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Journey to Electrical Engineering Success

The author reflects on their journey becoming an electrical engineer, starting as a computer engineer but realizing electrical engineering was a better fit due to greater interest in hardware over software. Through coursework building knowledge in electrical circuits, physics, and coding, they gained skills leading a project sponsored by NASA. This experience developed technical and soft skills around project management. The author is now focusing on power electronics and learning about power generation, transmission, and calculations for efficient distribution through renewable energy. Overall, their university experience has been extraordinary preparation for entering the field to make positive change.

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88 views2 pages

Journey to Electrical Engineering Success

The author reflects on their journey becoming an electrical engineer, starting as a computer engineer but realizing electrical engineering was a better fit due to greater interest in hardware over software. Through coursework building knowledge in electrical circuits, physics, and coding, they gained skills leading a project sponsored by NASA. This experience developed technical and soft skills around project management. The author is now focusing on power electronics and learning about power generation, transmission, and calculations for efficient distribution through renewable energy. Overall, their university experience has been extraordinary preparation for entering the field to make positive change.

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EE494: Cumulative Reflection

The journey of becoming an engineer in no means has been an easy one. It has been quite

challenging, confusing and at times incredibly frustrating. However, it is also one that has been

really fruitful and exhilarating, and most definitely worth the hardship.

I began the journey at Iowa State University as a computer engineer as I have always been

interested in computers. I would help assemble computers in my family, fix and troubleshoot any

issues in any of the electronics, be it a smartphone, a computer or even the routers. Nevertheless,

it never felt like a chore, I was always entertained by this and the feeling of fulfillment that came

after the task was done was worth the effort .That is why I thought it was an obvious decision to

go ahead and put myself on the path to becoming an engineer. Computer Engineering was just

the one I had chosen because of my prior experience with dealing with them. It was quite quickly

that I learned that while I was pretty great on the hardware side, I was never too great on the

software aspect of it and I did not really have much inclination towards it. This is when I realized

that electrical engineering was the right way for me to go.

Throughout the few years that I have spent here in the university, the sheer volume of

information that I have amassed is quite extraordinary. Be it the basics of electrical circuits in EE

201 and EE 230 or fundamentals of physics in PHY 221 and PHY 222. These classes helped me

build the knowledge base on which all the other classes could build upon. Even while I was not

the best at coding, I did improve quite a bit and am quite comfortable in the basics of coding in a

variety of languages including C, C++, JAVA and MATLAB through classes like EE 285, COMS 227,

EE 224 AND EE 324.


It was not until my junior year where I began working on a project that was sponsored by

NASA and Collins Aerospace. During this time, I learned some of the most useful things about the

job. I developed some useful skills that would be invaluable when I start working post-graduation.

I learned how to successfully lead a team as well as work with other teams in order to achieve a

common goal under predetermined time constraints. I also learned some of the more technical

aspects of the job such as writing reports on a regular basis, evaluate parts to choose the right

one for the project as well as present new ideas to large groups of people. It was also during this

time where I became really interested in power electronics and decided to use it as my main

sequence for my degree. Currently, I am doing the first class in the sequence EE 456 which

refreshes and builds up on all that I learned during EE 303. The class is really helping me see the

way power is generated, transmitted and how much calculations go into power systems in order

to effectively provide power to the general public. It also helped me observe how much time and

money is spent in order to tweak and improve every stage of power transmission as well as the

new direction that the industry is heading as the world collectively moves towards renewable

energy.

In conclusion, the last three years have been a blessing and I would never trade it for

anything else. The things I learned, the relationships created, the experiences have been nothing

short of extraordinary and while I will miss being here, I cannot wait to get into the field and get

started on trying to change the world and hopefully make it a better place.

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