MEET THE STUDENTS

Sanjay
talks about ECE @ Maryland:

"I grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. I became particularly interested in Electrical Engineering in high school, when I learned physics for the first time and started to build Rube Goldberg-type projects for competitions. I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and taught 8th grade math for a year before coming to College Park.

The University of Maryland was a very attractive option when I was considering grad school because of its reputation and location.  

I decided it was the best for me when I came to visit and had the opportunity to speak with different faculty members. They were brilliant, accomplished and inspiring, and extremely approachable.

The graduate students in this department are a pretty incredible pool of scholars, diverse in knowledge and background. They are focused and curious. I find the department is a very friendly place to hang around if I'm not in lab or class.

I have grown a lot in my first year at Maryland, academically and personally. I have a more mature attitude towards work and am also finally making some good friends in the area. Outside the classroom, I play a lot of guitar and tennis, and I jump rope at the gym on occasion.

My main research interest and focus is optics. I currently work in a lab in which I use ultra-fast high power pulsed lasers to generate plasmas and x-rays. I hope to get my Ph.D. in this lab and become a professor one day.  

The department has helped me so far to understand the magnitude of the task I have in front of me, and certain people who I consider my mentors have really inspired me to keep going on this track when I doubt myself. As a professor, I will be a terrific teacher and hopefully will have at least one really cool idea that will make the world a better, or at least a more interesting place to live in."

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