{"id":85927,"date":"2024-05-29T13:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/?p=85927"},"modified":"2025-09-23T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:19:00","slug":"malinda-fry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/malinda-fry\/","title":{"rendered":"Malinda Fry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"cl-wrapper cl-boxout-wrapper\"><div class=\"cl-boxout right  \"><p>Name: Malinda Fry<br \/>\nMajor: Industrial and Systems Engineering<br \/>\nMinor: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, Mathematics<br \/>\nHometown: Exeter, RI<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Graduate with passion for sustainability discovers deeper depths of major<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Malinda Fry always enjoyed math, science and problem-solving, so it wasn\u2019t a surprise when she followed in her mother\u2019s footsteps to pursue engineering. As a stage manager in high school drama, she found that when it all ran smoothly, she felt gratified and liked seeing the efficiency, which led her to choose<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/mcise\/academics\/b-s-in-industrial-and-systems-engineering\/\"> industrial and systems engineering<\/a> as her major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the middle of a pandemic, it was an easy decision to stay to close to home and attend <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/admission\/applying-to-uri\/\">University of Rhode Island<\/a>, the same university as both of her parents, but the fact it offered a robust engineering program and multiple opportunities to also join organizations of special interest to her made an easy decision even easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-79392 size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1555\/URIVOTES-Fry-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-79392\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Malinda (left) at a URIVOTES at the Nation Guard Ste, Exploration and Open House Event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are a lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/disability\/campus-resources\/\">resources<\/a> on campus available to help you. As long as you read your emails and talk to your professors about potential opportunities, you are definitely set up for success,\u201d said Fry. She especially loved the fact that her major is a small group and says having a close group of friends in the same classes was fun and good for study groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-79389 size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1555\/Fry-Soccer.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-79389\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fry played intramural soccer at URI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout her time as an undergraduate, she also played <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/campusrec\/intramural-sports\/\">intramural<\/a> soccer and volleyball and made dean\u2019s list every semester. She believes balancing academics with personal well-being was key to long-term success.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"cl-wrapper cl-boxout-wrapper\"><div class=\"cl-boxout right  \"><p>\n<ul>\n<li>URI Votes<\/li>\n<li>Native American Student Organization<\/li>\n<li>Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science<\/li>\n<li>Institute of Industrial and System Engineers<\/li>\n<li>Intramural soccer<\/li>\n<li>Intramural volleyball<\/p><\/div><\/div><br \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Freshman year, Fry joined <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/student-resources\/cultivating-change-multicultural-scholars-program\/\">URI\u2019s Multicultural Scholar Program<\/a>, a program for students majoring or minoring in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/programs\/program\/sustainable-agriculture-and-food-systems-b-s\/\">Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems<\/a> to help lead students into a career in SAFS.&nbsp; Being in this program led her to join the 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/leadership\/institute\/\">Leadership Institute<\/a> semester-long program. This program incorporated large-group virtual workshops, small-group sessions, and online resources. For her freshman year internship, she worked with professor <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pse\/meet\/john-r-taylor\/\">John Taylor<\/a> at the URI <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/aes\/farms\/\">Agronomy Farm<\/a>, where she gained research and agricultural experience working with other undergraduate and graduate students.&nbsp; Through the same program, she became a The <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2014\/11\/10\/sacnas-uri\/\">Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science<\/a> member in 2022 and attended the conferences in 2022 and 2023 with other STEM majors on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n<section class=\"cl-wrapper cl-quote-wrapper\"><div class=\"cl-quote  \"><blockquote>\u201cThere are a lot of resources on campus available to help you. As long as you read your emails and talk to your professors about potential opportunities, you are definitely set up for success,\u201d said Fry.<\/blockquote><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>During junior year, she joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/events.uri.edu\/group\/native_american_student_organization_naso\">Native American Student Organization<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/institute-of-industrial-and-systems-engineers-iise\/\">Institute of Industrial and System Engineers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-79386 size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1555\/SCANAS-Conference-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-79386\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Fry joined the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) in 2022 and attended the conferences in 2022 and 2023 with other STEM majors on campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI did not fully understand what ISE was until my junior year, when classes became more focused on my major. I had always thought it was based on process efficiency, but it is on a deeper level than that. From the raw materials to the end of life of a product, each interaction a person has with the part or machine used to manufacture it, and the environmental impacts; how each element functions and interacts with every human, machine, and environment; all of that can be optimized and improved to become an efficient system,\u201d said Fry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-79388 size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1555\/IISE-Fry.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-79388\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">IISE senior club photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the summer of her junior year, she joined <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/urivotes\/\">URI VOTES<\/a> to gain research experience. \u201cI liked researching because it allowed me to use what I had been learning in school in a hands-on manner,\u201d said Fry. Using SIMIO software for simulation modeling and SketchUp for location layout to help election officials allowed her to see all the skills she learned come to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthering her research skills, her senior <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/capstone-project\/\">capstone project<\/a> aimed to be an example of implementing radio frequency identification tags in a manufacturing facility, such as a storage warehouse, to locate inventory. This technology employs electromagnetic fields for wireless data transfer between RFID tags and readers. The tags contain a chip and are powered by the antenna&#8217;s electromagnetic field, enabling them to transmit stored data, such as unique identification numbers. It offers efficient wireless data transfer, enhancing various operations in diverse industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project built upon previous work that successfully identified RFID tag locations in a bound environment. The previous year&#8217;s results had a 91.2% accuracy. Using experimental design throughout the semester her team was able to replicate and slightly improve upon these results, resulting in a 93% accuracy which was better than the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This project was one of ISE Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cypher\/meet\/dr-manbir-sodhi\/\">Manbir Sodhi<\/a>\u2019s. At the same time, Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cypher\/meet\/dr-resit-sendag\/\">Resit Sendag<\/a> and his team were working on another part of the RFID project; an app to model the live location of the RFID tag. \u201cEffectively documenting and reporting these experiments to Professor Sendag and his team provided invaluable real-life experience. Delivering weekly updates on project progress and presenting key findings concisely honed my communication skills,\u201d said Fry.<\/p>\n\n\n<section class=\"cl-wrapper cl-quote-wrapper\"><div class=\"cl-quote  \"><blockquote>\u201cI look forward to having more time here.\u201d<\/blockquote><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<p>Fry looks to further continue her research. She has been accepted into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/programs\/program\/systems-engineering-m-s\/\">master\u2019s degree program in systems engineering<\/a> and adds \u201cI look forward to having more time here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graduate with passion for sustainability discovers deeper depths of major Malinda Fry always enjoyed math, science and problem-solving, so it wasn\u2019t a surprise when she followed in her mother\u2019s footsteps to pursue engineering. As a stage manager in high school drama, she found that when it all ran smoothly, she felt gratified and liked seeing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85927"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86624,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85927\/revisions\/86624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}