Hello There! My name is Marie and I am the Senior Project Engineer for Preemadonna. I grew up in Sacramento, California but decided to leave the tranquil weather for more turbulent ones to pursue my Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Thankfully, after graduating in 2017, I decided to come back to sunny California and work for Preemadonna.
Being an engineer and having fidgety fingers, I spend most of my spare time woodworking or fixing things around the house. I may or may not break things down as an excuse to be able to fix them back up. When my hands are tired from a long day of sanding down wood, I enjoy reading books on regional mythology, mystery thrillers, and joke books. I also like to play tag with my Sheepadoodle and snuggle with him while catching up on my favorite TV shows, such as Fringe, Star Wars animated shows, and the Great British Baking Show. I have a thirteen-year-old brother with who I play multiplayer video games on the weekends and regularly have disputes on who caused our deaths in Minecraft Dungeons. Sometimes these disputes get too heated, in which case we both get in trouble with our mom. (Though we all agree it’s his fault).
Over the past couple of years, I have been an intern, Project Engineer, and now Senior Project Engineer for Preemadonna. Through the progression of positions within Preemadonna, I have been allowed the opportunity to try my hand at a variety of engineering facets needed to create products like Nailbot. I have gotten to review patents, design parts of Nailbot, create and run quality assurance tests, learn how Mechanical designs combine with Software and Firmware, and the importance of flexibility and out-of-the-box thinking. Preemadonna allows me to use my best trait of tinkering and apply it to my job every day helping develop Nailbot.
Preemadonna not only inspires me but others as well to express themselves in ways that showcase your identity and uniqueness. With Nailbot, Preemadonna is breaking through the stereotype that technology can’t be elegant or beautiful. We get to show the world that beauty can be expressed in a variety of ways, and in our case, it’s through the blending of engineering and nail art.
The main lesson I have learned while working for Preemadonna is that we all should strive to be all of who we are. Most of us can’t be defined by only one thing, nor should we. Be proud to be an engineer, inventor, artist, designer, storyteller, leader, teacher all rolled into one. And most of all never be afraid of being smart and beautiful.
-Marie Millan