BU Today: Did you play golf growing up?

Boostani: I wasn’t into golf previously; I swam and played soccer, which are quite different. But I had an interest in sports in general, and of course I knew of Titleist as a brand. I have gotten very into golf this summer. A lot of us interns go to a course and play after work. When you’re beginning, it’s just a matter of practicing, and then the game starts becoming fun.

BU Today: How did you land the internship at Titleist?

Boostani: I had an internship last summer as well [at Precisionary Instruments], and that helped a lot with my knowledge of how things are made. I designed parts that would then get manufactured.
 
Emily Cluck, [Titleist early career and internship program adviser] and a couple of engineers from Titleist came to campus for an info session [hosted by ENG Career Development], and they talked about their jobs. I kept in touch with Emily, went on a tour of Ball Plant 3 and met some managers, and eventually got an interview.
 
Going in, I thought, “It’s a little golf ball. It can’t be too complicated.” But once I got here, I learned, there’s a million different steps, and the engineering behind the ball production process is really interesting to me. I’d never seen machines work that way.

BU Today: What does your internship entail?

Boostani: I work in the manufacturing plant. I’m not making the balls; I’m designing the machines that make the balls. There’s a whole long process of automated machines at every step of the way, and I’m designing some of the machines that go into that process.
 
I’m on the advanced mechanical engineering team, which means we’re looking into the future of the process. I’m researching and designing and thinking of new ways that these balls can be made. Not necessarily as a whole, but looking at individual steps and saying, “How can this be improved?”

BU Today: So are you at the computer most of the time, and on the factory floor sometimes?

Boostani: I am at my desk designing things most of the time, but—and this is what I like about engineering—you really do need to get up and see what you’re working on. There’s a lot of measuring that goes on, a lot of seeing the space, imagining what could go there. I’m working on some documentation for some pipes, and I need to see exactly where the pipes are going, and what components are being used.

BU Today: Do you expect the skills you’re learning to be useful down the road?

Boostani: Honestly, I feel like with mechanical engineering, which is my major, wherever you work, all the skills you learn are going to apply to other jobs, in other industries. Of course, there are some specific things—like here, about golf balls—that you won’t use in other industries. But as interns at least, you learn a bunch of broadly useful skills. You learn business terminology and standards you need to follow and workflow software. That’s really important when you’re designing something for a manufacturer, because your design needs to be accurate and organized and clear.

BU Today: What attracted you to engineering in the first place?

Boostani: Both my parents are software engineers. I knew I didn’t want to do software, but that’s how I first thought of engineering as a possible career path. And I’ve always been a hands-on person. I’m a pretty big car guy, and I’d always help out my dad when he was working on his car. It was really cool to fix something, then see it working and know we’d done that. And when I was younger, I was a big Lego kid. I liked following the instructions and building a project with my hands.
 
That’s one of the things I enjoy a lot about engineering: You’re able to see in person what you’re working on or making or designing. It’s definitely not easy—there’s a lot of tedious stuff you have to go through. But the result is, when you complete a project, you can say, “Wow, I made that.” Which is pretty rewarding.

BU Today: Have you done much hands-on engineering work at BU?

Boostani: There’s a lot BU does in their engineering classes. In EK 131, we made a temperature sensor. You learn a lot from that in terms of programming and [computer-aided design]. In EK 210, my group made a sort of autonomous desk vacuum robot thing. It was a lot of work, but it was cool. We went to the Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) a lot. It’s a really good resource. We learned a lot about what it’s actually like to make a project, not just the theory.
 
I went into EPIC over break too, to learn how to use machines like the manual lathe, the manual mill, the CNC mill, the water jets, the 3D printers. Anyone going into engineering should know how to use those machines, because when you design things, you should know how they’re going to be made.

BU Today:  What about the material you learned in engineering classes at BU? Have you applied that in your internship?

Boostani: On one of the projects, I had to use what I learned about statics. I had to find the forces and the moments of a machine and then calculate how much stress would be applied at the base, so I could see how much support would be needed. That directly tied to stuff I learned at school.
 
But honestly, BU is a pretty rigorous school. As an engineer, you’re always working hard, always pushing your brain. And I’d say that really helps with your actual job, because there’s gonna be a lot of things you just don’t know, and BU has taught us to push hard and do research and figure out the answer.

BU Today: Have your career goals changed as a result of this internship?

Boostani: Yes! I never knew there was so much engineering in the sporting industry, and now that I’m here, I love it. The culture is so much different than I imagine it is anywhere else. Even outside work, everyone bonds over playing golf. Not too many other companies make a product that everybody at the company is really passionate about and wants to use.
 
As someone who didn’t play golf before this, there’s so much I’ve learned. I thought golf balls all looked the same, so they must do the same thing, but that is not the case at all. The Pro V1s are made to perfection. There is an insane amount of quality control, and Titleist as a brand cares about improving and perfecting the product. It’s changed the way I work—I’m pushing harder and improving too. I know everything can’t be perfect, but you can get pretty close.
 
And I just enjoy observing and seeing what projects other people are working on, and working on something new every day. There’s just infinite learning that goes on, and I enjoy that.