CORE.

Kaylee’s visit to the space center opened up a new world for her. Engineering and science inspired her creative nature to think of new ways to improve the world that she lives in. The most memorable part of the entire project was that she learned how to write a research proposal and had the opportunity to present it to NASA engineers. At this point, working in this field became something that would push her interest.

During her senior year, Kaylee's engineering teacher encouraged her to sign up for the science fair. She decided to do it and make a difference at the same time. She wanted to find a practical solution for a dangerous situation that people face everywhere: radiation. 

Radiation is the emission or transmission of energy through space or matter. It comes from many places such as concrete on the street and even bananas! We are exposed to radiation nearly every day in ways that we are unaware of. The science fair had Kaylee thinking about her hometown in Boston where radon poisoning and radon detection devices are prevalent in homes.

Radon is a radioactive gas that can potentially cause lung cancer if it is inhaled. Kaylee conjured the idea of making a mask for homeowners to wear if their house is exposed to radon. She decided to use boron nitride nanotubes, the same material she used for her NASA experiment, however she found that it cost $700 a gram, which was out of her budget. She decided to use carbon nanotubes, which are less expensive, and put carbon fabric in a carbon nanotube infused epoxy. The big problem was that epoxy is an airtight material, making the production of a mask unlikely and impractical.

Kaylee now had the material but without much use for it. Kaylee had seemingly reached a dead-end, but this is where her research skills came in handy. She pivoted topics for the science fair to help other populations exposed to radiation. She found a Harvard study that discovered that female flight attendants were 50% more likely to develop breast cancer because of their constant exposure to cosmic radiation — radiation coming from space.

Kaylee then had the idea of developing a bra that would protect women who work in close proximity to radiation using the moldable epoxy she originally intended to build a mask with. This product could protect not only flight attendants, but radiologists, nurses, and nuclear engineers, among others. The idea was to create a comfortable and practical piece of clothing that would protect the body as a replacement for the uncomfortable and heavy lead vests typically worn to protect against radiation.

To put the genius of Kaylee's invention into perspective, think of how uncomfortable and heavy the lead vests used at dental offices during X-Rays are, and then imagine wearing that lead vest throughout the entire day.

Kaylee started on her project, first making an ionization chamber from a soup can. She set up a GoFundMe account to fund the rest of her research. What would have been a waste of nanotube material became the fourth place winner at the International Science and Engineering Fair. This distinction granted Kaylee acceptance into the University of Florida’s College of Engineering in Fall 2018, where she would continue to further her project with funding from the university.

Kaylee decided to pursue nuclear engineering at UF, which focuses on using atoms to make heat, which can be converted into electricity. Kaylee explains that this is mediated by nuclear fission: the process of taking an atom and hitting it with a neutron. When that atom is hit with a neutron, that atom splits into two and spits out two more neutrons.

It is essentially a continuous chain reaction. "It is like a food fight in a cafeteria that begins with one person throwing a meatball at someone and that person throws it to someone else until eventually the entire lunchroom is throwing meatballs everywhere," Kaylee explains. "It's just like neutrons flying all over the place."

However, nuclear reactions are closely monitored and controlled so that scientists can get the amount of heat that is needed in order to produce energy and to make the chances of an accident close to zero, in order to make sure the 'meatballs' don’t hurt anyone.

She explains that after the devastating events of Chernobyl and Fukushima, experts came together to prevent future accidents from happening. Despite the few accidents that have happened in the past, she is confident that nuclear engineering is paving the way of the future. With this being said, Kaylee sees herself opening her own company focused on nuclear energy for space applications to aid in nuclear propulsion and fission surface power technologies for space companies such as SpaceX and Kennedy Space Center. 

Kaylee attributes her success to two people in particular. Ms. Nimmi, Kaylee’s high school engineering teacher, who taught all of Kaylee’s engineering classes, encouraged her to do the science fair, and introduced numerous opportunities to her. Being a woman in STEM, seeing a strong female in engineering inspired her to pursue nuclear engineering as a career path. Kaylee also attributed her father as someone who inspires her because of all the work that he had done to maintain his family. She derives her strong work ethic from him.