Essay on Application for Graduate Program in Electronics

‘Slow and steady wins the race’, they say. Nothing best describes my passage through life as does this adage: mine has been flanked by academic challenges and high family standards. Yet, I have not only always pulled through but have done so most gallantly, even finishing best at some levels.

As I am nearing the end of my undergraduate journey, I find that I am being asked more frequently as to what my plans are after graduation. When I respond that I am applying to graduate school and I am really excited about continuing my education, I often receive the same reaction: a look of utter confusion and the question “Why?” The answer is simple: I love learning. I think that knowledge gives one more power than possessing riches, fame, or an army ever could. To quote the Doctor in my favorite TV show, Doctor Who, he says “You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room’s the greatest arsenal we could have – arm yourselves!” This quote illustrates exactly how I feel about possessing knowledge. There isn’t a problem in this world that a little bit of erudition can’t solve. However,

Which is probably why I always found myself in some sort of trouble for taking apart toys and having to throw them away because they would never work the same or again after I got my hands on them. In my adolescence and teen years, that curiosity grew to include computers, technology, and engineering. Then came the first few awkward years of college that everyone has, where you can’t decide what to do and you skip around to different majors and degree programs for a while before you have that moment of epiphany that you can apply what you loved doing as a kid to a real life (sort of---cowboy astronaut with supernatural powers). It wasn’t until the start of my undergraduate program that I began developing a solid foundation and understanding of information technology, information systems along with some basic understanding of electronic and computer

I chose a computer science class only because I thought I would be good at it since my dad does it for his job. Due to my change in beliefs, I am now taking my 3rd Computer Science class as a senior because I enjoy it so much. This opportunity that I took, has now given me closer relationship with my dad and has potentially made Computer Science my career

While taking computer and engineering classes the subjects relating to computer sciences always stood out to me. Being in an actual

When I first came to El Camino, my academic goal was to earn a PhD in electrical engineering. My first semester, I took classes that had to do with my major such as Math 190, Physics 1A and Computer Science 1. Computer Science 1 was the first time I was exposed to computer science fundamentals. I had Professor Ghyam and he presented algorithms and programming language basics in a way that shaped how I conceptually understand the material and gave me the confidence to apply my knowledge in sequential computer science classes. Additionally, this class cultivated my appreciation for computer science and inspired me to spend that winter break teaching myself Python and was the first class at El Camino that made me reconsider my major.

As far as my interests in computer science, it is due to technology being highly dynamic and the applications the skills learned could be used in virtually all industries.

Ever since I used to play with Legos as a little kid, I had a passion for creating something from scratch. My first educational experience in this was taking a web design class when I was a freshman in high school. The idea of building a website from nothing sparked my interest, so I continued taking web design classes throughout the rest of my high school career. I even designed a site for a local animal kennel. When I got accepted to the University of Florida I choose electrical engineering as my major because I felt like that was the closest thing to the kind of work that I was doing in high school. After I started to take electrical engineering specific classes, such as circuits, I was starting to lose interest and my grades were suffering. I wanted to be able to see visually the work that I was doing and I did not feel like I was getting it from electrical engineering. During one of my semesters I took a statics class as a technical elective and loved it. For the first time, I felt that I was able to visualize how the material I learned was applied to real-world applications. Because of this, I switched majors to mechanical and aerospace engineering, my grades improved, and I have never been happier.

Nassuel Valera is a student currently going for an Associate of Science in Electrical Engineering at Everett Community College. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Nassuel attended high school in the D.R., were math and science classes sparked an interest towards the engineering field. His understanding of mathematics and science was noticeable, whereas, he often struggled at grasping the concepts in literature class. In college, classes such as Physics 241 and 231 made him comprehend how actually science works and that there's a lot of processes executed by living creatures that scientist do not know how they work to their entirety. Calc I and II showed him how everything that's man-made has a variety of calculations before prototyped.

As I went through the assigned reading, I was scared to find an incredible amount of previously unknown information. I felt like I should have a firm grasp on the history of computer science. Then I took a tangent path into electrical and mechanical engineering as I learned about transistors and capacitors.

My interest in information science first emerged while working on household survey and clinical research projects at RTI International and Duke University Medical Center. While working in different roles in project management, operations, and training, I became involved in a variety information technology activities including, managing a field test of new project hardware and software; identifying functional requirements and creating specifications for project websites and data collection tools; testing systems; providing troubleshooting support & software training; and working as a liaison between management and IT staff for system changes and new developments. I immediately recognized the centrality of information systems in research

Growing up as the son of an electrical engineer, I was exposed at an early age to learning opportunities that most of my peers lacked. One of my favorite weekend activities was exploring a literal junkpile of electronic goods, picking one, taking it apart, and learning how it worked. I found experimenting, examining, and discovering exhilarating and educational. I naturally flowed into programming and web development, both tools that allowed me to prototype ideas and solve problems. At age 18, I landed a job as a professional web developer. The position was for a recent college graduate. Even though I had never taken any type of programming class, my application was the most impressive. At that time I was going to school at Cal Poly Pomona, studying to be an aerospace engineer. I could not get a deferment of two years for a mission, so when I got back in 2011 I had to find a new place to study. Deciding to go to BYU-Idaho was a lot easier than deciding what to study. I had so many career ideas, that I had to chose the single major that would open up the most opportunities. Despite having never taken a physics class, I decided that it was the root science. I knew I would go to graduate school, and with physics I could go into engineering, programming, finances, or even medicine.

My preferred major is computer science. Computer science is the act of coding and other operations dealing with computer software. Computer science also deals with knowing all or most languages of code such as Java, Python, or Linux. Along my path to deciding that I wanted to major in computer science, I faced many obstacles and was a part of many experiences that pushed me towards this field. Some events would be as simple as my family designating me the honorary “Tech Guy” or my friends coming to me for advice on their computers. Those things are what sparked my interest. Then came my first coding class. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done and it was so immense. So many commands and combinations and it just didn’t seem to make sense. But then I realized, it was made by someone. People have a knack for creating patterns. It is how the human brain works, we take all the large amount of data that is thrown at our brains and then we make shortcuts like seeing patterns. So that’s what humans did to the machines. We gave them the same mindset. So I started noticing shortcuts in the data and patterns and soon everything started to click.

My true passion for engineering began when I came across the quote: "Technology are devices that make our lives better". Despite my first love of mathematics, my recent interest for engineering has come from two major influences. The first being my mathematics and physics teachers, both engineers by nature, who have helped me enhance the fundamental skills essential for engineering and embrace the importance of the field. The second being the learning about uses of technology in Computer Science, it taught me the magnitude of which technology contributes to our everyday lives has led me to intensify my desire to improve the lives of others.

The background is based on the premise that future academic and industrial projects will require engineers to adopt a system level perspective and work with interdisciplinary teams [129]. Accordingly, current engineering students are expected to have system design experiences, and the ability to prototype demonstration systems, and also be able to communicate with engineers working in other areas, as well as identify potential market demand based on available technologies [130]. To date, this type of experience has not been offered sufficiently in classroom lectures and laboratory sessions [131]. Presently, our pedagogical practices tend to focus on conveying technical knowledge rather than giving students experience in system development [132]. The proposed research is uniquely cross-disciplinary in that it includes both fundamental circuit design and signal processing techniques, and this cross-disciplinary approach can be adopted in various ap- plications. Taking into