ME student, Engineering Fellow Ledalla embodied community changes she wanted to see
On one 2025 Free Food Friday in the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Building atrium, Tanmaee Ledalla really wanted flan.
An only child, Ledalla was used to being the agent for getting what she wanted. Even if it meant making something new.
So she made something new.
Global Bites debuted as a Free Food Friday event in March 2025. And the following September, in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, she finally enjoyed the caramel dessert.
“I thought it would enhance a sense of belonging for a lot of students if we had other cultures represented,” said Ledalla, a senior in ME from Hyderabad, India. “People loved it. We ran out of all the food I had bought because hundreds of students stopped by.”
Ledalla is driven to make the opportunities and communities she wants to see. Her impact on Purdue communities through the creation of the Women in Motorsports Council (WiMC), motorsports research and Global Bites earned Ledalla nominations to be a Purdue Engineering Fellow.
Fellows are nominated by faculty, staff and peers with testimonies to their academic prowess, clear leadership skills and impactful service to the Purdue community and beyond.
“Tanmaee Ledalla is the kind of student who redefines what excellence looks like,” ME chief of staff and WiMC advisor Julia King wrote in Ledalla’s nomination. “Her creativity, problem solving mindset and the respect she has earned from every corner of our community make her a model Fellow.”
Purdue Engineering Fellows are supported with the friendship of — and a generous $25,000 upon graduation from — benefactors Robert H. Buckmann (BSChE ’59) and Joyce A. Mollerup.
To Ledalla, the honor is deeply meaningful even beyond the cash prize. It was a “surreal” surprise when King told Ledalla that she was being nominated.
It only became more unreal when she was actually selected as one of seven Fellows in September 2025.
“I knew seniors a year or two older who had become Fellows, but I never expected myself to be on that wall, too,” Ledalla said. “If someone had told me that I would be a Fellow when I started at Purdue, I don’t know if I would have believed them.”
Home away from home
Ledalla didn’t want to spend four years in middle-of-nowhere, USA.
Even though the best engineering schools were all there.
Ledalla only warmed to Purdue and moving to Indiana when her dad told her the change of scenery would be fun. Plus, a degree from a great engineering school would help her anywhere she went after college.
The fall 2022 semester was frustrating. Classes were hard — not a surprise, given the rigorous education of an engineer — but Ledalla found it substantially harder to make friends. Compared to her home culture, even her “Midwest nice” classmates were hard to get to know.
It didn’t stop her from trying to make friends at every callout possible.
Ledalla recounted several evenings of her first year spent going from callout meeting to callout meeting, often hitting two or three before pivoting to homework. Her roommate would attend callouts with Ledalla, the two self-proclaimed extraverts itching for meaningful social interaction.
“It was challenging, but in a good way,” Ledalla said of her first semester studying abroad in the United States. “I was definitely ready to take a big leap out of my comfort zone, learn about myself and grow as a person. Studying abroad helped me learn to be resilient, create my own community and give back to others so they don’t have a hard time in the future.”
Ledalla joined the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and was a part of the EPICS Learning Community. She tried a co-op work experience before prioritizing undergraduate research instead. She worked on the ASME car for the Grand Prix. She worked on two EPICS projects, too: One improving shelters with the Greater Lafayette Humane Society and one creating a pit stop exhibit for the Indianapolis Speedway Museum.
Initiative drove Ledalla’s experiences. So creating a student organization wasn’t out of reach, even though it was certainly a challenge.
After transitioning into the School of Mechanical Engineering in fall 2023, the then-sophomore noticed a community of women in motorsports who were looking for connection. They were dispersed in Ledalla’s classes and club meetings, but there wasn’t a dedicated space for them to meet one another and find support.
So Ledalla did what she often did: She created a space where women studying motorsports could get to know each other, sharing experiences and taking advice. Ledalla happened to be a part of the ME community and belonging task force at the time, the perfect administrative body to do something about the need.
By the end of 2024, WiMC was ready to launch. They had a mission statement, a plan of execution, the full support of excited students on the task force and an ally in Julia King, who had enthusiastically agreed to be the faculty advisor. The org officially launched in 2025.
“Tanmaee’s leadership style is grounded in quiet confidence and a deep understanding of people — qualities that are rare and invaluable in engineering contexts,” King wrote, noting that she had met Ledalla early in her ME journey. King also had Ledalla later in ME 49600 (Succeeding as a Woman Engineer). “Rather than imposing a vision, she listens, adapts and guides others toward shared goals.”
