Women in Engineering: Kara Tucker on Fostering Future Engineers

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Creating Functional, Well-Designed Products that Enhance Everyday Life with Kara Tucker

Kara Tucker is a Design Engineer at Weiss Watch Company, focusing on industrial and mechanical design work. Her responsibilities include creating new watch components, documenting existing assemblies, and prototyping innovative concepts. Since joining the company, Kara has taken on projects, such as refining the design of a bracelet prototype that had been a long-time vision for Weiss. She is also involved in building a comprehensive design library for the company’s watch movements, which is essential for streamlining future development.

Working for a small company like Weiss, Kara wears many hats and is often involved in projects that span from initial concept to production. She loves the collaborative nature of the company’s design process, where some days are spent creating detailed CAD models. In contrast, others are focused on brainstorming with the team or troubleshooting manufacturing challenges. This holistic approach to design keeps Kara engaged and constantly learning, which she values highly in her career.

Before joining Weiss, Kara was part of the Gibson Guitar team in Nashville. While she enjoyed designing guitars, her curiosity about the mechanical side led her in a new direction. Watches, which combine detailed industrial design with precise mechanical engineering, were a natural fit for her interests.

Kara seeks to inspire others through her work and wants to help make the world better. Her undergraduate degree in theology allowed Kara to explore the ‘why’ behind her future mission to help others. Invention and progress are meant to make living easier, in her opinion. Seeking to find the ‘how,’ Kara pursued a degree in design & drafting to discover how engineering principles could be applied to improve daily life in all kinds of communities. Through this program, Kara discovered the broader world of industrial design and engineering, ultimately leading her to where she is today.

Kara is passionate about community engagement, teaching, and mentoring. She has been a Nashville SOLIDWORKS User Group (SWUGN) member for three years and was recently appointed co-leader alongside Rudy Ottway.  At a recent Halloween event, Kara and Rudy discussed What’s New in SOLIDWORKS 2025 and how AI is helping (or hurting) the industry. She is exploring new opportunities for her SWUGN group and is eager to collaborate further with local universities and schools. If you are interested in joining the Nashville SWUGN group, the meetup link is: https://www.meetup.com/music-city-solidworks-user-group/

Additionally, Kara has taught high school students the fundamentals of CAD. Her experiences in teaching and mentoring have equipped her with the confidence and skills to take on larger projects and leadership roles.

Beta Testing event (2023) with a few members of the UX Design Team. Priya is Dassault’s UX Design Senior Manager, and she inspired me greatly when I met her. Kathy Howard, Priya Dalmia, Kara Tucker, Jed Crystal, Taufiq S., and Majie Zeller.

 

Beta Testing event (2023) with Betty Baker, Michael Lord, Taylor, Dan Wagner, Joe Lance, Suzanne Locke, me, and Suchit Jain.

 

 

Kara, Danute (Dani) Petrova-Nikolova, and Stephanie Hayna at 3DEXPERIENCE World 2024.

 

Kara’s openness to learning and tackling new challenges has allowed her to thrive in engineering roles across multiple industries. Whether designing guitars or watches, Kara’s work always centers around her core motivation: to create functional, thoughtfully designed products that are meaningful for people’s everyday lives. Today, this means taking on even more complex projects at Weiss, from refining existing designs to bringing entirely new concepts to life.

Outside work, Kara stays true to her love for creating and problem-solving through hobbies like DIY miniature-building and cozy video games. These hobbies share a common thread of attention to detail and a drive to understand how things come together. By embracing a mix of disciplines and always pushing to understand more, Kara’s career continues to grow and evolve.

Kara at Anderson Beach in the J Percy Priest Reservoir, this past summer, enjoying Stand Up Paddle (SUP) – boarding!

 

Her advice for anyone considering an engineering career path is to:

“Do what you can with what you have and meet yourself where you’re at.”

This is a reminder that the journey doesn’t have to be perfect or linear—it’s about embracing where you are and finding the next small step forward.

 

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