Congratulations to Hope Arnett, Dallas SWE’s November 2026 Member of the Month!
Hope Arnett is a lifelong STEM enthusiast and a former collegiate athlete. She grew up in the greater Los Angeles area and attended the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where she earned a degree in Electrical Engineering while being a co-captain for the women’s basketball team. Currently, she is a Systems Engineer at Texas Instruments.
Hope has always had a passion for making STEM accessible to others. Just before the pandemic, she was a finalist in a young entrepreneur pitch competition and received funding for her idea of inexpensive, hands-on educational kits that engage elementary students with engineering concepts. She purchased a small 3D printer, which she used to build kits for workshops she ran at local schools. This experience opened her eyes to the kind of change an individual can make in their community.
While at Caltech, she co-founded the Caltech Rover Autonomy, Technology, and Exploration Research (CRATER) project for the purpose of giving undergraduates an opportunity to work on their practical engineering skills. Within the first two years, the team built two iterations of small rovers from scratch. The university provided funding for them to compete in the Canadian International Rover Challenge in Alberta.
In her career, Hope was an Engineering Intern at Turion Space in Irvine, CA working on RPO simulations for small satellites. The following year, she was an Applications Engineering Intern at Texas Instruments in Dallas where she designed and tested custom automotive power supplies. She returned full-time as a Systems Engineer, working on power electronics for electric vehicles within the Systems Engineering and Marketing – Powertrain & Chassis group. Her team blends technical development of system-level solutions with market oversight to uniquely support automotive customers.
Hope strives to maintain a balance between engineering and the other good things in life. During her free time, you will usually find her playing any sport her friends recruit her to: volleyball, kickball, rock climbing, or flag football, to name a few. In Dallas SWE, Hope is part of the Finance Committee and an active volunteer. In the Employee Resource Groups at work, she holds two leadership positions and mentors students through collaborations with schools in the area. As an introspective individual, Hope encourages people to always keep in sight the things that are most important to them.
Any advice for students or early-career engineers?
I want to offer two pieces of advice/reminders. Firstly, make time in your schedule to take care of your physical and emotional needs (sleep, food, hanging out with friends, etc.). I’ve observed that if you constantly over-exert yourself for a few years, it can suddenly blow up into a larger physical or mental issue that is much harder to manage. Secondly, prioritize networking, especially in college! One main purpose of college is to meet a wide range of people that may go off and do great things. At minimum, take a few moments to chat with someone in the hallway. You never know where it might lead you.
