The practical teamwork, technical skills, and communication you learn in the project track will make you far more valuable in industry than just book knowledge alone.
Name: Cristian Washburn
What is your area of interest within ECE? IC design and Image Processing for Remote Sensing applications
Why did you choose the Project Track?
The MSECE project track has helped me develop not only technical knowledge but also teamwork and leadership skills which will be valuable in my career as an engineer.
Name: Aishwarya Sharma
What is your area of interest within ECE? Computer Engineering
Why did you choose the Project Track?
I chose the project track because I wanted to gain experience in working on a long term project. I was also interested in the different aspects of developing/designing a product and all the steps to achieve that goal. I also wanted to develop entrepreneurship skills and learn about how an idea becomes an innovation!
What project did you work on?
I worked on a system for quick and reliable Forest Fire detection. The primary motivation for this project was the large amount of damage caused by Forest Fires in 2020.
What did you like about the program? What skills did you gain?
The project track offers a perfect blend of technical skills and work ethics which are equally important when it comes to the industry.
Name: Sruthi Rangarajan
What is your area of interest within ECE?
VLSI and Circuit Design
Why did you choose the Project Track?
I wanted to enter industry after I graduated. Therefore, I was looking for opportunities to widen my horizons, and learn as many concepts as possible within my Master’s degree. This would in turn provide me with a greater variety in jobs that I can apply for. However, the Thesis track requires students to invest a lot of time in exploring concepts with great detail and depth, which I was not interested in.
One option was to take as many courses as possible, and the coursework track would help me achieve that. But I was also wanting to learn social and professional skills which would prepare me to handle challenges upon entering the workforce, especially for the first time.
I can feel that I’m quickly growing as a more competent engineer every day. But most importantly, I am having so much fun!
Name: Sean Soonhyung Hwang
What is your area of interest within ECE?
My biggest area of interest is in digital systems, especially in ASIC, FPGA, and combinational logic design. I also enjoy learning/developing Software Algorithms and working with powerful open-source libraries. I love how ECE offers me wide range of opportunities to improve all these areas that I’m interested in learning.
Why did you choose the Project Track?
I don’t enjoy learning from textbooks! Getting hands on experience gives me so much more opportunity to learn, while being incomparably fun. I really enjoyed a semester-long senior design project during undergraduate school, so the fact that I could have a 1.5-year project experience completely sold me. As I expected, I can feel that I’m quickly growing as a more competent engineer every day. But most importantly, I am having so much fun!
What project are you working on?
I joined Purdue after working 2 years full-time as an engineer and while I have a lot of technical skills to solve problems, I realized in order to progress in my career I had a lot more to learn.
Name: Boluwatife Tawab Fashina
What is your area of interest within ECE?
Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning
Why did you choose the project track?
The project track is giving me an opportunity to have some entrepreneurial experience in terms of setting up the foundations of building a project up from scratch, learning how to manage it, and working in teams.
What project are you working on?
My team and I are designing a smart pet monitoring system for cat owners that automatically tracks and records their pet’s behavior for health assessments.
What do you like about the program? What skills did you gain/are you gaining?
