Electrical Engineering Students
The ASU Electrical Engineering (EE) Program hosts a diversity of students, both male and female and both traditional and non-traditional, from all over the world. These students are involved in a variety of intracurricular and extracurricular activities that help make their total educational experience the best and most gratifying that it can be. In addition to conventional classroom and laboratory technical knowledge and skills, and engineering capabilities such as analysis, computation, simulation, computer proficiency, research/scholarship, design, and both critical and creative thinking, the faculty and curriculum also provide training in teamwork, leadership, human relations, planning, organization, economics, communications, service, global issues, and other “non-technical” aspects of an engineering career.
These are augmented by student involvement in student branches of professional engineering societies such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and in broader on-campus activities such as the Student Government Association, fraternities and sororities, student religious organizations, and various special interest and service organizations. For example, three ASU EE students, Michael Sattler, Matthew Pruitt, and Alan Hickerson, participated in the March 2008 IEEE Student Professional Awareness Conference that was held in Memphis, Tennessee and sponsored by the Memphis Section of IEEE. Similarly, a May 2007 graduate, Matthew Lemay, was very active in the ASU Model United Nations organization. A few ASU EE students participate in ASU athletics. For example, Gustavo Rehder (from Brazil) who graduated in May 2003 was a star ASU pole-vaulter. All of these activities help to broaden the perspective, capabilities, confidence, marketability, enthusiasm, and confidence of the students.
The EE Program also provides other opportunities for student involvement. Every semester it hires capable students to assist the faculty in grading homework and conducting laboratory courses. Faculty researchers also hire students to serve as undergraduate research assistants, for example, in the ASU Optoelectronic Materials Research Laboratory and related research in semiconductor materials and devices. Such research assistants also serve as co-authors on journal publications over the research and themselves serve as presenters over such at regional conferences. For example, undergraduate research assistants Paul Minor, Michael Sattler, and Matthew Pruitt made presentations over their respective research projects at the 92nd Annual Conference of the Arkansas Academy of Science in April 2008, and Mr. Minor won the first place award for Best Undergraduate Presentation in Physical Science. Numerous of these research assistants have gone-on to obtain graduate degrees. For example, both Brandon Kemp (1997) and Michael Buck (2000) obtained Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering in May 2007, Dr. Kemp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dr. Buck at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Dr. Kemp is now employed at Lexmark in Lexington, Kentucky, and Dr. Buck at Ball Aerospace in the Denver area.
ASU EE students also frequently acquire engineering student internship positions in regional industry. For example, David Harlan (a May 2008 graduate) interned at the Hytrol Conveyor Company prior to graduation, and Anderson Kirui (from Kenya) interned at the Thomas and Betts company in 2006. Such positions provide the students not only additional income, but also invaluable real-world experience prefacing a subsequent engineering career.
Some ASU EE students pursue professional opportunities at other sites. For example, Paul Minor (a May 2008 ASU EE graduate) participated in a National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in microelectronic and photonic materials at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville during the summer of 2007. He was subsequently accepted into the UAF the Microelectronic and Photonics Materials graduate program for 2008/2009. Michael Sattler and Brian Hacker are/were participants in the same REU program during the summer of 2008.
ASU EE graduates go-on to pursue success after graduation in a variety of engineering positions at a diversity of localities. For example, after working as a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office in the Washington D.C. area, Amy Mangrum (2004) is now employed as a network communications engineer at Alltel in Little Rock, Arkansas. Brandon Passmore (2003), who after graduating from ASU obtained graduate degrees at the University of Arkansas, subsequently obtained a prestigious research position at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Thus, the ASU EE Program and College of Engineering are committed to the total education and both the personal and career success of its students. All students are encouraged to participate in an optimal number of such activities and pursue excellence in a variety of venues, consistent with their goals, talents, and circumstances.
