I am an Electrical Engineer from Iowa State University with a very diverse range of experiences. I have obtained hands on knowledge that ranges from working with PLCs in door factories to wafer level testing on the latest NAND technology at Micron. However, my true passion is embedded systems. With my Electrical Engineering degree, I will be starting my full time embedded career at Collins Aerospace as an Associate Software Engineer. There, I will be working with radios to do some embedded signal processing.
My goals for the next couple of years are to first familiarize myself with embedded operating systems. Second, I will like to continue growing my C programming skills.
Aside from those two goals, I am also planning on perusing a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering. I will focus on embedded systems and signal processing during my continued education.
As an engineer, I find it very important to have a code of ethics. To me, people are the most important resource we have. Within the world of engineering, I have always been a leader. Therefore, many of the decisions I make affect the people I work with. With these needs in mind, I do my best to employ servant leadership.
By serving when I lead, I am sympathetic to the needs of those around me. Every engineer wants to feel like an important member of the team. So, I make it one of my greatest pleasures to show as much appreciation as I can for the things my team members do. Sometimes, a simple, yet genuine, thank you is just the positive affirmation somebody needs.
Personal growth is a goal for many engineers. Therefore, I make sure to put myself and my team members in places where we can grow together. As we mentor one another in true fellowship, we continue to grow and develop as engineers.
Engineers also have a responsibility to serve those who use the end products. It is of the utmost importance for my team to be aware of these needs. As engineers, it is important for us to be of service to both our customers.
Engineers are leaders and help push the future forward. Since we are leaders, it is important for us to be servants in our leadership. As we seek to serve others, we will be able to fulfill both the needs of our customers and colleagues.
The college of Engineering at Iowa State offered me more opportunities that I could keep track of. The chances it gave me to apply classwork knowledge to real world engineering problems are priceless. I am going to briefly discuss three of these opportunities that taught me team work, leadership and perseverance.
The first opportunity was I got to apply skills I learned in class to real world problems. At the ETG (Electronics and Technology Group), I was given opportunities to work as a team with many individuals. I applied the skills I learned from EE 224, EE 324 and CprE 288. Also, many of the people I worked with had different skill sets than I did. I had to learn how to work as a team to make the best of both their skills and mine.
The second opportunity is that got to be the president of Critical Tinkers. As the president, I was able to apply the skills I learned in class by teaching them to the club. This was a great opportunity to practice mentoring as a leader by teaching club members basic programming skills. I picked up these programming skills in Compute Science 227.
Also, I learned how to preserver as a research assistant during COVID-19. During this time, labs were shut down. So, I took the skills and knowledge I had gained from my circuits classes to make my own lab equipment. Then, I worked diligently from how to finish what my supervisor needed to be done for his research.
Iowa State taught me a lot of technical skills, but the three most important skills I took away from my experience there are team work, leadership and perseverance.
I only took two general educational courses at Iowa State. They were History of American Architecture and Spanish 303. Of the two, I learned the most in History of American Architecture. I am already fluent in Spanish, so I thought it would be an easy minor. However, I soon decided not to pursue that due to other demands on my time.
History of American Architecture opened my eyes to economics, especially the economics of location. Location is huge and good locations to by and sell within a city are often related to race and ethnicity. It is unfortunate, but many areas with large amounts of ethnic minorities are poorer and less likely to be invested in. Investing in those areas is good for humanity as a whole, but not good for the investor. This made me stop and think about my motives as an engineer. Sometimes there are more important things than profitability. Sometimes, we just need to do a service for mankind.
Spanish 303 was fun. I was hoping to learn more as far as Spanish went, but I was able to interact with people of different majors. Believe it or not, this was a very good thing for me. As an engineer, it is good to practice interacting with people that aren't engineers. Spanish 303 helped me practice communication skills. Because of that, I am glad I took it.
The two general education courses I took were great. History of American Architecture opened my eyes to a lot of inequity that goes on and Spanish 303 helped me with my communication.