Title: Driving Innovation in Automotive and Mobility Safety: Haley Antoine Grantham ‘19 

[00:00:06,280] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Welcome to the Engineering Career Conversations. I'm Christa Downey, Director of the Engineering Career Center at Cornell University. 

[00:00:14,160] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: And I'm Traci Nathans-Kelly, Director of the Engineering Communications Program. We are excited to bring you this forum where we will host lively conversations that we hope will inspire you. Today in Engineering Career Conversations, we're spending some time with Haley Antoine Grantham. She's a Safety and Crashworthiness Engineer at Toyota Motor North America Research and Development. We welcome Haley, and we had such an enjoyable time speaking to her about the many interesting aspects about her job. So stay tuned. Haley, thank you so much for being with us here today. We're so excited to hear everything you've been up to because it's quite a lot, and I'm really particularly interested in these topics. So we're going to let you give us your context. Tell us about your current work. What are you up to? 

[00:01:16,600] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah, absolutely. So I am a Safety and Crashworthiness Engineer at Toyota Motor North America, Research and Development or TMNA R&D for short. I'm based out of the Ann Arbor Michigan area. It's about 30 minutes away from Detroit. And so for the first I guess, four years or so of my career, I was a Pedestrian Protection Engineer. So what does that even mean? Most people when they think about crash safety, they're typically thinking about, you know, being the occupant of a vehicle. So inside the vehicle, when you're sitting in the front or the back seat, however, at Toyota, we care about the safety of those that are also outside of our vehicles. So in my role, our ultimate goal is to reduce the likelihood of head and leg injuries to pedestrians, and also bicyclists, can't forget them. And In order to do this, I use computer modeling tools to predict these injuries throughout vehicle development. And we collaborate with lots of designers and other engineers to implement design changes. And then eventually later in development, we'll actually do physical testing, and we're literally launching these instrumented, almost like severed dummy heads and legs at our vehicles, which is pretty crazy and pretty exciting to see. But about six months ago, I actually moved into a new function within crash safety. It's the advanced body structure and computer aided engineering group. Which is quite a mouthful, but we really do have similar goals to the pedestrian safety team and that we want to reduce the likelihood of injuries, but this time for the occupants of the vehicle. So we're trying to manage the energy of the vehicle crash through different designs and being really strategic with the way that we create our vehicle upper and underbody. But outside of all of that engineering work, I stay pretty busy in a lot of other activities at Toyota. I'm actually the R&D co-op coordinator. So I lead R&Ds recruitment, engagement, and conversion efforts. And I have a big team of a bunch of really awesome people, managers and engineers alike that support our specific functions within R&D. And I'm also part of our employee resource group, or we call them business partnering groups called Women Influencing and Impacting Toyota or WIIT, for short, as a steering committee leader. 

[00:03:32,599] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That's a lot. 

[00:03:33,839] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah. Yep, I like to stay busy. Absolutely. Maybe Cornell taught me how to do that. 

[00:03:39,460] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So I have a I have a follow up question. So you're absolutely right. Most people think about the crash worthiness as being a passenger or driver. And that you're working about this outside of the vehicle itself, right? You're tangential, if you will, to the vehicle itself, but it's so important. I didn't realize that this was part of crash testing before. How did you get into that subset of expertise? It's really interesting. 

[00:04:08,980] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah, absolutely. You probably haven't heard of it, because actually in the United States, it's not a regulation yet. So um, kind of my group is doing this advanced safety work because it is supposed to be coming into effect in the US, in the near future, actually, the government agency that regulates, you know, crash safety standards, they had just released kind of their new "teaser" for the regulation protocol. So we expect it to come soon. But in other parts of the world, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, there are lots of regulations and ratings related to pedestrian. But in the way that I found it, I guess, is just sort of by chance, I did two co-op rotations in crash safety at Toyota, and the second one was actually in this pedestrian protection group. The first one was in a side crash group, so that was more of the occupant protection. And then after I got exposed to that and my second co-op, I decided, gosh, maybe this is a career for me. So it was truly by chance, it wasn't, definitely wasn't something I planned on doing. 

