Garrett Mitchell '09 M'16

Garrett Mitchell ’09 M ’16 recently won “Engineer of the Year” for Boeing’s Space, Intelligence and Weapons Systems division. Mitchell is a product review engineer for Boeing. Prior to his current role, he spent 12 years at Toyota as a quality engineer.

Mitchell adapts much of what he learned as a mechanical engineering student at the University of Southern Indiana to his current role. “I learned key engineering fundamentals and how to approach problems analytically. USI also utilized emerging technology such as 3D modeling and printing to solve real world problems,” Mitchell said.

While enrolled at USI, Mitchell recalled a fun engineering project. He joined a high-altitude balloon launch team led by Dr. Glen Kissel. They launched the balloon in Illinois and tracked it using both predictive wind patterns and GPS.  He also worked with a class from F. J. Reitz High School to send a payload to the edge of space and capture video of its journey. He ran through a corn field attempting to catch it as it landed.

Mitchell also met his wife Kayla ’09 while playing intramural athletics. He returned to USI and graduated in 2016 with a master’s in business administration.

Congratulations, Garrett!