Some of the most successful
engineering students I have come across have
been ones that are just one to solve a problem.
If you enjoy kind of creating your own things,
working outside of the box, that's what makes
a good engineer.
What sets the Indiana
Tech's engineering program apart, what comes
to mind are two things.
First of all, having a small class size gives
some individualized attention for students
and an approach for the students.
The second thing would be the focus of the
university on teaching rather than on research.
You can see that in the faculty they've hired.
And focus on teaching really helps the students
prepare for their future career and working industry.
I think it is a very
student-focused environment here.
The professors all care for every individual
student, which comes from the smaller class sizes.
Having just a class of 20 students, the professors
are able to make sure that they are doing
what needs to be done to be successful.
My fellow students have
been great.
Especially there's a group of us that we all
have same class schedule and we've had it
from our second semester here at tech.
So that's been great just because you get
to know people and you show up for classes
and you just joke and have fun.
But it's also they're great to study with.
There's a lot of students
here on campus that are always willing to
help people out.
If you're in the computer lab and they see
you struggling on a project, they might help
and offer some advice.
Or even just some other students who go on
to be teacher's assistants.
In the labs they're always very great to work
with.
They've been through the class themselves.
They kind of know what can be difficult to
learn and they're great at helping knowing
their past experiences.
I like to have my students
do hands-on projects as early in the program
as possible.
I find this really helps them get excited
about electrical engineering.
Sometimes the courses can get a little intense,
you know, mathematics-wise and everything.
And people who can't see the end picture all
the time and the earlier I can get them doing
hands-on projects the more excited they get
about the program and the more energized they
are and are able to make it through all the
courses. Even the more intense ones.
I want to teach the students
the material that needs to be covered for
that class, but since the classes that I teach
are also things that I do in industry, I try
to get as much industry experience information
into the class as possible so that the students
know, yes, we do actually use these concepts
in real life.
I think it's important to be able to share with the students my experience in the work field, so I try to bring
that in as much as I can with illustrations and examples.
I'll even bring devices or things into show
the students in class.
And then we do take the learning experience
outside the classroom as well.
And we'll make a field trip to my manufacturing
plant and give students a tour there so they
can see the electrical machines in use.
And then, good folks at Horner Electric in
Indianapolis will host us for a tour and it's
a motor repair shop and we can see electrical
machines actually torn apart and opened up.
It's a real chance for the students to see
some of these things that we can only illustrate
with pictures in the textbook.
First hand and actually see them in person.
Our electrical engineering program is 
 ABET accredited, which is an important
thing for engineering programs to be.
Another positive to the electrical engineering
program is that we have state-of-the-art equipment
in our labs.
Just since I've taken over the program or
since I've been in charge of the electrical
engineering program, we have purchased a PCB
etcher.
We purchased all brand new measurement equipment.
We have purchased a network analyzer.
And we are planning on purchasing some additional
equipment.
Some of the same equipment that we already
have because the program has grown and we
need more equipment so that we have more lab
stations for students.
We have an LPKF circuit
board cutter, which allows students to create
the circuit boards for their projects.
Not only can they simulate a circuit using
our circuit simulators, but they can then
lay out the circuit on a circuit board, cut
out the circuit board, build the circuit board
and test the circuits to see all of the stages
of electrical engineering design process.
Indiana Tech has done
a great job helping me get my internship and
helping me get some real world experience.
I have been an intern at American Electric
Power over the summer this year.
It was a pretty good opportunity.
I was working with the modernization group
getting smart devices onto the grid allowing
Indiana Michigan Power to see a little bit
more information-wise as to what's going on.
Most of it doing some load studies.
Students can get hands-on
experience here at Indiana Tech by participating
in the after school clubs and there's a whole
series of different groups that electrical
engineering students can get into.
One of them would be the IEEE, the International
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
They get to see what research is being done.
They get to interface with other electrical
engineers besides the professors.
They'll bring speakers in.
Again, to give them a full picture of where
they're going to be when they graduate.
So, I'm a member of Alpha
Chi, an academic organization here at Tech.
We go to a conference every year.
I had the privilege to present and also see
presentations by several engineers.
Just through the knowledge
and skills that I learned through all my various
classes, whether it be electrical engineering
courses or just your general math in general
education courses.
They've really given me confidence and the
knowledge I have that I'll be ready to go
into a job knowing what I'm doing.
