Sophomore Year Recap

As my sophomore year summer comes to a close, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on and share some key experiences that made this year special and contributed to my professional development.

In November 2023, I joined OPEnS Lab as an Electrical and Programming Specialist under the guidance of Dr. Chet Udell. I began as a trainee and soon progressed to a student employee, contributing to the WeatherChimes project. This experience introduced me to an incredible, multidisciplinary team of passionate engineers. It also allowed me to learn about embedded systems, and low-level programming, and learn a variety of industrially relevant skills. A highlight of this journey was presenting my research at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Later, in the summer, I traveled to Alaska for a two-week deployment of environmental data collection units across Sitka, Hoonah, and Prince of Wales. In addition to our deployments, we conducted educational workshops, sharing our expertise with local communities.

Starting in January 2024, I expanded my role by becoming an undergraduate teaching assistant for Dr. Chet’s ENGR 102 class. I was responsible for co-leading two studios each week, holding office hours, and developing guides for students to learn about microcontrollers and sensors. After the winter term ended, I continued assisting with ENGR 103, where I had the privilege to be a guest lecturer alongside my colleague Soren. We delivered a lecture on the topic of “Preparing for Sophomore Year and Beyond” which gave students an insight into computer science concepts found difficult by sophomore students and outlined experiences that could enhance their academic and personal life.

During the latter half of the year, I was inducted into Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), an honor society for Electrical and Computer Engineering students through IEEE. In addition, I became involved with OSU’s AIAA branch, where I worked on developing flight computers and black boxes for rockets—an excellent application of the embedded systems skills I honed at OPEnS Lab. I also participated in OSU’s BeaverHacks spring hackathon, where my team won second prize after designing a fully automated history-themed radio channel and modifying an FM radio with an ESP-32 to stream this content over the internet. On top of that, I studied for and earned my Ham Radio License!

Looking back at this year, I’ve learned the importance of seizing every opportunity and partaking in activities beyond the classroom. I can’t wait to see what new experiences next year will bring!