[00:05:16,240] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Haley, as a pedestrian and a cyclist, I'm grateful for this work. And I'm thrilled, I'm excited to share with my cycling friends the news about the future of this work. So I greatly appreciate that, as well. Tell us more, what's the day-to-day for you? 

[00:05:35,530] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah, absolutely. Day to day is pretty different. So during traditional vehicle development, for example, the ninth generation Camry, which we just launched earlier this year, or maybe the new Tacoma, which we launched late last year, both of which I supported. You can kind of think of those as traditional vehicle developments. So we go through lots of feedback design cycles throughout maybe 2.5 to three year development time frame. And as an evaluation engineer, I take the designs that our design engineers develop, and then really put them to the test. Whether this is using finite element analysis, simulations, hand calculations or physical testing, I evaluate those designs either virtually or with actual parts and then feedback to the designers about maybe what's going well or maybe something that I'd like to potentially change or improve for a particular performance I'm responsible for, so that head injury or maybe that leg injury. But I can't just be the only person informing that design because so many other engineers and performances, other than crash safety depend on the design of a part, for example, like our aerodynamics team, our handling team, our engine cooling team, strength, durability, there's so many different performances that go into a vehicle. And so we all have to come together, come to a consensus if we're all kind of maybe conflicting about a part change, for example. Feedback to the designer on what we agree upon. And then the designer then has to do more confirmation. So they have to check with other groups outside of just R&D, like our manufacturing or production teams, and then even our styling groups, which are kind of like the artists of vehicle development. And so all that to say, really is a lot of communication and collaboration, right? So, whether that's within crash safety or with other groups, we just spend a lot of time during development, collaborating, working with different engineering teams, and we're really trying to ensure that we find the best possible solution to meet our performance targets. Then that's kind of the traditional vehicle development, right? But Toyota is actually transitioning from an automobile company to a mobility company, as we're calling it. So it's really focusing on how we move people, goods, and information, not just this classic car and truck company. What does that really mean? But I mean, mobility really means for Toyota. It's about current and future research, technology, products, and services that make us competitive beyond automobiles. Hardware and software platforms that make life safer, provide more flexible and on demand solutions and anticipate changes of the time. So with that, I know that all sounds kind of broad and maybe, you know, not necessarily related to vehicles, which is what we're all very used to seeing coming out of Toyota. It's actually enabled us to work on some really cool projects. And I've worked on some projects in areas that completely unrelated to my core job in crash safety, like projects and accessories for off roading, which is a kind of, I guess, hobby that I had never been exposed to growing up in Southern California, and, you know, going to school in Ithaca. And then another project that will eventually be customer facing on our Toyota website, and then our Toyota and Lexus apps, which has been really cool. And I truly have no background in computer science, and I'm definitely not doing the hard coding for it, but I'm actually managing this project, kind of coming up with the concept behind it. So it's a really exciting time to be in automotive, you know, not just in Toyota, but automotive as a whole is really going through this shift. So really no day is quite the same, and there's lots of fun things going on. 

[00:09:21,959] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I love your emphasis here with collaboration and communication and trying on all these new things, what you're describing, working with your CS folks, with the apps and the web page and all. You're going to be the perfect user tester, right? All of that and a different kind of accessibility, maybe than what you're used to dealing with, with the vehicle design. Yeah, really fascinating work. I think that seques nicely into because Toyota is going through all of these shifts and retooling, what they're all about. They're answering the call to these bigger ideas that are floating in and around the world. We always ask our people that we're interviewing, how does your work contribute to a healthier, more equitable, sustainable world? Definitely, we've got safety here. That's lovely. So take us through your thoughts. 

