Why Auburn: Dylan Heard

Dylan Heard came to Auburn from Columbus, Georgia, drawn by engineering excellence and opportunities to gain hands-on experience. Since arriving on campus, the mechanical engineering senior has immersed himself in opportunities ranging from serving as a volunteer Makerspace assistant to working in the Auburn University Bee Center. 

Why Auburn 

“Auburn as a whole is the best. I always knew I wanted to study engineering and knew about Auburn Engineering’s strong reputation. Those two things went hand in hand for me and made the decision obvious.”  

“Resources like the Makerspace also pulled me in. The value of the Auburn experience and what this school provides for its students is unmatched.” 

Makerspace 

“The Makerspace provided me with new experiences and the opportunity to learn in a hands-on, working environment. I had never welded, never used a water jet and had never done a lot of the things you can’t experience outside of that kind of environment.” 

“I got to see the Makerspace when I toured Auburn, and going back to the beginning, that was one of the big reasons I wanted to come here. Now as a student, I get to use the Makerspace to bring substantial projects to life, but I can also have fun and test the limits of my ideas.” 

Auburn University Bee Center 

“In high school, I had a senior project where we got to pick something we had never done before and focus on it for the year. I settled on beekeeping. I spent 50 hours with my mentor, Woody O’Connell, and through that experience, I fell in love with bees.  

“The Bee Center provides an environment where you have to problem-solve. The bees do what they want to do, not what we want them to do, so a big part of our work is figuring out how to manage them and researching their behavior. One of our main projects is studying parasitic arachnids inside beehives that negatively affect the bees’ breeding cycle and finding ways to prevent that.” 

“We get grants from companies to test products such as miticides. From that research, we look for the most efficient ways to prevent and control the mites.” 

Looking toward the future 

“My dream would be to work on something related to space, whether that’s for SpaceX or NASA. Satellites, telescopes, rovers are all exciting to me. Ultimately, I want to build things and be hands-on with the work I’m doing.”