience at WPI.

3:17
Yeah.

3:17
So, so talking about experience, was there a moment in your career that you realized like, wow, either WPI or the class or that first was it advice at WPI really paid off because you've been in the workforce for a couple of years now.

3:36
You know what's funny is I probably wouldn't have said it before, but actually linear programming with you, yeah.

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It's kind of like an introductory class.

3:47
No, but so when like a lot of what I do on my day-to-day today like I'm obviously I'm not a mechanical engineer, but I work in a manufacturing engineering department.

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So I work alongside a lot of very physics and SolidWorks savvy people and I have some skills with machines, but really not anything substantial.

4:10
But what I can provide is tools that process data, right.

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So whether that's like we, we're sort of old school right now with our like our, what we call our ERP system, like what manages everything.

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They're looking to update it in the next couple of years, which is kind of scary.

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But what I can do is from whatever data we do happen to have, I can sort of make little tools that help the management process their information.

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An example is like every week they do their labor plan, which as it sounds, they kind of look at their production for the week and they say, how long is it going to take me?

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What kind of people do I need?

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And for our seeding department, the women who run it, wonderful women, but they don't really have a lot of Excel experience.

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And so that's where I can come in to help.

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And basically what they would do is they'd pull their production for the week and say this goes into this category, this goes into this category and I'd summarize it.

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What I did for them is I made a little database that as part numbers are added, they can categorize them.

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But now every week they're able to both run the report and do it in less than 30 seconds.

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And if there's new things that are added, they can, you know, collaborate, make sure they make the right decision and they'll do it the same every time.

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O you designed a tool to like significantly to have a significant impact.

5:30
Yeah.

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And so why This is why linear programming is the right thing is because it's the the one class that really gave me like peer Excel skills and that's like it really like forced me to understand what's going on using Excel.

5:46
Yeah.

5:46
So that that, OK, have to hear that.

5:50
So but it does sell like the industrial engineer program prepared you for your role.

5:54
That Got it.

5:55
Yeah.

5:56
Other aspects of the programs that helped helped you in your role today.

6:01
I mean, so the easiest answer is MQP.

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I did my MGP with Professor Towner.

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Yeah.

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Maybe explain that when MGP is like, yeah, so an MQP is a major qualifying project as an industrial engineer.

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I could have gone into different focuses within that, but it's sort of your way to prove that you've learned something as a student and that you're ready for the workforce.

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So I know it's like you partnered with with the company in a team and it was of course I have a three 3 terms in your final year.

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Yeah, right.

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Yeah.

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So when I was considering what MQ I was interested in, I knew that I was like, I like process improvement.

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There's sort of a satisfaction associated with that.

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And in my day-to-day life, I find that I like organization.

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So I was like, OK, great.

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Jen and I knew that Professor Counter had connections with companies and environments that I wanted to end up in.

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So he happened to connect me with my team who I unfortunately, due to COVID, I didn't become his great friends with industrial engineers early on in my college experience, but I knew them sort of and then at MQPI was able to build stronger connections with my fellow students.

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So I did my MQP here at Affordable Interior Systems and we focused on specifically the, the rework that we have to do.

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So there's a lot of damages that occurred during production, right?

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And unfortunately at the time data collection was sort of non existent.

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Like our, our systems have evolved a lot, but not at the pace that the company itself has progressed, right.

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So part of our exploration was to determine why is there problems like where are the problems coming from?

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And so I can't say that we did a whole lot like physically at the end of our MQP.

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What I did get was the experience of what does it mean to define a problem?

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Who do you talk to or your stakeholders?

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What does it mean to try to find the the data, the meat to the question and ultimately present some sort of at least recommendations, if not solutions and implement them.

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So it sounds like you really enjoy working with data processes, organizations, different groups of stakeholders, different people in the organization and bringing them together to make decisions.

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Yeah, a lot of what I do.

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So MQP was obviously the best example of how I was prepared for my career.

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But even just being a student and working with other people, like a lot of what I do day-to-day is I, I find the managers of the departments that I'm responsible for and I check in with them and I ask them, you know, the right questions.

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You have to ask the right questions to get the right responses to then help them solve their problems.

8:53
So it sounds like you you had you were well prepared and did you maybe have a particular class or, you know, favorite MPI tradition that's that sticks with you in terms of a specific class, I'm a little biased towards 3020.

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That's townish class achieving effective operations is the the full title.

9:17
But 3020, like, again, I'm biased because I was a student and then ATA, but what I it's great that you've got a chance to TA Yeah, actually teaching.

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Yeah.

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What's so funny is even in my MQP, some of the like tools and terminology that I use in my job now my my fellow students didn't necessarily know because I would teach it, You know, I'd go and talk to students every week about lean terminology and AIS really preaches we need to get everyone on the same page for lean works.

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What are the right methods?

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How do we do it effectively and how do we sustain it?

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So right.

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I'm sorry and I I got you all, but but this this was your favorite class?

9:58
The yeah, a little biased, but I also took it during COVID.

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So my experience in the classroom was a little bit different, but as ATA, it was always so much fun.

10:08
Yeah, right, right.

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No, it's a very popular class.

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Yeah, they will receive.

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Yeah.

