Most Promising Engineer, Master’s Degree - Industry

Although it’s no longer unusual to see women working in positions formerly dominated by men, Andrea Hidalgo still stands out in her role as a Calibration Specialist at General Motors working on Diesel Engine Calibration as well as Torque, Speed and Cruise Control systems.

Ms. Hidalgo has been interested in cars and engineering since she was a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, New York.  She attended the specialized Brooklyn Technical High School before going off to SUNY Stony Brook and discovering the SAE Mini-Baja team that was building an off-road race car.

This experience inspired Ms. Hidalgo to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering in college, where set her sights firmly on a career in the automotive industry.  She soon earned a coveted internship at General Motors and moved to Michigan to take a job with GM right after she graduated.

In addition to her duties as a development engineer with the company, Ms. Hidalgo immediately became involved in SHPE recruiting to give the same opportunity she earned to other SHPE members. Since then her responsibility within recruiting has grown from recruiting and interviewing to becoming the events lead for recruiting planning.

Her initiatives have led to a reduction in total engagement cost of 60% in 3 years as well as a 30% reduction in the cost of interaction with recruits in the same time period.

While working full-time at GM, Ms. Hidalgo also found the time to earn her Master of Engineering in Global Manufacturing and Automotive Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in her spare time.

Ms. Hidalgo is proud owner of a patent on Hydrocarbon limitation by Space Velocity and Temperature, as well as two successful defensive publications in the diesel aftertreatment calibration area. She was a key contributing member of the team that launched the first mid-sized diesel truck in North America, meeting the most stringent tailpipe emissions for any diesel truck at the time.

Acknowledged as a technical leader in her field, Ms. Hidalgo’s contributions have been instrumental to exhaust emissions reduction efforts industry-wide.

She is also involved with the GM Latino Network Employee Resource Group (ERG), recently volunteering to be the communications lead for her site. Through SHPE Detroit, she mentors and serves as the chief engineer for the Western International High School Mechanical Pumas, a local Detroit team, in the FIRST Robotics competition

As the chief engineer, she leads the other mentors and the high school students of her team as they design and build a robot each year for the Robotics Competition. Additionally, she also collaborates with the chiefs of the other teams and is involved with recruiting mentors for the center.