Taylor Hallisey (BS MSE 2016) knows what it takes to keep your things safe when you’re traveling on an airplane. As a Manager of Quality Assurance at Away Travel, she’s a part of the process of ensuring that their hard-shell polycarbonate luggage can survive the rigors of travel, TSA, and airplane holds. 

MSE is often called the science of “stuff,” and Hallisey’s work is an example of just how tangible all of that “stuff” really is. With everyone traveling over the Summer months and the looming travel of back-to-school, the payoff of quality materials is evident when your luggage comes off of the plane in one piece. “I think everyone’s had an experience with TSA or an airline wrecking their luggage,” said Hallisey. Ensuring Away Travel’s polycarbonate shells can stand up to the physical and temperature stress of travel, Hallisey helps to ensure that you can travel with a little less worry. 

This work allows her to turn her passion for materials science and the education she received at MSE into her daily work. “Knowing what my material properties are, knowing how it's going to behave with temperature changes, environmental changes, corrosion,” Hallisey said, “all of these concepts that we studied in school, I’m actually now applying and using on a day-to-day basis.”

After working in a few manufacturing-focused positions, Hallisey was ready for a change and moved into a quality management position. The change suited her, and her position at Away Travel lets her explore the breadth of the travel materials field, as Away Travel’s seasonal color and design offerings as well as special projects like transparent luggage represent a constant new challenge of the polycarbonate material. 

Hallisey knows that her time at Tech prepared her for this job, noting that the things she learned in the classroom are directly applied to her work at Away Travel. But it’s not just the education that prepared her for success. It’s the habits, too. Away Travel’s manufacturing is handled overseas, so “being willing to have early mornings getting up after studying, having late nights” prepared Hallisey for her current schedule and the need for flexibility. 

When asked if she has any advice for current or prospective students, Hallisey had a single word: “explore.” After realizing the research that is ever-present at a research-focused institution like Georgia Tech, Hallisey explored manufacturing before finding the quality assurance world and her position at Away Travel. She also explored while she was at Tech, joining the rugby team and exploring projects in sustainability and women’s health. “Find out what you want and what you don’t want and just keep iterating on that,” she said. 

Whether we realize it or not, this summer as we travel and inch closer to back to school, we will keep our things safe using materials that people like Hallisey have ensured will do their job so that we have one less thing to worry about while traveling. MSE is proud of our alumni, Taylor Hallisey, and the important materials work she does every day.