Betty Baker was the only female mechanical engineer to graduate from her college class. She was also the first female product engineer hired at Ashley Furniture Industries, Inc., over 35 years ago. The company is headquartered in Arcadia, Wisconsin, and manufactures and distributes home furniture products worldwide.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/ashley20automation.jpeg\")
\u201cThere are inherent challenges in being the only woman in the engineering department,\u201d says Baker. \u201cI had to work extra hard initially to earn respect and prove myself.\u201d Things have changed a lot over the years, and Baker freely admits that she likes working in a male-dominated field. \u201cI have become \u2018one of the guys,\u2019\u201d laughs Baker.<\/p>\n
Right out of high school and with no clue about what to do next, Baker started out on the Ashley Furniture<\/a> factory floor as a fabrication catcher, which is exactly like it sounds: Baker \u201ccaught\u201d parts as they came off a machine, checked them, and piled them on a skid. From there she moved up to machine operator.<\/p>\n Her initial plan was to stay at Ashley for a year, figure out what she wanted to do with her life, and move on. However, Baker really liked the environment, the people, and the work at Ashley Furniture, so she stayed longer than anticipated. Soon she was drawing parts by hand, and that got her thinking about going to college for mechanical engineering. Then the company started a tuition reimbursement program, so Baker enrolled part-time at a local college and took a CAD class. \u201cFrom that point on I was hooked,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we first got SOLIDWORKS\u00ae<\/a> at Ashley Furniture, I was terrified,\u201d Baker remembers. \u201cI was used to working in 2D, so it was intimidating. But after I started using SOLIDWORKS, I liked it right away, and so did other engineers at our company.\u201d After a couple of years with SOLIDWORKS, Ashley Furniture started an internal SOLIDWORKS user group, and an external user group followed. Today Baker is the president of the La Crosse, Eau Claire, and Winona Area (LEWA) SOLIDWORKS User Group, and she is also the Midwest U.S. representative for the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network<\/a>. Baker has been a speaker at many SOLIDWORKS events and is an advocate for women in engineering and manufacturing. She has also taught SOLIDWORKS for two summers at Western Technical College, using her vacation time to do so.<\/p>\n On a lark, Baker became a FIRST Robotics<\/a> coach.<\/p>\n When the automation manager at Ashley Furniture asked her to coach, Baker was hesitant at first. She knew nothing about FIRST Robotics, so she relied on a tried-and-true personal philosophy when new opportunities present themselves: \u201cJust say yes.\u201d To dip her toes in the proverbial water, Baker attended a FIRST Robotics competition.<\/p>\n \u201cI had only planned on being there 15 minutes,\u201d says Baker. \u201cFour hours later we left the competition and had already decided that Ashley Furniture needed to sponsor its own FIRST Robotics team.\u201d Because of timing, Baker had to register their \u201cteam\u201d right away, even though they didn\u2019t have a team, or a team name, or any students to populate the team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were so disorganized and clueless about what we were doing,\u201d laughs Baker. Being from a smaller community, Baker and other FIRST Robotics mentors from Ashley Furniture needed to reach beyond their city\u2019s borders to find enough kids. \u201cI remember coming into one of our very first team meetings about building a robot. One of our adult mentors was teaching the kids \u2018righty-tighty, lefty-loosey.\u2019 And I remember thinking: Oh, brother! Seriously?! We are going to have the very first FIRST Robotics team where the kids don’t know how to tighten a bolt.\u201d<\/p>\n The kids dove headfirst into the project heart and soul.<\/p>\n Amazingly, at their first official robotics competition, FIRST Robotics team #7021, coached by Betty Baker, Andy Baker (no relation), and a host of mentors, won first place! That same year the team qualified for the FIRST Robotics World Championship. \u201cWe have great resources at Ashley Furniture,\u201d says Baker. \u201cOf the three years of competition, we have qualified for the World Championship twice.\u201d<\/p>\n Baker continues: \u201cAnyone can join our team. I mean anyone<\/em>. It is not just for engineering nerds. We need a variety of kids that bring different talents and skills to the table.\u201d The team needs kids for fundraising, a key component to their continued survival. \u201cWe teach the kids not to rely on just one big sponsor (like Ashley Furniture), so the kids helped us find additional sponsors. They sent letters, asked for money, and went to talk to companies in-person to ask for support.\u201d Students are needed for programming, accounting, travel arrangements, marketing, and more\u2014it is just like running a real business.<\/p>\n The team also held a steak fry to raise money. The kids served the food and washed the dishes. \u201cWe currently have 50 sponsors thanks to the students hard work,\u201d says Baker.<\/p>\n Baker is in her fourth year of coaching FIRST Robotics. And Ashley Furniture now also supports a middle school STEM program called Vex Robotics<\/a>. Trempealeau County Robotics also started their own middle school Vex Robotics team where experienced FIRST Robotics<\/a> students mentor their Vex Robotics students. \u201cWe believe in giving back so to reward graduating seniors for their hard work in the FIRST Robotics program and help them to the next step of their career, students may apply for a $1000 scholarship from the team,\u201d says Baker. \u201cWe are so proud of our students, and they really do have a leg up in college because of their participation in the robotics program.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information about SOLIDWORKS, contact your local reseller<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Learning and Mastering 3D CAD<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/ashley20factory.jpeg\")
Baker now works in the domestic case goods department; the company also leverages SOLIDWORKS in its upholstery and robotics division. \u201cYou can use SOLIDWORKS for everything,\u201d Baker enthuses.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/betty_kids-615x593.jpg\")
Always Say \u201cYes\u201d to Opportunity<\/h2>\nNow What the Heck Do We Do?<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/stem-615x410.jpeg\")
<\/strong>They traveled to area schools hoping to recruit students for their FIRST Robotics team. They eventually convinced twenty students to sign up.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/teampic-615x461.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPulling Out All the Stops<\/h2>\n
The Uncomfortable Zone<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/vexteam-615x461.jpg\")
Baker wants kids to step outside of their comfort zones. She continually encourages the FIRST Robotics students to say \u201cYes\u201d and to try new things. \u201cI personally never had a role model, so if I can help someone get on their career path before high school graduation, that makes me happy,\u201d says Baker.\u00a0\u201cOur first year, we had a senior who knew CAD so he did the design in SOLIDWORKS. Our second year, a young female student wanted to learn SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD. She learned it quickly and loved every minute of designing the robot.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog-assets.solidworks.com\/uploads\/sites\/3\/highschool_middeschool.jpg\")
<\/p>\n