From Google to Tesla to Boston Dynamics: Go-getter alumna cracked the code on getting ahead

After internships at Tesla, GE Appliances, Boeing and Google, Isabella Viera Estrada '24 is now an engineer at Boston Dynamics, where she works on field applications for the company's cutting-edge STRETCH robot.

"I have a passion for learning and growing," says the mechanical engineering graduate. "I am loving my job."

But the path to Boston Dynamics wasn't straightforward or without challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Viera’s freshman year in 2020 online. Yet she still delivered an elevator pitch to every company where she hoped to land an internship — and was rejected by all of them.

Seeing opportunity where others saw obstacles, she dove into professional student organizations, secured a research position and continued her internship hunt from behind a computer screen. She was determined to turn every “no” into a stepping stone to something greater.

Along the way, she also made some valuable observations.

“One of the things I noticed was that many students were waiting until their junior year to start searching for an internship,” she says. “That makes it more difficult.”

While she could have decided that she had four years to land an internship, she followed her instincts and looked for strategies that would get her there the following year.

“You don’t have to have it all figured out freshman year, but you should remain open. When it came to internships, I was a bit too picky my freshman year.”

She recalls passing on a recruitment chance with Whirlpool, who came to a Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers event on campus.

“I remember thinking, ‘Why would I work in appliances?’ “

Then, along came her first internship — with GE Appliances.

“They have a solid internship program and you own your project,” she says. “I learned so much. I worked in the refrigerator line and helped them introduce a new product line. About 60 percent of my experience was hands-on in the factory. I was doing actual engineering work.”

What she learned inside and outside of the classroom during her freshman year and beyond changed her mindset and launched her on a path to success. One of her mentors, mechanical and materials engineering professor Norman Munroe, taught Viera's introduction to engineering class.

“I have had the privilege of witnessing her maturity and professionalism. Isabella has visited my classroom annually as a guest speaker to share her experiences and insights with the students,” Munroe says.

“She has acquired hands-on experience as an undergraduate research assistant working on the design of a novel hydraulic prosthetic devices and has demonstrated leadership as the founder of a student organization. Her impactful efforts to serve the needs of others attests to the substantial contribution she can render to others wherever she goes.”

While at FIU, Viera founded Coffee Chats with Isa, a free program that helped more than 150 students reach their goals by assisting them with their resumes and job hunts.

Although Viera possessed robust classroom, organizational and internship experience, she entered Boston Dynamics with no prior robotics background. As a rotational development engineer, she is spending 18 months going through six disciplines at the company. On her third rotation, she traveled to Arizona from the company’s Boston headquarters to install STRETCH’s safety system.

“The box-handling robot is used primarily in warehouses to automate the task of unloading boxes from trailers and shipping containers,” she says. “I’ve been able to see everything from how it is assembled and manufactured to how it acts in the field and functions with the customer. I am learning so much.”

Viera proved herself capable of both jumping right into the workforce and making a difference immediately, says JoJo Winsor, manager of strategic field applications engineering at Boston Dynamics.

“Isabella brings a rare mix of technical ability, an energized curiosity and true emotional intelligence to her work at Boston Dynamics,” she says.

“Her experiences at FIU, through coursework, internships and her own work as a peer mentor, gave her a strong foundation that she has confidently applied in real-world settings, from manufacturing and testing robots, to fielding them, working with cross-functional teams internally to accomplish goals and helping customers extract value from our robots in their lives and operations.”