[00:10:15,590] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Toyota is really committed, and we see this in internal company messaging or just the projects that we all get to work on, and even, you can probably see it as a customer, in maybe commercials or whatever it is. But Toyota is really committed to contributing to the practical and sustainable development of society. We're taking a really transparent and science-based approach to address climate change across every part of our company. So it's not just our operations of our products, we'll grow in harmony with the environment. Our commitment to vehicle electrification, I know that's probably one of the big things that folks think of when they're thinking about environmental, you know, causes within the automotive industry, you know, our commitment to that is just really one important element of our efforts to build the world a zero carbon future. We're also challenging our suppliers and our dealers to minimize CO2 emissions and pushing towards carbon neutrality in our operations by 2035. So that's coming up real quick, but we're doing so much work to really charge forward in this mission. And in terms of, you know, in the crash safety world, kind of bringing it back to the things that I'm working on, my team is truly doing a lot of the work to develop our electric vehicles. So you can imagine a lot of things about the vehicle design are going to change when there's a giant super heavy battery involved. And if you really think back to maybe even high school physics, force equals mass times acceleration, a heavier vehicle means more force and more energy to manage in a crash scenario. And so we really have to think differently about how we manage that energy and not only managing the energy, but we have to protect the battery itself in a crash event. Maybe you've seen different things on the news about what happens to batteries, maybe when they're submerged in water, or in crashes and things like that. We definitely don't want that happening to any of our customers. So those are all important things that we have to consider within the Crash Safety team. 

[00:12:20,120] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Thank you. So, what people and organizations are important collaborators toward this brighter future? 

[00:12:26,460] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah, absolutely. I think in the battery space, we're working with LG Energy Solutions, which is a really exciting collaboration. So they'll actually be supplying our automotive battery modules to be used in our battery electric vehicles that are assembled in the US starting next year in 2025. And then again, you know, our suppliers and our dealers, we're really challenging them to minimize CO2 emissions. So I think maybe some people forget that Toyota or any other automotive company, we don't make every single part ourselves, right? We work with all these other smaller companies that create the seats or the steering wheels or the infotainment systems, and there's, you know, hundreds and hundreds of suppliers that we work with to put together a vehicle. And so we're working in leveraging those suppliers and challenging them to really move forward with us in this goal of minimizing CO2 emissions. 

[00:13:22,254] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: It's really interesting that you even mentioned seat design, for example, is outsourced. I worked with a fellow in the past who was one of the, he was a designer, an engineering designer for the seats, and I never even thought about that before. But of course. His favorite was for long haul truckers because those seats have the hydraulics that move up and down with big load. It was really interesting work. You made me recall that important little bit. 

[00:13:51,450] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Haley, in what ways do you anticipate AI impacting your work or the industry in the future? 

[00:13:57,809] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Oh, that's a good question. I think AI or even machine learning, those are just some popular buzzwords I think we're all hearing lots about wherever industry you are, but particularly in the automotive of industry, in crash safety or maybe even in the broader evaluation or performance areas, like I mentioned before, strength or aerodynamics, or what have you. We actually see this internally in ways we're leveraging it to create tools that actually help us make better predictions about the way, maybe a new vehicle or a new platform will perform under certain conditions. So kind of the thinking is that if we can evaluate performances early and virtually based on a previous vehicle's performance, or maybe, like, screen a design with machine learning, we can improve our designs early, and then we can have a more efficient vehicle design cycle. And it also helps us kind of create a more robust design because we're maybe picking out challenge points or something like that with these machine learning tools very early, and a lot of our engineers not only work on the performance aspect, but also they're designing these tools themselves internal to the department. So it's kind of a cool combination of, you know, if you are a mechanical engineer, for example, you can also flex your computer science or coding skills because you can create these tools that help not only you kind of improve designs or something like that, but those tools can also be applicable for other folks in your department. So we see that a lot definitely. But then in other areas, maybe we're thinking of the more customer focused or software type, you know, AI applications. That's definitely coming into play in automotive as well. So developing software that leverages AI to better serve our customers. We're seeing things like that. Maybe the features that you see in your Toyota or Lexus apps, if anyone is a Toyota or Lexus driver with maybe a newer vehicle. They have some sort of AI or engine behind that, that's been developed by our software company, Toyota Connected. And these products can help our customers schedule service or even kind of build up their next vehicle to their liking on the Toyota website, which are some cool ways. So there's lots of AI really coming into play both internally to support vehicle development, and then also just simply in the products as you might maybe normally think of where you would see AI that are more customer facing like interfaces with our customers. 

