NSBE - Convention 2020 - 47

WHAT ENGINEERS DO
had a good experience there: she mentored local youth with
the campus NSBE chapter, completed summer internships with
Boeing and studied abroad one summer in Europe.
That's not all: as a college student, Davis actually met the
president of the United States. One night in 2015 while taking a study break, she wrote a letter to then-President Barack
Obama. The topic was her concern about college affordability.
"I was procrastinating from doing thermodynamics home-

carpet with celebrities and later addressed an audience of millions in a televised acceptance speech on BET.
More accolades came during the NBA All-Star Game in
February 2019. Davis was part of a video that celebrated the
wonders of flight. She was featured alongside astronaut Scott
Kelly and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. The video
segment, titled "First in Flight," explored the fundamentals of
aviation and drew connections between the science of flight
and the athleticism of professional
basketball. In the
video, Davis tells the
viewers about her
expertise and her joy.
"When you're
flying through space,
when you're soaring
through the skies, there's just something powerful - almost
mystical," she says.
Davis is grateful for the experience.
"I am still in awe," she says about appearing in the video with
famous names. "I'm extremely blessed and grateful to represent
the aerospace field." ■

"My dream project is creating a humanoid-type of robot drone that
can do tasks autonomously. And maybe I'll become an astronaut one
day or the first person on Mars."
work," she admits. To her surprise and delight, a letter arrived a
few weeks later from the White House. President Obama wrote
that he had also struggled to pay for college.
The commander-in-chief later visited Georgia Tech to
unveil his Student Aid Bill of Rights. Davis had the privilege of
introducing POTUS from the podium in front of about 10,000
students, faculty members and community leaders. She assured
the president that her class assignment was completed.
"That's good. You've got a high approval rating," he told her.
After graduating in 2016, Davis got another taste of fame.
She posted a class photo and a caption on her Instagram page
with the hashtag #YesIAmARocketScientist. It quickly went viral.
That July, President Obama tweeted about her accomplishments:
"In America, we don't fear the future, we embrace it. 50 years
ago, that spirit took us to the moon. Today, it's embodied by
people like Tiffany Davis. She's a young rocket scientist who is
helping us explore the next frontier, wherever that might take us."

BLACK GIRLS ROCK!
Davis is now in a master's degree program in computer
science at Georgia Tech, taking online courses. Her studies
include artificial intelligence and machine learning, and she
hopes to use her new knowledge in future space exploration
missions.
"My dream project is creating a humanoid-type of robot
drone that can do tasks autonomously," she says. "And maybe
I'll become an astronaut one day or the first person on Mars."
Meanwhile, Davis encourages other young women and
people of color to embrace science, technology, engineering
and math (STEM). In her free time, she speaks at schools and
conferences, hosts STEM workshops and runs a mentoring program for girls. She has also established a GoFundMe page for a
scholarship program she named AstroGirls. Her plan is to give
girls the opportunity to travel and participate in Space Camp,
where students solve problems in space mission scenarios and
attend lectures by astronauts.
In 2019, the talented dreamer was honored with a tech
award at #BlackGirlsRock. Before the show, she walked the red
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NSBE - Convention 2020

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