Five Questions with Maddie Go and Andrew Tie

Maddie Go

Can you tell us about where you’re from, your connections to Duke and what led you back to Durham? 

I actually went to Duke as an undergrad! I was over in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, where I majored in biology with a concentration in marine biology and minored in visual media studies. Even in undergrad, I leaned toward activities that let me combine my interests in science and art, like when I produced explainer videos about my fellow students’ conservation-focused engineering projects.

I’ve followed that interest through a career in science communication that has taken me to interesting places, like the educational media studio Complexly in Montana and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California. As my two-year science communication fellowship with MBARI was wrapping up last year, I thought it might be fun to check in with my alma mater because I knew how much cool STEM research was done there on a daily basis. As it happened, that was around the time that our team was hiring. I was just in the right place at the right time! 

What are your main areas of responsibility at Duke Engineering? 

I’m a communications specialist that works across two departments: the Civil and Environmental Engineering department (CEE) and the Dean’s Office. As part of CEE, I help to share stories about the department’s research, classes and people through written pieces, videos and other forms of media. In the Dean’s Office, I use similar writing and video skills to assist the dean in executive communications that are school-wide in focus. 

What is it like working at both the department level and the dean’s level? 

It’s given me a pretty unique perspective! As someone who started in academia (and in an environmental-leaning field specifically), it’s been exciting to return to a familiar research environment and dive deep into some of the details behind what people at CEE are studying and why. Talking to faculty, staff and students about their work is one of the most fun parts of my job, as it allows me to feed my personal curiosity about all things STEM, while also producing media to share that same curiosity and knowledge with wider audiences.

To complement this relatively close-up approach that the department level entails, working at the dean’s level means taking a step outside of the lab or classroom—and even outside of whole departments—and looking at things from a much higher level. Why are we doing what we do, what does that reflect about Pratt as a school and where do we want to go next? Learning to view the work that I am already fascinated by as being part of a bigger, highly interdisciplinary and world-changing whole has been an eye-opening experience for me. 

As the main architect behind the camera for the Blueprint video series, take us through the production of one of these videos. 

This year, the Blueprint video series follows Dean Jerry Lynch as he meets with faculty and staff in Pratt and interviews them about their work. We often film these interviews inside the researcher’s own labs or workspaces. This means most episodes involve field shoots where Jerry and I travel around campus with my tripods, light stands and cameras packed in a wagon that I pull behind me so I can set up shop wherever needed.

During the interview, Jerry asks the guests questions pertaining to their field of expertise. Afterward, I transfer the footage into video editing software so I can search for, clean up and piece together clips in a way that makes the conversation more cohesive and concise. (We film for at least half an hour, but the final videos are usually only seven or eight minutes long.) Because we feature a different guest each episode, I’ve gotten to meet a new colleague and learn about a new field of study every time, which has been fun! And Jerry’s been a fantastic series host. 

What are some of your hobbies or areas of interest outside of work? 

You can often find me doodling in my sketchbook, either on my couch at home or at an arts and crafts hangout held by a local bar or restaurant. I also have a perpetually growing list of sci-fi/fantasy shows, animated series and nature documentaries that I’m always catching up on. I was a voracious reader as a kid, and I’m rekindling that habit as well through both audiobooks and physical books from the library. I also love scuba diving but have yet to explore the waters around North Carolina—any recommendations for diving spots are welcome!