Not long after Hiba Khalil could walk, her father and mother started taking her to Miami International Airport to watch the planes take off and land. Her dad, who trained to be a pilot, would regale his wife and daughter about the different types of aircraft he studied and loved.
Hiba’s father passed away when she was 10 years old, but his love of aircraft stays with his daughter. With a mechanical engineering degree, Hiba is getting ready to enter the world of aerospace engineering, where she is a standout student.
Hiba began her journey at FIU studying accounting, her father’s profession. Her parents came from Palestine to the United States and stressed the importance of education. They cared about her education even to the point that when Hiba’s mom contracted COVID-19 and called an ambulance, she didn’t tell her daughter she was leaving the house, not wanting to bother her during her online class. Hiba’s mom spent months recovering from the virus while her daughter helped her at the hospital and with insurance claims.
When she wasn’t with her mom, Hiba immersed herself in her studies at FIU. She volunteered with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at FIU and their rocket project. Hiba became president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at FIU. She then joined the Applied Research Center Robotics and Sensors Lab as an undergraduate research assistant. This past summer, Hiba interned at Boeing as a manufacturing intern. She graduates ready to make a difference in the industry her father loved.
David Drucker
Account Manager
College of Engineering and Computing