[00:16:33,800] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: So many creative ways that the AI is being used, right? 

[00:16:36,719] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Absolutely. 

[00:16:38,460] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Early and eager adaptation or adoption, too, of all of these systems, and all the cautionary tales, but this seems like really appropriate ways to do early testing, as you were saying. It's just amazing. There's so many really great applications. I'm really interested in knowing your take then on, what do you recommend for others who want to go into this field? How do they get to this spot where you are doing so much good work? 

[00:17:07,469] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah, absolutely. You know, the automotive industry is rapidly changing, even at the Sears Society of Automotive Engineers Conference, which is held annually in Detroit, all of the branding is mobility and these kinds of wordings. You know, It's not just an industry where, you know, you had to be as a child working in the garage with your parents and taking apart cars. You know, that's really not the classic tale anymore of folks who are getting into the automotive or mobility industry. I think it's a really exciting time to become involved because there are so many types of jobs for folks from all engineering backgrounds, mechanical, electrical, materials, chemical, biomedical, manufacturing engineering. There's literally a place for you in multiple places actually for you within the automotive industry. And then, of course, there's so much work outside of engineering. Maybe from like pure science and research, marketing, business, sales, strategy, purchasing, supply chain. There's so so much within the automotive industry. Literally any educational background can land you in automotive. And so I think that's a really cool time to be entering into this mobility sector. But really, maybe a little bit more specific to crash safety, the most common education is a four year degree in mechanical or biomedical engineering. Some companies prefer or require masters, but not at Toyota. But while in school, I'd really recommend getting involved in undergraduate research or a project team to get experience with project schedules, collecting data, analyzing that data. And really that collaboration with your peers or your research group is also really important experience. But crash safety, you know, I think I mentioned before, it's a mix of virtual and physical testing. Obviously, the automotive companies don't expect you to be crashing cars and analyzing that kind of data when you're an undergrad. But something you can do to kind of give yourself a little bit of experience is at least maybe taking a course in finite element analysis or computer aided design, so either some FVA or CAD classes. But I know that also takes place outside of the classroom in some project teams. So that's also some sort of little advantage to kind of just getting your toes wet in some of the technical aspects of this work that could be, you know, going on when you're an undergrad. 

[00:19:31,114] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: That link to project teams is so important. For everybody who isn't aware of our calendar, we're recording this in the middle of May. We are just about to hit project team competition time and all their deadlines were recently in play. Your whole thing about project management of project cycles and keeping to those with your testing. Boy, I don't think you could ring that one anymore, true. Far as campus experiences. But you're right, the offices of undergraduate research and all of these project teams certainly feed into all those qualities you were talking about. 

[00:20:06,879] CHRISTA DOWNEY: This is all excellent advice. And along these lines, what do you wish you knew when you were a sophomore? 