The WiMC community includes all interested students in West Lafayette and in Indianapolis. Students can connect, receive mentorship, learn from Purdue alums working in the motorsports industry and network through professional partner Women in Motorsports North America.
WiMC hosted a multi-organization car show in April 2025. Any motor vehicle club could sign up and showcase their completed car projects for passing students to examine and learn about. Participation was high, both in clubs represented and number of interested students stopping by.
“It is her leadership, passion and hard work that has given Tanmaee an incredible reputation among her peers, faculty and staff,” wrote WiMC faculty advisor Todd Nelson.
The car show also exemplified all that Ledalla loved about engineering. Especially in cars, which made sense: Ledalla had served in ASME as the vehicle performance lead for racing in 2023, the racing project director in 2024 and the internal vice president in 2025.
“The sheer amount of engineering that goes into sports, into optimizing things, that’s what always excites me,” Ledalla said.
Shining in the lab and the classroom
In addition to a new student org and a global expansion to ME’s monthly Free Food Friday, Ledalla was making strides in Purdue labs and classrooms. As a sophomore, Ledalla spent a semester on a vapor compression cooling (VCC) project with William E. and Florence E. Perry head of mechanical engineering and Reilly Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering Eckhard A. Groll.
Ledalla’s ability to tackle difficult problems and curiosity in learning impressed Groll — two skills that Ledalla credits to the example of her hardworking parents.
“My parents taught me to be self-sufficient, independent and to have a good work ethic,” Ledalla said. “Coming to Purdue forced me to apply those skills my parents set me up with and get better at them a little at a time.”
As an undergraduate researcher in Herrik Labs, Ledalla modelled a VCC system to preserve maximum energy in the R290 refrigerant, a chemical compound crucial for HVAC cooling systems. She gathered data on thermocouples’ energy loss and optimized the setup with a new compressor and fittings to further preserve the R290 refrigerant.
It was a complicated project. Yet Groll saw Ledalla thrive.
“Although she was only a sophomore when she worked on the project, she tackled higher-level engineering concepts with patience and enthusiasm,” Groll wrote for Ledalla’s nomination. “She makes herself available and teachable through her immediate response to feedback (from faculty, staff and peers).”
Ledalla was a finalist for the Outstanding Sophomore Award in 2024, just months after completing her time in Groll’s lab. She continued exploring ME research avenues as an autonomous motorsports racing researcher and coder with ME faculty and Purdue AI Racing advisors Greg Shaver and Daniel Williams in 2025.
The lab wasn’t the only academic space in which Ledalla was leaving marks. Co-professors for ME 496 were blown away by her presentation entitled, “Rising Strong.” In it, Ledalla guided the class through her Purdue journey — from moving somewhere new to making community — in a way that was poignant, vulnerable and deeply powerful for her instructors.
It didn’t matter that her lived experience was wholly unique: Everyone in the room felt present in her words.
“(Her presentation) was a moment that reminded us why we teach: To witness students like Tanmaee transform adversity into purpose,” wrote King. “Whether she’s organizing events that bring together students from different motorsports teams or collaborating with staff to launch new community-building initiatives, she has a gift for creating common ground.”
The combination of Ledalla’s skills to uplift communities, be deeply present and diligent in her studies and be a clear leader in ME earned her the Frederick Morse award for Outstanding Junior in 2025.
A future of newness
The sheer volume of experiences on Ledalla’s senior year resume would lead any onlooker to believe she’s done everything she wanted to do while at Purdue.
In engineering, Ledalla clarifies, she has accomplished all she wanted to and more. But there are still some Purdue student benefits she wants to reap during her final semester.
Like sewing something in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center’s Knowledge Lab or working out at the France A. Córdova Recreational Center ahead of graduation day.
“I’m really prioritizing spending time with my friends and trying everything Purdue has to offer this last semester,” Ledalla said. “I might return to Purdue for graduate school, but this time with my friends is really special.”
After graduation, Ledalla will return to Hyderabad and spend time with her family — especially her parents, who have spent summers visiting her in Purdue for three years.
Ledalla’s post-undergrad journey is focused on graduate school, she said. It’s what she plans to use some of her cash reward to pay for. But her interest in engineering is evolving away from motorsports and into new ME possibilities.
“I want to work in a field that focuses on making a positive impact on people or helping people,” Ledalla said. “In all my involvement, I realized the thing that mattered most to me was leading other people and mentoring them in their Purdue experiences.”