MEET THE STUDENTS

Enlu
talks about ECE @ Maryland:

"I was born and grew up in Hangzhou, a scenic city in China. I got my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, and then came to University of Maryland for graduate study.

I was initially attracted to engineering after seeing a lot of amazing high-tech products being developed. Many of these high-tech developments were closely related to electrons, circuits and computers, so I decided to focus on electrical and computer engineering when I went to college.

I wanted to major in Controls when applying to graduate schools. I was particularly attracted to the University of Maryland ECE department, because the Controls program here is very strong, and the Institute of Systems Research (ISR) provides an interdisciplinary and very active environment for research in control.

I enrolled in the Ph.D. program with a major in Controls and minor in Communication. Controls is an old yet still very exciting area. It is rich in theory, but emerging large-scale problems are calling for new tools and modern computing power is enabling numerical methods. My research interests have been in theoretical and numerical methods for stochastic filtering and partially observable Markov decision processes.

As a student, I spent ten exciting weeks as a summer intern at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, where I applied theories and algorithms to solving real-life large scale problems. 

The atmosphere in the ECE department is open-minded and friendly. Professors always welcome questions and ideas from students. Students easily make friends with each other. I think my three years at the University of Maryland has made me more out-going, confident and open-minded.

My advisors, Prof. Marcus and Prof. Fu, taught me a lot about research and how to succeed as a human in general. They were strict, yet very patient with me on research. They also provided me many opportunities, such as attending conferences and doing summer interns in national research labs. I took four courses from Prof. Krishnaprasad and have written a paper with him. His lectures are insightful and always challenged me to do my best. He is also very inspiring when I went to ask him questions or discuss problems. Prof. Tits is not only a great teacher but also a good friend. I learned a lot from him in class and also had much fun with him in skiing, ice skating, playing ping pong, and coffee hour.

Outside the classroom, I liked to hang out with my friends and do all kinds of sports activities.  I also love traveling and exploration. I have traveled to various places in and outside the U.S. either by myself or with friends.

I love doing research, and I’ve seen from many professors what a wonderful and satisfying life it is to be a professor. I’ve seen their passion in research and teaching, how they advance technology and society, and how they pass on their knowledge and wisdom to generations after generations. The ECE program is very supportive of its students to pursue academic careers. Each year the department holds a seminar that invites professors at Maryland and alumni that are now professors at other universities to come to share their experiences with and give advice to students. The Engineering School founded the Future Faculty Program in order to prepare promising Ph.D. students to become faculty members in the future. I was lucky to be selected as a future faculty fellow and participating in this program was very helpful for my career development."

Enlu Zhou To Join Faculty at Univ. of Illinois

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