[00:20:12,100] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Hm. That's a good question. I think I wish I knew that everything would work out the way it's supposed to. And I know it's easy to say that, you know, in retrospect. But while you know, maybe if you're a sophomore or junior, what have you listening, you can say, brush that off and say, hey, you don't understand, I'm so stressed. I have all these classes, whatever. I was there, too. I get it. But, you know, really, I never even considered the automotive industry for a career, ever. Growing up in San Diego and then going to school in Ithaca, you don't necessarily consider those two cities hubs of automotive activity. So I just had no exposure. I didn't have any role models in the automotive industry. I didn't even know that crash safety existed. But actually, a graduate TA of one of my classes encouraged me to go and talk to some of the companies at the Society of Women Engineers National Conference in 2017. So this was actually my junior year, or going into junior year, I suppose. So I was guess, a little bit late, so to speak, in my undergraduate career, to have an epiphany about what I want to do with my life. But she was at the time, like, the only woman TA that I'd ever had in a mechanical engineering course. So I really looked up to her, and, you know, she really, whether she knows it or not, that encouragement and literally grabbing me by the arm and saying, hey, like, go, go talk to these folks. Did you know that crash safety is a thing? And I said, No, I had no idea, she's like, well, we're both going to go learn right now. So we you know, walked up to booths and things like that. I had no idea what crash safety entailed, but, you know, I trusted her and, you know, took that leap of faith and had no idea that it would lead to all of this. But, you know, all that to say, you do end up, I think we're supposed to. Maybe it's not the career industry that you imagined early in your college career, but I think any career that you have, when you use your engineering degree is really guaranteed to impact the lives of others. You know, so if you're a sophomore, a freshman or junior or, you know, senior, even listening, and you don't quite know what you want to do yet, you know, I think just kind of find peace in the fact that you will get to somewhere where you're supposed to be eventually. Maybe it's not your perfect timeline. Maybe it's not even your first job right at of undergrad. Maybe it's not with the right company or, you know, something or the preferred company, so to speak. But I think eventually you will land where you are supposed to be. 

[00:22:40,104] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Think your point is so great about the power of mentoring there. The vision of her grabbing you by the arm and let's go talk to people in these booths, what a fabulously empowering moment and fun too. In that moment, she changed your whole life. It's really important to understand we can be on both sides of that equation at any moment. A grad TA did that for you. That's fabulous. In that same spirit, we like to ask folks, what class or classes had the greatest impact for you while you were still at Cornell? 

[00:23:17,334] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, the biomedical engineering course work really diverges from the mechanical engineering or the rest of the engineering curriculum, you know, somewhere late sophomore year going into junior year, but really a lot of a lot of crash safety is pretty basic physics, plus some, you know, additional complications or what have you. So a lot of the foundation courses that I think most of us take during our first two years, basic physics, basic maths, and stuff. Those actually, just from a, you know, transferability perspective, those were the most tangible, I would say, I also took some materials engineering classes as a junior and senior. They were obviously very related to biomedical engineering. But I think being in those classes got me thinking about materials, how they affect, you know, the use case of that material or whatever the devices that material is making up. And then the performance of that biomedical device because of the material or something like that, which is really the same thinking way that we use in automotive. You know, is this material proper for this application in the instrument panel? Should we use something else or, you know, different energy absorption properties of different metals is also something we think about a lot, things like that. So, um kind of just some materials classes helped me get into that mindset, I would say. And so, you know, I hate to admit it, but I definitely did not go back to my school notes when I started at Toyota, but I can say that, you know, the courses built up my engineering mindset, and definitely those collaboration skills I talked a lot about. I'd say that communication is probably the number one skill I have to leverage on a daily basis. So I'm definitely, you know, still practicing and trying to improve upon that, but I do think that, you know, that's a skill that we worked quite a bit on at Cornell and all of our group projects, or presentations or what have you. But then right behind that is probably being curious. I think being curious leads to asking good questions and asking questions leads to dialogue about you know, why a part was designed a certain way or why a certain material was chosen or why the result is the way it is. And then you kind of get into discussions from there. So I think you know, asking questions is super fundamental at Toyota. We encourage it all the time. And it's part of vehicle development. It's assumed that in every meeting you go to, there's going to be a bunch of questions. So asking why just really helps us understand the true reason of, you know, why something is a certain way, not just taking something at face value. And I think I learned to be curious in my classes, especially those major specific junior senior classes, where we really dived into a lot of really, really cool topics. But also, you know, outside the classroom, I just want to touch on that because I think that the activities that I was involved in had almost an equal impact on me, and I really was involved in a lot of activities in undergrad, probably more than I should have. I did research, I was involved in SWE, Society of Women Engineers. I was a resident advisor, and the list goes on and on. But really these activities, I think, honed in those non technical skills, and also passions for, you know, serving others in my community. I think I really carry these experiences with me, even now. I really would just encourage every student to get involved with just something outside of the classroom. You know, it doesn't have to be a project team. It doesn't have to be research, but I think even a student group lets you develop those leadership skills and experiences, which is also super super important. 

