Woodstock Graduate Riley Griffin talks to Science Students

Current aerospace engineer Riley Griffin talked to AP Physics, Physics, and Computer Science II students on Wednesday, February 23. Mr. Griffin was a member of the WUHS class of 2007. His talk was a part of the WUHSMS Trailblazer series, organized by Mr. Bango. This series is an opportunity for former WUHMS students who have been doing great things since they graduated to come and speak to some of the current students.

There is one Trailblazer Presentation every month and this month featured Griffin who graduated from Tufts in 2011 with a major in Mechanical Engineering. After he graduated, Griffin worked at GE doing aerospace engineering, which is what he had always wanted to do since college. He worked there for two years before deciding he wanted a change to a smaller, more innovative company. Fast forward a couple of years, and Griffin and his family decided to move back to their Vermont roots.

He got a job at BETA technologies, which is an aerospace company in Burlington. When he first got there, there were only nine people working at the new company. Over the four years he has been there, however, the company has grown significantly in size, from 9 to over 350 employees.

Griffin started at the company as the only aerospace expert they had. The company is now building self-driving drones that can carry people.

Even though Griffin has been very successful, he said he has also made some mistakes along the way line. One of the biggest design mistakes he made was when he put a metal lug around a piece of 3-D printed plastic, which deformed the plastic and caused a battery fire.

However, Griffin learned and never made this mistake again.

At the end of his presentation, he talked about internship opportunities for WUHMS students, and showed them the hangar that the planes are kept in. After this fascinating presentation, students are looking forward to next month's trailblazer presentation.