Undergraduate Students
STUDENT STORIES
Write Yours in the EMSE Department
Community:
Alexa Rosdahl
Alexa Rosdahl’s faculty mentor has helped with research opportunities, career connections, and almost unlimited coursework tutoring.
Research: Javier Langarica &
Zach Stecher
Javier and Zach discuss their engineering research experiences, and Javier highlights his work with EMSE Professor Tom Mazzuchi.
Study Abroad:
Caroline Walton
Caroline Walton talks about the benefits of studying abroad and about how the engineering school facilitates study abroad for students. Explore your study abroad opportunities, too.
Listen as Dr. Ekundayo Shittu discusses the exciting contributions that systems engineering makes to society.
In this video, you’ll hear about the opportunities that students across the school have, including our own systems engineering students, who have done research in Uganda and presented their class projects to FEMA decision makers.
EMSE Undergraduate Student Experiences
Senior Design
The systems engineering degree program culminates in a two-semester capstone design experience that gives all of our graduates experience working with clients and carrying out a real systems engineering project. A couple of examples demonstrate the variety of projects our students take on.
Our team of systems engineering students was awarded Third Place in the Pelton Award for Outstanding Senior Project for their project on mitigating traffic issues before an emergency hurricane evacuation. Watch them present their research.
In this project, a systems engineering team described the construction of a data-driven railway development map to increase coverage for delivery of vaccines to remote areas of Nigeria. The team’s work is published in IEEE.
Community
Even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop our community. When the Class of 2020 graduation was cancelled and students were sent home, the department, led by Dr. Joost Santos, organized a systems engineering Zoom graduation, complete with karaoke, tiktok videos from senior design teams, video tributes from the faculty, and joyful or tearful testimonials from the students. As graduating seniors put it:
Virtual Graduation
"Not having a graduation and not being in person due to COVID was really difficult, but the virtual graduation party that the department threw was the next best thing. It was funny, heartwarming, and just what I needed that week. The videos and speeches the faculty prepared captured how all of us were feeling after our four years together. Having students, faculty, and parents all join was very thoughtful and meaningful.”
Virtual Graduation Party
“The Covid-19 pandemic was a hard time for everyone; however, the EMSE Department sacrificed their own time to make their students’ graduation celebration special. The graduation for the class of 2020 was canceled and many people moved miles away, including my own friends. The virtual graduation party made up for everything that my peers and I missed out on at the end of our Senior year. It was a thoughtful, personal gift that allowed us to connect with our friends to celebrate our accomplishments and allowed our family to connect with the department that guided us to become successful professionals.”
Internships
Systems engineering students have interned with a wide variety of organizations, including NASA, Deloitte, Leidos, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Disney, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Fannie May, Accenture, Booz-Allen Hamilton, and many others.
As a rising senior, Vicky Nilsen completed an internship at NASA Headquarters and worked on cost and risk modeling for a variety of NASA projects. She traveled for conferences and visits to several other NASA centers, including Langley Research Center.
Undergraduate Research
Many systems engineering students have worked on undergraduate research with faculty, on topics ranging from vaccine distribution in Nigeria to design team communication at NASA to international development in Uganda.
Finley Wetmore studied agricultural financing in Uganda, mentored by Dr. Erica Gralla. She built system maps that show the influence of multiple factors on farmers’ ability to get loans, based on interviews with financing stakeholders in Uganda, and she supported workshops in which international development stakeholders explored potential interventions to improve loan access. The work was funded by USAID.
Abigail Sharp and Justin Williams worked on a multidisciplinary team to develop green technologies for the US coal industry with Endoglobal, Inc. and Mississippi State University. The team leveraged a novel solar energy technology to develop a process that provides a route for low cost and low waste production of the engineered coal leading to green value-added products. The team’s work even was featured on a West Virginia news network.
Learn More About the EMSE Experience
Learn more about our Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering.
The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) Career Services Center is a fantastic resource, staffed with people who can help you prepare for life after college.
The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) provides wonderful study abroad options for engineering students. Explore your opportunities.
Whether you want to learn new skills or meet new friends, EMSE student organizations give you a chance to do both while you pursue your interests.
