Erica Fuchs

Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Country of birth: USA

Educational background: PhD Engineering Systems, SM Technology and Policy, and
SB Materials Science and Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology

A typical work day
I start most days with a run through Pittsburgh's Schenley Park. I then walk to work with my fiance, who is also a professor at Carnegie Mellon. While my day can often be packed with teaching classes and meeting with students, outside collaborators, and colleagues, I try, at least twice per week, to leave my morning for writing. Sometimes I work on writing papers, sometimes applications for grants. In the afternoons I meet on research with my students, and with colleagues and our
research group's external contacts. In meetings with colleagues, in addition to research, we work on many things: graduate student admissions, new program development, curriculum development, new grant submissions…the list is long!

One exception to the system, of course, is travel. Between conferences, seminars, policy-related
work in Washington, DC, industry workshops and committee meetings, and data collection for our
research, I travel on average three days every other week. While I work many evenings, during
days in town, my fiance and I try to take at least one evening each week to spend time with
our friends to make sure life stays healthy!

What I enjoy most
I enjoy the opportunity to change the world-hopefully to be a better place. My research focuses on how globalization is changing the evolution of technology in our society. In particular, I look at the roles of government in technology development and how manufacturing location changes
technology competitiveness. I love working together with my students who come from as far-reaching places as Kentucky, Nigeria, and Taiwan to conduct this research, and then to work together with companies, professional societies such as SPIE, and branches of the U.S. and international governments to leverage those results to better inform company and policy decisions.

Words of wisdom
Shoot for your dreams. Work hard, follow your heart, and piece by piece, it may just someday come together.