 MEET THE STUDENTS
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George's Three Favorite Things about the ECE Department:
1) The department's BIG! If there's anything that annoys you about any part of it, that's okay — you could spend all four years here and only ever meet a small fraction of the department.
2) Cool staff - the people in the department are actually really cool people that can give you lots of advice and assistance! Most people go their four years meeting just a couple of advisors, and even then they don't use them as a resource to their full potential
3) The department has really been taking an interest in making sure every student feels a sense of community. Outside advising, every student automatically gets a faculty advisor, and there's a multitude of ECE-oriented student groups.
Advice to Incoming Students:
Get busy, but in a fun way! Make sure that even in your freshman year, you get active and really explore what UMD has to offer. Look into what type of leadership positions your living-learning programs, your academic department, or your social organizations have to offer — getting involved often yields all sorts of indirect benefits outside merely being bullets on your resume. |
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George
talks about ECE @ Maryland:
I've been at the University of Maryland for three years, and I'm only growing to love it more as time passes. I'm a Physics and Electrical Engineering major here at UMD. I'm doing research in both Maryland's Gemstone Program on carbon sequestration via wood burial/submersion and for the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics on microfluidic control of quantum dots.
Technical stuff aside, I'm a budding ballroom dancer and jogger and an ever-learning cook. If you ever see the Eta Kappa Nu organization in the lobby of the GLM engineering lobby selling gumbo, try some! It's my personal recipe.
I was born in Beijing, I've lived in a variety of cities big and small in both China and the U.S. I'm a Marylander at heart, though — I've spent the past ten years living in Ellicott City and College Park.
I used to do a lot of building/engineering competitions with my friends in high school; I decided to go into Electrical Engineering because lasers and plasmas sounded a lot more interesting than bridges and chemicals.
I've been Treasurer for the ECE Undergraduate Student Council for the past 2 years since the organization's inception, and I'm the Corresponding Secretary for Eta Kappa Nu. I'm also a member of UMD's IEEE student chapter.
I think the one thing that is most consistent across the entire department is its inconsistency — the ECE Department has one of the most diverse student bodies and faculty/compositions around. There's undoubtedly a niche for anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of the community.
UMD has obviously been an awesome environment for academic growth. More importantly, however, it has broadened my horizons. I've met new people, garnered new interests, and gained new appreciation of the opportunities around me. I'm doing a lot of things today I couldn't have possibly seen myself doing just two years ago.
For anyone who's really interested in electrophysics research, I'd highly recommend talking to Dr. Edo Waks. He handles applications for undergraduate research at the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics. I can guarantee you that he'll have a handful of potential projects for you to peruse under a variety of professors at IREAP.
ECE is one of the most relevant fields career-wise even in today's restricted economy. You could go into grad school, apply to basically any tech company, or even go into law or medicine. It's really, really hard to go wrong with the amount of breadth and opportunities available to you in the department.
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