Yin Chen is a research aerospace engineer in the United States Army. She teaches exterior ballistics at the graduate school level.
In 2017, she won the Community Service Award at the Women of Color STEM Conference because she serves as a volunteer in many ways.
For example, as part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) alumni association, Chen serves as an interviewer for admissions in her discipline or field.
Chen got into armaments because as an undergraduate she was introduced to pistols through a PE class and was invited to join the varsity team.
Her team competed against all the service academies and the experience helped redirect her interests toward armament systems. Chen's advice to someone entering the field is:
"Follow your passions, make it what you want it to be, work hard, and don't be discouraged by the limitations of other people's visions."
Currently, Chen is working on robotic mechanisms, but she admits turning data into words can be a struggle while capturing the nuances of their meaning.
Chen's job consists of software programming and developing models. Her next big task is the exploration of navigation algorithms for smart munitions. Her career milestone is a one-year exchange to work with a robotics laboratory in Singapore.
However, her biggest challenge is time management. Chen grew up with her grandparents while her parents were starting their careers, so she would really like to spend time with her children.
"With my work commitments. volunteer work, and other events, it is difficult to get the amount of time to spend with my children," she told Women of Color magazine.
