For This USC Engineering Junior, Every Bottleneck Is an Opportunity

Mila Mattson grew increasingly nervous as a cashier scanned the furniture and other dorm supplies she was buying at a local store earlier this month. The total kept climbing.

Then she checked her phone.

An email informed the 20-year-old USC Viterbi junior in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering that she had won the prestigious $10,000 2026 WTS-LA Ava Doner Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship, awarded to encourage women to pursue careers in transportation.

"I was like, 'Wow, that's great - perfect moment for this,'" Mattson said.

The award meant more than welcome financial help. In her application, Mattson wrote about solving complex problems, her work with theUSC chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (USC ITE) and her growing interest in the field. Winning convinced her that transportation might be where she belongs.

"It validated my interest and made me more confident that I could pursue this," she said.

Building momentum

The scholarship capped a winning stretch for Mattson and USC ITE.

As a co-captain of the group's LA28 project, Mattson helped lead students in developing a computer simulation of how Olympic spectators could move among venues near USC, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and nearby transit stations. The model identified potential bottlenecks, including severe crowding on Metro's E Line, allowing planners to consider possible solutions.

Mattson led the research team, gathering information about crowd behavior and how venues manage surges of arriving and departing spectators. USC ITE took first place at two regional competitions, on April 30 and May 7, earning the chapter a total of $6,500.

Now president of the student-led organization, Mattson wants to translate that momentum into a stronger community. Her plans include USC ITE's first transportation career fair and more social events, such as a recent group outing to Griffith Observatory. Her aim is not just to recruit members but to give them reasons to stay.

She uses ClickUp, a project-management platform, to assign responsibilities, set deadlines and help her executive board see how its work fits together. It is industrial and systems engineering applied to student leadership.

Built to optimize

Mattson's instinct is always to look beneath the surface.

"When I see something that people are frustrated about, that indicates there's some sort of problem," she said. "And when there's a problem, I get excited because it means there may be some way to fix it."

That outlook has shaped two very different internships.

From June through August 2025, she interned with Clark Construction on USC baseball's new permanent home. She coordinated architectural and subcontractor documents, tracked approvals and helped onboard subcontractors working on the clubhouse, locker rooms, offices, concession stands and bleachers.

At Northrop Grumman Space Systems from May through July 2026, Mattson built dashboards that tracked more than 100 work orders as they moved through manufacturing. By showing where work was piling up and how long it remained at each stage, the dashboards helped employees identify bottlenecks and decide what needed attention first.

Transportation, construction and space may appear unrelated. To Mattson, though, each involves people, materials and information moving through a complicated system - and each can benefit from better planning.

"Things are better for everyone when they're more efficient and run better," she said.

A major made for her

Mattson was practicing those principles long before she knew industrial and systems engineering existed.

Growing up in San Dimas, California, she loved math because, unlike many parts of life, it offered the satisfaction of finding one correct answer. In high school, she led five clubs, played varsity tennis for four years and worked three jobs.

She served as president of the Environmental Awareness Club, founded a peer tutoring club and led the building group for Science Olympiad. Outside school, she decorated ice cream cakes at Cold Stone Creamery and tutored students. Keeping everything on track forced her to organize her days and make every minute count.

Industrial and systems engineering felt like a natural extension of what she was already doing: breaking down complicated challenges and finding better ways to manage time and resources.

Mattson chose USC over UC Berkeley, UCLA and Georgia Tech because it offered her preferred major and a powerful network. She has found passionate professors, close friendships and a community that has made her more spontaneous, social and confident. She calls campus "life with training wheels," a place where classes, work, friends, food and recreation are all within reach.

A more efficient future

Mattson is pursuing a progressive degree that will allow her to earn both a bachelor's in industrial and systems engineering and a master's in analytics in four years.

After graduation, she could see herself working in transportation, event logistics or supply-chain management and eventually moving into a leadership role. The setting matters less than the mission: bringing people together to improve the systems around them.

"I want people to remember me for my drive," Mattson said, "and my constant motivation to make things better."

Published on October 2nd, 2026

Last updated on October 2nd, 2026