By Gabby Benedict, CEC Student Intern

Allie Filiatraut, a graduate Mechanical Engineering student at Miami University, was recently hired as a full-time Research and Development Engineer for Georgia-Pacific at its Research and Development Technical Center in Neenah, WI. She begins her new position in August 2023.

As an undergraduate student at Miami, Filiatraut studied Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Paper Science and Engineering. She also ran for the Miami track and field team from 2018 to 2022. Some of her main research interests include machine learning, material science, and their intersection.

Filiatraut will specifically be working with Dixie Products Group to design future retail and professional paper plates, cups, cutlery, and more. She worked at Georgia-Pacific for the past two summers at the Neenah location. In the summer of 2021, she worked for the devices team designing paper towel dispensers for schools, offices, restaurants, and other industries. In the summer of 2022, she transitioned to working with the Dixie Product Group.

“Since I am graduating from my master’s program this spring, my thesis defense might go until the summer, so my employers and I agreed on an August start date to make sure that my master's education and thesis defense were fully complete to begin working full-time. I look forward to continuing my project work from this past summer and working with my amazing coworkers again!” Filiatraut said.

Filiatraut first met with Georgia-Pacific at the Paper Science Pre-Networking Night in the fall of 2020 before that year’s career fair. She appreciates the 1 on 1 time to get to know the company before the interview process. This led to her first internship with Georgia-Pacific in the summer of 2021. 

Filiatraut has been studying at Miami for five years and has worked to get her bachelor's and master's degrees in those years. She said that Miami’s MME department and Paper Science and Engineering Foundations have helped her by providing industry connections that led to where she is now. She is especially grateful for her research professor, Dr. Mehdi Zanjani, who gave her the opportunity to work as a graduate assistant and helped her in getting her master's degree.