Class of 2024: Haley Rindfleisch takes control of her engineering future
Name: Haley Rindfleisch
College: College of Engineering
Major: Computer Engineering in controls, robotics, and autonomy, with a minor in computer science
Hometown: Dubuque, Iowa
Graduation Plans: Rindfleisch will join the accelerated master’s program in computer engineering at Virginia Tech, and work with the Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics.
Favorite Hokie Memory: “My freshman year, I was studying for finals in the library when the Virginia Tech Police Department started setting up to make grilled cheese sandwiches – it was Cheesy Nights! It was a lot of fun, and I’ve been back to Cheesy Nights every year since."
From one engineering family to another
In her hometown of Dubuque, Iowa, Hayley Rindfleisch was surrounded by two things: corn, and engineers.
As the youngest daughter of two John Deere mechanical engineers, Rindfleisch spent her days working with her dad in the garage and taking auto shop classes. When it came time for college, she was prepared to major in the “family business” (mechanical engineering) at Virginia Tech.
“I started physics, fluids, and statics courses, and suddenly I thought, maybe this isn’t for me,” Rindfleisch said with a laugh. “I’d taken advanced placement (AP) computer science in high school, but didn’t know what would be the best fit for me.”
She found inspiration for switching to the computer engineering major close by – across the hall from her in the dorm.
“A second-year electrical and computer engineering student showed me a project she was working on with a Texas Instruments board,” Rindfleisch said. “It felt like a perfect combination of physical components and still getting to play around with coding.”
Keeping an interdisciplinary focus
Even with the switch to computer engineering, Rindfleisch hasn’t given up her love of cars.
For the last four years, she’s been a part of the Virginia Tech Autodrive competition, sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers and General Motors.
“We take a fully functional Chevrolet Bolt, with all the securities off, so we’re able to plug into the mainframe of the car and control it,” she said. “We have a great track record with autonomous driving; Virginia Tech even placed fourth overall at last year’s Autodrive competition.”
When she’s not making cars drive on their own, Rindfleisch serves as the Open Project Space (OPS) lead for the Virginia Tech student chapter of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. OPS started at the University of California, Los Angeles as part of an initiative to increase the hands-on knowledge of incoming electrical and computer engineering students.
“OPS got so popular at UCLA that it’s expanded to many different colleges, including Virginia Tech, and there’s even available funding for projects and training,” Rindfleisch said. “The other lead and I just finished our project, and we’ll present a lecture in the spring semester.”
Taking control of her future
One of the benefits of participating in the AutoDrive challenge is the summer internships at General Motors, like Rindfleisch’s 2023 software engineering position. It was during this internship that she realized she wanted to learn more about controls – the design, analysis, and implementation of systems that regulate different behaviors, like movement in a robot or the navigation of a self-driving car.
Rindfleisch will spend the next year defining her computer engineering niche as part of the accelerated master’s program in the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She’ll be advised by Dan Stilwell, and conduct research with the Center for Marine Autonomy and Robotics.
“The dream is to find a role working in controls or robotic movement,” she said. “I’m not too picky – if it’s robots, doing controls, or some kind of coding, that’ll make me happy.”