[00:27:00,620] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Indeed, Haley, you are clearly a curious and engaged learner. And excellent role modeling for those listening. So, where you are now in your career, where do you go to stay current for information? 

[00:27:15,574] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: There's a lot of different sites dedicated to automotive information. Automotive News, for example, they're based here in Michigan. They have you know, tons of articles coming out every day, whether it's automotive "gossip" or actual information coming out. That is a very, you know, common source of information for folks in the auto industry. The Society of Automotive Engineers also has journals, they also have publications, things like that. So they have, you know, lots of presentations at the Society of Automotive Engineers conference that happens every single year. But then you can also, you know, get these passive resources through them, whether it's journal or different research papers and things like that. So those are also good. But then if we want to get maybe more specific and be current on our actual Toyota customers, we get some information from consumer insights, which is another company that we work within all of really the automotive industry, leverages consumer insights. We launch a vehicle, for example, and then they gather lots of data on, you know, customer first impressions and things like that. And so we can take that customer feedback and whether that's make an immediate improvement, you know, that might be something. But it's more like improving the next generation of a vehicle, for example, based on that customer data. 

[00:28:39,830] CHRISTA DOWNEY: So, are you still attending SWE conferences? 

[00:28:42,749] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Oh, I am. Yes. I'm very fortunate that Toyota has been super supportive of sending lots of folks to SWE conferences. I've actually attended every year except COVID since I've been hired on, which has been lots of fun. I have actually spoken at SWE conferences since I was in college at Cornell, but I spoke with a group of other young professionals from Toyota at last year's SWE conference. And then the previous year, my topic was a little bit more related to SWE activities and outreach and stuff, but it's actually been lots of fun. I get to work the recruiting booth with other folks from all over Toyota North America, and also attend some really great sessions from other women in engineering industries. 

[00:29:27,740] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Those conferences are so much fun. When I used to be at a university closer to Detroit, I would go to SAE. Then a lot of my executive ed students, participants there, were doing their presentations, so I'd get to go and watch and watch big. It was great. Yeah. It's a great conference. Absolutely. SWE too, of course, but yes. We know that one's awesome, too. 

[00:29:52,419] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: SWE is awesome. They just keep breaking records every year with attendance. This year, we'll be in Chicago in the fall, which I think is going to be even bigger since there's just so many solid engineering schools close to Chicago, so should be a fun one. 

[00:30:07,299] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: Who. So exciting. Yeah, maybe I'll try it. Speaking of fun and being in a great city like Chicago, what do you like to do though for fun? It sounds like you're way too busy to have outside activities, but of course you're going to fit them in. And what do you do to have fun? 

[00:30:24,780] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: I think that's the one thing that I prefer to, working full time than at college. When you working full time, you shut that laptop and you're done. I know eventually maybe later in my career, maybe that might not be the case, but currently where I'm at, I get to be done on Friday and back Monday. But you know, I do lots of different things, and definitely having an engineering career helps you be able to do fun things outside of work with a, you know, solid salary and all those good things and all the benefits that you have. Definitely a big perk of being able to enjoy your free time. So I guess, I've been getting into golfing now that the weather's warm. I grew up playing. I took a pretty big hiatus after high school, and I was in college. And then my husband, he just started playing as well. So now he's like, super into it. He's also an engineer. So you know, he's always every single day, it's a new thing. Oh, did you hear about this ball and why it's, you know, shaped that way? Oh, do you hear how they, you know, design this, you know, golf club, all this stuff. You know, He's got all the facts and figures and data. So he's getting into that and really trying to become, you know, maybe we'll see him on the PGA tour one day. I don't know. I'm just kidding. But Michigan actually is really big for golf, which I didn't realize. So we've been having a lot of fun, just checking out new courses and stuff and playing when we can. And just exploring, traveling is other, you know, kind of things I like to do. Michigan's also very fun for, like, small towns and lake shore towns. You know, we're surrounded by water. We also have so many lakes within the state, not just the big, great lakes. So there's all these cute little spots around the state that are, pretty easy to drive through just for a weekend or even just a day trip. So that's been a lot of fun since living here. And then I also, you know, maybe getting into my like, suburban adult life is getting outside in the yard and garden. Lots of adult hobbies, I suppose. 

