Stephanie Luttrell.
Director, Metalwood Development
Titleist Golf Clubs
The path to engineering doesn’t often begin with a sport like golfing. But for Stephanie Luttrell, that’s exactly how she found her dream career.
“我的父亲教我的兄弟和我的比赛，”她说。“他也给了我们非常好的建议，因为青少年找到你所爱的东西，如果可能的话，让职业生涯。我已经开始打高尔夫球，所以尽管能够快速发展我的技能，并且能够在大学层次上发挥作用，但我并不相信它是逼真的专业游戏。“
然而，她知道她想在高尔夫球场上。Luttrell表示，她总是喜欢科学和数学，所以她开始探索如果高尔夫职业，那么将她的激情都结合起来。
“I’ve always enjoyed science and always excelled at it, and I approach golf scientifically as a player. I enjoy that with thoughtful care you can work your way through the game and really improve. I’ve always been a focused, problem solving type of person, so I think that’s what guided me towards engineering. When I discovered that engineers designed golf clubs, that directed my path to study mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan,” she said.
Luttrell graduated from college in 2002, with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan, where she also competed as a member of the women’s golf team. Her first full-time engineering position was with Callaway Golf.
“我在蓝天的研究工作——概念上的技术logies that weren’t tied to a product but were five to ten years down the road,” she said. “After two years, I was presented with an opportunity to join Cleveland Golf in a design and development engineering role for tour player specific products. I led that effort and worked directly with the players — and developed an expertise at being able to communicate the technical details to them at an understandable level, as well as fit them using Trackman.
“我涵盖了从司机到球道，杂种，铁杆，楔子和推杆的产品类别。我目前的角色是标题主义者，我一直是过去11年的研发团队的成员。作为Metalwood Development的主任，我引导了负责全球驾驶员，球道和混合产品的设计和工程的团队。“
Luttrell表示，她的公司拥有强大的开发工程师和设计师团队。她与他们中的每一个合作支持并指导他们的努力，例如设置规范和设计指南，测试其产品和关键竞争产品，以评估性能，研究新材料，开发制造业的新工艺和方法，提前设计能力，以及推进设计能力，以及确定如何提高整体产品性能。
“我也与我们在亚洲的供应商密切合作，以及在当地执行和管理项目，我作为我们的领导和旅游部门的联络，”她说。“我为他们的知识库提供技术演示，以便他们可以充分解释我们的玩家和我们的领导团队的产品绩效。我支持我们的销售和营销，以相同类型的信息。“
她解释说，由于她的公司始终寻求提高产品的产品，每次新产品开发都会提出重大挑战。
“One of the biggest challenges in golf club engineering is that the equipment is regulated for performance — that makes our job challenging yet incredibly rewarding when we have success,” she said. “We push to incorporate new materials, constructions and manufacturing processes to reach performance thresholds that remain conforming to the rules of golf, but offer significant performance benefit to the player.”
Luttrell偶尔已经面临着男人的问题，有趣的是不是因为工程，而是因为高尔夫被认为是一个男人在某些圈子里的运动。
“I can speak most directly from my own experience as a woman in a predominantly male dominated industry, in a career/role that is generally fulfilled by men, designing products for a ‘gentleman’s game,’” she said. “Tour players and others outside of our company first wonder, ‘Does she know the game of golf?’ The moment I reply, ‘My handicap is a 0,’ that answers that question for them and paves the way.
“But my technical competency is equally important to my competency as a golfer, and in my opinion far outweighs that. I’ve never felt at a disadvantage at any organization I’ve been with, and I think that’s due to the passion I have for the game of golf and for the products that we create. It comes across when you speak — and it imparts enthusiasm and excitement throughout an organization. You can look at it as, ‘I’m the one of the only women in this field and people are watching or evaluating me more closely than my male peers,’ but I choose not to focus on that. Women have every opportunity to prove ourselves and go to places that are unexpected.”
“我相信老师和父母是鼓励年轻女性理解和占据工程等科学领域的潜力的最大倡导者。我从老师和父母那里收到的鼓励激励我参加科学奥林匹克等活动，作为青年，寻求科学和数学中的AP课程挑战。“
Filed Under:Women in Engineering
