Joshua Marchi - Professional Statement - Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering - BSCmpE 2012
As a graduating senior in Computer Engineering at Purdue University, I am now able to look back and realize how my experiences at Purdue have helped to develop my skills as a professional engineer. These skills have been molded and refined through a variety of methods, with academic classes and schoolwork being only one these sources. Some of the strongest sources that have helped to ready myself for a professional career in engineering have been my involvement in team-based class design projects, my leadership position within the Purdue All-American Marching Band, and the real-world knowledge gained from my summer internships.
First and foremost, the project-based classes I have taken at Purdue have helped to hone both the technical and managerial skills required by a professional engineer. One class in particular that had a significant effect was ECE 337 (ASIC Design Laboratory). For this class, a large portion of the semester consisted of a team-based design project in which groups of four students followed a project idea through every stage of the formal design process. This included an initial project proposal, revised project proposal, design budgeting section, formal design review, final presentation, and final report. Several of the skills developed throughout this project included knowledge and utilization of the formal design process, project management skills, and collaboration and communication skills with fellow team members. The satisfaction that came with the completion of such an extensive project was overwhelming, and reminded me why I want to be a part of an engineering design team after graduation.
In addition to engineering classes at Purdue, my involvement with the Purdue All-American Marching Band has also helped to develop critical skills required to be a successful engineer. For the past two years, I have been one of the student leaders of the alto saxophone section of the band. As a student leader, I actively participate in the recruitment process for incoming freshman, coordinate and run music rehearsals, oversee and assist in the learning of marching drill, and assume a mentorship role with the aim to help incoming freshman transition from high school to college with minimal difficulties. As a result, I have developed the strong interpersonal and communication skills required to work with and lead a group of almost 30 students throughout an entire marching season. These skills will prove invaluable as I transition into the engineering profession, and soon find myself working with and eventually having a leadership role among an engineering design team.
Lastly, my summer internship experiences have provided a way for me to transfer knowledge from school to a real world setting, as well as to gain further communication skills as part of a real design team. For example, in my internship with Indesign, LLC, I worked closely with two other firmware engineers to port an embedded application from a Renesas microcontroller to an NXP microcontroller. Not only was I in charge of adapting several sections of code to the new microcontroller, but also took part in all project development / planning meetings and contributed to weekly updates with the client company. These experiences proved that I could successfully transition from an academic to professional setting, while still maintaining the high level of technical and social skills developed at Purdue.
In conclusion, I feel that during my time at Purdue, the experience gained in the engineering classroom, on the drill field with the marching band, and in the workplace during summer internships will all directly contribute to my success as a professional engineer. Purdue has been the catalyst that allowed these skills to develop and flourish, and I am looking forward to putting these skills to use as I begin my engineering career in the upcoming months.
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