Tahira Reid
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Tahira Reid received both her bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan in design science, with mechanical engineering and psychology as her focus areas. Before coming to Purdue, she was a STEM Future Faculty Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University, conducting eye-tracking studies that examined the visual information people use to make decisions about designs, and how it varies when subjects are presented with 2D and 3D forms.
Reid received national acclaim for patenting a childhood invention: a double-dutch jump rope device. Her idea led to two grants from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. She has exhibited her device at the Smithsonian and demonstrated it on NBC's Today Show. Her story has been widely covered in the news media and is featured in two children's books.