Alice (Jou) Bolenbaugh

Alumna
PhD EE '16
Senior Design Engineer
Qorvo

Cherish and enjoy the resources you've been blessed with at Purdue ECE and everything you learn will be a powerful tool for you in some way in the future. 

Why did you choose to study electrical and computer engineering?

With the knowledge learned in the field, one can understand how the works that redefine lifestyles from generations to generations has been done, along with new possibilities to improve current works or to come up with a whole new invention. Electrical and computer engineering is a field that transforms creativity and ideas into reality. In the future I predict many more advanced ideas will come to life.

Favorite Purdue ECE class or experience:

ECE 402 (or 49595) senior design project teaching assistant-ship, working with Professor Mohammadi, HINET group and working with ARES group members in Wang Hall RF lab organized by Professor Peroulis.

Throughout ECE 402 assistant-ship, I can say I learned from all the staff members (especially Dr. Robinson and Dr. Swabey) and professors I worked with a lot more than what I taught in the class. Not only is it a thoroughly designed class detailed with all aspects of the field, it also allows you to have experiences of integrating four to five different sub-fields through team work while other course projects usually targeting one specific sub-field. In addition, I learned along with students how to plan a schedule based on priorities of tasks, which became tremendously helpful for my own Ph.D research and even at my current job.

In Wang hall RF lab, everyone in the HINET group and ARES group were working with novel and ground breaking projects. Therefore we constantly faced difficult research problems and learned to help each other with them. Most of the problems we had required analytical thinking and the conclusion and answers were not easy to find. Professor Mohammadi and the HINET group members trained me with patience and kindness on how to pursue a question with analytical thinking throughout research projects. Professor Mohammadi was always forgiving and supportive to his students and it was a really nice experience working with him. Professor Peroulis and the AREAS group develop policies and maintain equipment in the RF lab so well, that the students can work with their projects in a organized and clean lab.

What organizations or activities were you involved in at Purdue (doesn’t have to be ECE-related)? What did you gain from that involvement?

ILTC (I Love Taiwan Club), 2XS, Faith West PBFi, and Calvary children ministry.

ILTC and 2XS provided me a lot of assistance when I first moved to the United States to get familiar with the area and living style.

Faith West PBFi provided me an introduction to Christianity and Calvary children ministry provided me a way to serve the Lord and to take care of babies.

What are you doing currently?

I am currently working at Qorvo as a senior design engineer. My responsibility at this position is designing CMOS low noise amplifiers (LNA) used in flagship mobile products RF front end modules. 

What are your ultimate career goals?

Using the knowledge and abilities I am blessed with to share and show the Lord's love to others at the position He puts me in.

How is your Purdue degree helping you achieve your goals?

Purdue has helped me gain knowledge, analytical thinking skills, task organizational skills, and has taught me how to communicate and explain my work to others. These skills have been paramount through all my Purdue courses, teaching assistant-ships, and have helped me in my research.

What advice do you have for current ECE students?

Cherish and enjoy the resources you've been blessed with at Purdue ECE and everything you learn will be a powerful tool for you in some way in the future. I've been on both sides of the student and teaching role and I have seen how much effort the Purdue ECE staff and faculty put into education and never stop improving it. It is truly beyond impressive.

What do you do in your free time? (hobbies, activities, interests, etc)

Hiking, traveling, teaching preschoolers about God, baking, reading, cooking and working out.


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