Cumulative Education Reflection

While attending Iowa State I have learned a large amount of technical knowledge, as
well as met many great students, teachers, and friends. Meeting great people and faculty, in my
opinion, is one of the important takeaways from my time here at Iowa State. When I join the
engineering workplace in July 2018, I will have to work with a large variety of engineers who all
come from different backgrounds. By meeting and working with different kinds of people at
Iowa State, I think that I am much more prepared for the diversity I will face in the engineering
workforce.

During my engineering core curriculum, I learned more than just the math behind
solving electrical engineering problems. I learned the theory and application that I will apply the
math to. One great thing that Iowa State does to help me to understand the concepts that are
covered in lectures are assign labs. The labs at Iowa State have correlated very well with the
material covered in our lectures. I found that whenever I felt confused on a subject, going to
the lab and simulating the problem helped to give me a better understanding of how to solve
the problem.

One of the first classes that contained a lab for me was EE 201 (Electric Circuits). In this
class, I learned the very basics of circuit design. I was able to use my math and calculus
knowledge to solve circuits with resistors, diodes, capacitor, inductors, and op-amps. The
material covered in EE 201 was built upon when I took EE 230 (Electronic Circuits and Systems).
EE 230 allowed students to be creative and create a wide variety of circuit designs. The core
curriculum for electrical engineering also coincides very closely with computer and software
engineering. I think this is very important because in the engineering workplace, I will have to
work closely with not only electrical engineers, but computer, software, and systems engineers.
 Now that I am a senior, I am able to combine all of the skills and knowledge I have
learned towards my senior design project. Our senior design project has allowed me to work
closely with multiple engineering majors as well as non-engineering majors. Our project is
smart wireless ag sensors for the measurement of soil water content. This project has allowed
me to use my circuit design knowledge as well as learn more about printed circuit board design.
This project has also improved my understanding of app development.

My focus in electrical engineering is communication systems and linear systems. My

classes at Iowa State have greatly increased my interest in these engineering fields. Iowa State
has also helped me obtain a job in communication systems. I am looking forward to continuing
my career of engineering in July of 2018. I know that all of the technical and general education
skills, as well as all of the group work, has greatly prepared me to become an electrical
engineer.