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So, so some some a little more kind of more fun running stomach classes and preparation.

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But if you could go back and give your college self one piece of advice, what would it be?

10:29
Oh boy, I think so.

10:32
For me as a freshman, things were definitely a little bit difficult.

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And I, that was before, that was just before COVID, right?

10:40
Yeah.

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So I, I was a freshman in the fall of 2019.

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And so I didn't quite finish it out the whole way.

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Like we had lockdown in D term of my freshman year.

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However, I would say junior and senior year went really, really smoothly for me.

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And I was actually me as a grad student, I was focused and I had a calm like I have a tendency to get a little stressed out about certain things if they're kind of overloading me.

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So what I mean is in my junior, senior and grad year, I think I was really able to stay present and be excited about what was happening and what was when I was achieving my freshman and sophomore year, I definitely needed to chill a little bit.

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So if knowing that when like things like calculus and physics and stats can be really difficult, but they're teaching you the basics for what I would then ultimately use in looser ways throughout my other courses.

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So I'm good at men's, but I've never been the best.

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So my advice to myself would be to just chillax a little bit and then as I move on, things will feel more and like manageable.

11:47
But from what I remember, you were very active on campus and you had a lot of hobbies.

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So what helped you kind of especially, I know I'm a junior sophomore year, but were there any hobbies in particular that really helped you?

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Yeah, I'm a huge musician, so off and on in the middle of my college career because of COVID, I was in choir the entire time and I also was heavily involved with the audio files acapella group.

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I love my acapella community.

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You did your project about this.

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Yeah, yeah, those are my closest friends, I think are the the ones that I had in in my music groups.

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But then because of friends in the Business School, I also joined Goppy's Goat Cheese and I was eventually CEO of Goppy's Goat Cheese.

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Yeah.

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And that was a cool business experience.

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And it was definitely, it gave me an opportunity to to learn more about working with different people of different disciplines.

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So, yeah, I, I love being involved.

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That's what gives me energy.

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But on the, the whole note of like being a freshman and being a student, what would I tell myself?

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It's I'm glad that I got involved really quickly.

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But I was in chamber choir at one point and I was like, this is way too much.

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And I stepped back a little bit and I found this sort of the right fit for what I could handle, which was good.

13:04
Yeah.

13:04
It sounds like you really found a whole bit WPI like you, you could find a, you know, expression free musical interest and and community.

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You know, you're academic.

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And it just seems like the degree really resonated with your personality.

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If I can use that.

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I couldn't.

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Yeah.

13:25
I couldn't have picked it better.

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It just.

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Yeah, all all the puzzle pieces fit together, you know, So thank you, Professor Wolf.

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Definitely.

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Like, I don't know what I would have ended up in if I didn't have her around.

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Yeah, Yeah, I know she she's she's a great person.

13:41
So finally, what what advice would you give to students considering studying in the business?

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I think so the, the, the best, most redeeming thing about the Business School is that you really get to know your professors.

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And I know that's true of like WPI as a whole, but each professor that I've had in the Business School has a, a specific interest in how their students are doing.

14:04
And even then it extends into like connections, right?

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And, and having the ability to progress as a student and then as a professional in the future.

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Like I said, my MPP became my job.

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I don't think I have any other friends that that actually happened for.

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So for me, I feel like I gained really valuable experience.

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I definitely agree with the statement that regardless of what discipline you are, business experience is very important to be successful in any sort of atmosphere.

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It just helps you to be able to conduct yourself with other people.

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So regardless if you want to be a student like a major in the Business School or if you just want to to dabble and take a couple of classes, I think it really enhances your ability to excel overall.

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So maybe I maybe should have asked this question earlier.

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WTA is unique in that our industrial engineering program is in the business.

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I think we're the only one in the country that has that.

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Do you see that as an advantage, how to have that play out for you?

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Yeah, I think it's so when I tell people that I'm an industrial engineer and it's in the Business School, it does often turn heads because it's it's a little bit confusing for others who went other places.

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And even then I hear a lot of people that are like, I don't know what industrial engineering is.

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So it's often my first question is do you know what it is?

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So for me, I think it's it was really helpful because I made the connections that otherwise I wouldn't like I said, the Business School is supportive in that way.

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And even then I have high aspirations for myself.

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I'd like to do cool things in my career.

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So like whether that means progressing as an engineering manager or into other aspects of the business, whether that's something cheap of something one day, like fingers crossed, but to not have that business experience wouldn't really equip me for those sorts of experiences in the future.

15:57
We're just having a kind of exposure to business world while getting a graduate engineering degree used believe has set you up for the future.

16:09
Yeah.

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And often when I'm at work here, it's one of those things where I talk to mostly managers.

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So for me, if I didn't have the ability to communicate in their language and how they like to interact and think, I wouldn't be able to be as helpful in the long run.

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OK, so you heard it here as you want.

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It has been an amazing conversation with Bianna.

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I really want to thank you for sharing your insights and your experiences and it's been great.

16:38
Thank you.

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I've had a pleasure talking to you as well.

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It's nice to see you after a while and that's a lot of thing.

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You are listeners.

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If you've enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and share it with somebody who might be considering a WPI Business School program for the next step in their learning journey.

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So until next time, remember Stamp this business equals the impact.