Kristen Thompson is a YSU alumna from Youngstown, Ohio. She graduated in May 2020 with a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering, Associate of Arts, and a minor in mathematics. She will be graduating this weekend with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering.

During her time at the university, Kristen served as the President of the Dana Double Reed Society, held membership as an executive member of Sigma Alpha Iota, and participated as a student reviewer for The Emperor. She was a member of the Honors College, Sigma Alpha Lambda, IEEE, and Tau Beta Pi during her undergraduate career. She performed frequently as the principal oboist in the Dana Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and other chamber ensembles.

Kristen’s demonstration of excellence both in and out of the classroom led to an opportunity to complete two summer internships at The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. She also stayed on part-time during the school year. As is often the case, Kristen’s internship with the company led to a full-time offer upon her graduation. She was presented with the opportunity to have a few internship rotations with the company and she was thrilled to continue her work on intelligent tire projects.

Car tire monitoring is an important safety feature in any vehicle, and strongly improves the reliability of tires as well as the tire control systems. Development of TPMS (tire pressure monitoring systems) is imperative to ensure such safety. Intelligent tires differ from current systems as they have a more advanced sensor to monitor inflation, tread wear, and road surface conditions. Data is sent to the cloud and analyzed with machine-learning algorithms to alert customers in real-time if there is an issue. This data improves efficiency notifying the customer of tire maintenance needs before they experience tire performance issues.

Kristen’s internship gave her the opportunity to work with tire designers, manufacturing, and the data science team to innovate current TPMS systems. That experience included measuring radio frequency performance, cloud computing, and opportunities to analyze the data collected. Kristen was really excited for this opportunity and it would not have been possible without the STEM expo. “YSU does a fantastic job connecting students with companies for hands-on experience“ she exclaimed. In addition to working at Goodyear, Kristen will be returning to YSU in the spring to pursue an MBA. Afterwards, she has plans to attend law school with the goal to work as a patent attorney.

In recognition of her already outstanding achievements, Kristen was selected for the great honor of delivering the student address at commencement this weekend! You can watch live on the YSU facebook or youtube channels.