Monday Major Madness: Electrical Engineering

Each Monday, we highlight a certain major here at UA. Regardless of the particular major's sanity or lack thereof, we like to call it Monday Major Madness...

 In today's installment of Monday Major Madness, Honors College student Jonathan Pittman talks about his experience as an electrical engineering major.



1) Why did you choose your major?
My dad is an electrical engineer, so I grew up familiar with the field. He works at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL with a small company called Navigation Technology Associates (NTA). I attend several "visit-dad-at-work" days as a child, but I never really thought that engineering was for me. In fact, throughout most of my high school career, I thought I wanted to go into law. Luckily, my dad convinced me to apply for an internship with NTA during the summer following my senior year of high school. I was able to work on several really cool projects, including a project that involved GPS navigation for missiles. The experiencewas great, and  I decided to pursue electrical engineering in college.

2) What are your career plans?
I am certain that I want to pursue a Master's degree in electrical engineering, and I may also pursue a PhD (depending on how much I enjoy research at the Master's level). After I'm done with school, I will probably return to Huntsville, AL to work with a military contracting company there. As a side note, there are a veritable ton of engineering opportunities available in Huntsville. It was one of the few places in the nation that prospered during the recent economic downturn, and plenty of high-paying engineering jobs are available there...even for folks right out of college.

3) What has been your favorite class (required for your major) so far?
It's so hard to choose! I really enjoyed having Dr. Patrick LeClair of the physics department for both Honors Physics II (PH126) and Modern Physics (PH253). He is an incredible lecturer, and it's obvious that he cares about the success of his students (his homework is absolutely killer, though). I also enjoyed my Digital Logic class (ECE380) with Dr. Bruce Kim. In that class, I was able to see many of the topics that I had covered in lower level courses come together and be applied toward some very practical ends. I am also currently enjoying my Electric Power class (ECE350) with Dr. Tim Haskew.

4) How many hours per week do you spend working on major-related activities?
I won't lie to you, electrical engineering requires a major time commitment. Almost all of my classes have required homework assignments, and several of them have lab assignments. I probably average 15-20 hours per week studying and/or doing homework. There is no way to get through the electrical engineering curriculum without a solid understand of physics and math...and that just takes time.

5) Anything else you would like to share? 
Work experience is quite important for engineering majors (at least, for those who wish to find gainful employment after college). As I mentioned before, there are many employment opportunities for electrical engineers who are straight out of college, but most employers strongly prefer that you have some type of work experience on your resume. I was fortunate enough to secure my internship with NTA through personal contacts,but there are certainly other ways to get an internship. The University has a Co-op program to help students gain work experience while they're in school. The Co-op program does add some time to your undergraduate experience, but it's a great way to get some work experience (and money). The Co-op program's website can be found at coop.eng.ua.edu.

Honors Ambassador Applications Available Now

The Honors College is now accepting applications from students who wish to serve as an Honors College Ambassador for the upcoming year. This is an excellent opportunity to become involved with the Honors College and to share your passion for UA with prospective students. From the Honors Ambassador application:

Honors College Ambassadors serve as the official student ambassadors for The University of Alabama Honors College.  They are outstanding Honors students who represent and promote the Honors College through interaction with prospective students, campus visitors, University faculty and staff.

 I've served as an Honors Ambassador for the past two years, and it has been a ton of fun. What exactly do Honors Ambassadors do?

• Meet prospective students and their families for lunches on campus.
• Give dorm tours to prospective students.
• Attend game-day receptions at the President's Mansion before football games.
• Speak at Honors College receptions around the state and region.
• Assist with various other Honors College events.

All Honors Ambassadors are required to perform 10 hours of service (see items mentioned above) for the Honors College every semester. In addition to that requirement, all ambassadors must attend bi-weekly meetings on Thursday at 5:00pm.

The application is available here. The due date is next Friday (Feb 4). The application does contain a couple of essays, so don't wait until the last minute to start.

Again, I can personally speak to the general awesomeness of this organization. If you have really enjoyed your experience at UA and you want to share that joy with other people, then Honors Ambassadors is for you. Good luck!

Need a Fresh Start? (Or, Time Management 101)

So, you've made it through your first semester in college. For many of you, I'm sure it was a learning experience...after all, that why we're here, right? You probably learned quite a bit about yourself, your friends, and (maybe) your academic area of interest. Hopefully, you didn't have to learn any of these lessons the proverbial "hard way." Unfortunately, that's never quite the case...maybe your GPA isn't quite what you had hoped, maybe you got out of shape, or maybe you're just a little stressed. Here's the good news: I have a solution to propose to you.

First, though, a disclaimer is necessary. All of the great wisdom decent advice presented in the blog is based entirely upon the experiences of yours truly. I have very little data, research, or anything else of substance to back up my statements. With that out of the way, on to my advice...

One of the single most important tools I use every day is the Calendar feature of Gmail. My classes are in my calendar, my extracurricular actives are in my calendar, everything is in my calendar. I am in no real danger of forgetting what time I have class, and I can usually even remember the meetings that I need to attend...so why do I do this? Quite simply, time management.

In my opinion, it's quite important to set clear boundaries when it comes to your time. Again, I won't forget my 8:00 am class (thanks, Dr. Scharstein), but putting it in my calendar marks that time as "occupied" in my mind. This particular strategy of putting everything in your calendar may or may not work for you. However, it is very important for you to set aside time for the following things:

• CLASS: It may seem obvious to you that you should mark off time for class, but the attendance levels in most of my freshman classes showed otherwise. As someone who has skipped his fair share of classes, let me tell you that being in class is absolutely essential to academic success.
• Study Time: Again, this one may seem obvious...but very few people seem to set aside enough time for study. Cramming the night before a test is not ideal (for either your GPA or your long-term recall ability).
• Meal Time: One of the most common causes of overeating/eating unhealthily is a lack of planned meals. If you want to eat healthily, it is essential not to "fly by the seat of your pants" when it comes to food. Plan to eat three well-balanced meals and a couple of (healthy) snacks every day.
• Physical Activity: The benefits of regular physical activity are almost innumerable. Exercise burns calories, builds muscle, reduces stress, and keeps endorphins flowing. Setting an exercise routine and sticking to it is the key...personally, I try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise on 5 days per week.
• Relaxation Time: We all need time to read a book, watch some TV, play a video game, or just chill with some friends. Your mind and your body will thank you for the break.
• Sleep: The recommended amount of sleep for adults is 7.5-8 hours per night. I'm sure that most of you are aware of that fact, but I'm also guessing that many of you get less than 7.5 hours of sleep each night. I've had periods in my life when I got very little sleep, and I've have periods when I got plenty of sleep. I'll let you guess which was more enjoyable.

Again, you may or may not need a calendar to do these things. My main point is that it's important to set some boundaries with your time. If someone asks you to do something that will interfere with your ability to do one of the things that I listed above, just say no.

Welcome Back! (Or, Better Late Than Never)

Welcome back to campus for the Spring 2011 semester! We meant to get the blog back up and running as soon as school started, but Wednesday became Friday Monday Wednesday Friday Monday. Delay or no, the blog is here now! Regularly scheduled programming will resume this week as we work our hardest to keep you up to date on the latest Honors College news and events.

Usually, today would be Monday Major Madness...but that will have to wait until next week (sensing a theme?). To hold you over, here are the links to all of the Monday Major Madness posts that we have done in the past:

Political Science
Marketing
English
Journalism
Accounting

As a reminder, always feel free to email the Freshman Year Experience team at honorsconnection@gmail.com. Good luck this semester!

Is it time for warm weather yet?