A Conversation With One of Our Inspiring Female Engineers, Sophia Atik

A Conversation With One of Our Inspiring Female Engineers

Sophia Atik is a human factors engineer at Vicarious Surgical. She shared her thoughts on life as an engineer as well as words of encouragement for young women.?

Briefly describe what you do at Vicarious Surgical.

I support the development and design of the Vicarious Surgical system, ensuring that it is safe and easy to use. I run usability tests to put our prototypes in front of users, make recommendations to the product design to improve the user experience and address user needs, and perform risk analyses related to system-use safety.?

How and why did you choose a career in engineering?

I really enjoy collaborating with others and being creative. I have always appreciated the power of science and knew I wanted to create and innovate products that would help people, specifically in the medical field.?

My background is in biomedical engineering. However, I realized pretty quickly that I wanted to apply that knowledge to focus on improving medical devices for human use. I love interacting with different people and capturing their feedback during a usability study to help inform our product’s development/design.

What inspired you to become an engineer and what continues to inspire you?

I am inspired by the fact that I can make a difference in someone’s life by helping to create a product that addresses their needs that may have been overlooked by conventional systems.?

What is the most exciting part of your job at Vicarious Surgical and what are you hoping to accomplish?

Get ready, world! We are building one exciting surgical robot! I am so excited for my work to contribute to developing a system that will enable surgeons to perform complex surgeries more easily.

What does a typical day look like for you at Vicarious Surgical?

That is difficult to answer because each day is so different, which is what I really appreciate about this work. I go from meetings where we connect and align to conducting usability studies, to working with prototypes to identify opportunities that can improve the design, to writing reports or creating powerpoints that summarize our findings and lay out our next steps. The office environment is extremely collaborative and has a contagious “the world is our oyster” energy, all of which encourages us to do inspiring work. Each day definitely includes coffee breaks where we brainstorm on how to solve the latest hiccup.

Is there a fellow woman at Vicarious Surgical who you would like to highlight?

The people at Vicarious are some of the kindest, most intelligent, and most hardworking people I have had the privilege of working with. However, I can’t say enough about my teammates on the Human Factors team. My manager, Tabitha Solomon, and fellow HF colleague, Kathy Hayna, are incredibly supportive and masters of their craft. I am continually learning from their brilliance and I look forward to working with them every day. It is so easy to enjoy your job when you work with amazing people who always encourage you to be your best!

What advice do you have for young women looking to pursue a career in engineering?

Be confident in yourself and your ability to do the work in your own way. Hone your personal craft and always be willing to learn and accept feedback from others.