MEET THE STUDENTS

Cameron
talks about ECE @ Maryland:

I am from Frederick, Maryland and I have lived there my entire life. Before I came to the University of Maryland, Frederick was a much smaller town than it is now. I often spent my free time in downtown Frederick with friends and at the movie theater. Growing up, I was interested in music, sports, and science. I spent much of my time practicing with the TJ High marching band and playing soccer on the Middletown club soccer team. I carried these interests on into college, as I am a member of the Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band and I play intramural soccer, flag football, and bowling.

I was initially attracted to computer engineering because of my father. He also majored in computer engineering and was working at IBM when I was younger. He often brought home various computers and gadgets for projects that he was working on. Looking at all of this technology with my father really got me interested in the computer engineering field. Going into college, I had never programmed before in my life, so it seemed like I was just thrown into the thick of things when I took my first programming class. I knew that computer engineering was the major for me when I was able to quickly adapt to the class material. I enjoy taking things apart to see how they work and, in some cases, making modifications to them, which is why computer engineering appealed to me. My current project is making modifications to a guitar that I recently purchased.

I first visited the University of Maryland when I was a sophomore in high school and, at the time, I did not want to attend at all. Coming from a smaller community, the University of Maryland was entirely too large and there were far too many people. I had no idea how I would make friends or fit in here at all. During my senior year of high school, after visiting the other universities I was interested in, I decided to give Maryland another try. I spent the night with a student that was participating in one of the move-up programs that Maryland was running and I absolutely loved it. I knew from that moment on that I wanted to attend the University of Maryland. I enjoy the size of the school and the fact that there is so much to do and so many activities and organizations to get involved with.

I participate in many activities at the University of Maryland. I am a member of the Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band, and I participate in a variety of intramural sports. I also participate in Leaders in ECE. Through this program, I help the ECE department with recruiting activities and speak with prospective students and their families about my experiences with the ECE department and the university in general.

There are definitely some very intelligent students that attend the ECE department. I remember being blown away and being left completely in the dark by some of the questions that students asked in class. The reason why this does not bother me is that the professors are always ready to answer these questions in a very thorough way. My professors have always been able to shed light on these concepts that the entire class may not understand, while adequately answering the question. I think that this atmosphere in which students can ask questions mid-lecture, even when their question may be outside of the scope of the class, is excellent. This dynamic allows students to gain knowledge about concepts that are related to the material that they are learning. The professors are also very happy to spend one-on-one time with students during and sometimes outside of office hours.
The University of Maryland has definitely changed the way that I interact with people in general. I used to be a very quiet, shy person, which did not help me at all with getting to know people at such a large university. Throughout my time at the university, I have come out of my shell, and I definitely have an easier time interacting with people. Much of this can be attributed to the QUEST program, which has given me many opportunities to practice public speaking in various environments.

My mentor throughout my undergraduate study was Dr. Shuvra Bhattacharyya, and his guidance has definitely helped me. Dr. Bhattacharyya helped me a great deal with the process while I was applying to graduate schools. He helped me to find fellowships and wrote me letters of recommendation to the schools that I am applying to. In addition, Dr. Bhattacharyya has been a great help and very supportive whenever I was applying to internships. Overall, he has been a great mentor and definitely took an interest in my life inside and outside of the university.

I plan to go to graduate school after graduating this spring for electrical engineering with a focus on control systems with computer vision applications. Afterwards, I would like to work in the defense field, focusing on targeting systems of autonomous aircraft. The ECE program has helped me to achieve this goal by providing me with internship opportunities throughout the years and by offering a wide range of classes that cater to my interests.

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