[00:32:28,230] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Adult hobbies. So If you weren't doing this right now, you know, what might you be doing and is it something that maybe you considered as a child? 

[00:32:40,760] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: When I was a kid, my first exposure to quote engineering was maybe my first Lego League team. And I did not think that that was very cool. I was like, oh, I don't know about this whole engineering thing. Is this all they do? They just, you know, I don't know. I was totally not convinced at my first exposure. Eventually, I met my first biomedical engineer. You know, it's kind of like meeting a celebrity when I was in high school, and so then that kind of led me to looking into the major and things like that. And then, you know, things went from there. But really, when I was younger, I didn't I don't know if I necessarily had decided engineering was for me until later in high school. But I think for a long time, I came from, you know, a family of educators. My mom was a teacher. My grandparents on both sides were teachers and professors, researchers. So I thought for a long time, maybe I'd, you know, be a STEM teacher or something like that. But, you know, maybe that's what I thought it would be as a child. I don't know if my memory is too strong, but I think eventually that's something I'd still like to get back to. It's still a passion I have kind of, you know, reaching the next generation. I know I'm not going to be the engineer that, you know, solves the greatest problems in crash safety or develops, like the most insane and awesome airbags or whatever. You know, that's the next generation after me or maybe even the generation after that. The way that, you know, technology evolves at a snail's pace, I suppose. So I think, you know, man, many, many, many years, after I retire from Toyota, I'd like to go back to teaching somewhere, maybe a community college, maybe a professor of practice, maybe even just, you know, high school or elementary school, whatever it may be, but, you know, maybe that aligns more, you know, with my childhood vision of my career, perhaps. 

[00:34:34,770] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Those children would be fortunate to have you. In the meantime, we're fortunate to have you in the role that you're in. 

[00:34:41,219] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Thanks. 

[00:34:42,120] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY: I just Yeah, I love this whole thing that you have about you recognizing your mentors, right, and those people that were that the rock star bio engineering person at High School. And it's just it's so nice to hear it. 

[00:34:56,499] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Yeah. I mean, it's so important. I don't think that any one mentor is going to be, you know, I mean, maybe my TA, for example, that was kind of a pivotal moment for me, but I think in general, mentors are kind of building upon each other. It's the sum of all these interactions that you've had with other people. Like, you're the product of all of the effort and time that other people have put in to you, and then you somehow become something later. And so I just think that it's so important that when you get to that, whatever it may be, you, you know, go back to previous generation or, you know, younger people at your company or even peer mentoring, I think is so so valuable. And I don't know. It's just so important. I think we don't, in college, maybe mentoring is not at top of mind, sometimes, but eventually, when you get into, you know, the real world, it becomes super super critical, I think. 

[00:35:51,289] TRACI NATHANS-KELLY:  Thank you so much for sharing all of your thoughts and wisdom and wonderfulness today. 

[00:35:56,529] HALEY ANTOINE GRANTHAM: Absolutely, any time. 

[00:35:58,509] CHRISTA DOWNEY: Thank you for listening. If you are enjoying these conversations, please follow, rate, and review on your favorite platform. Join us for the next episode, where we will be celebrating excellence and innovation among engineers whose impact contributes to a healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable world.