My academic journey at Iowa State University started from Fall 2015. Majoring in Electrical Engineering at ISU helped me to improve and be prepared to be a professional engineer in the future. Being an engineering student, I have been through many classes. I found the fundamental courses are very important to support my future study, such as calculus, physics, and basic logic circuits and so on. These courses are the base of my engineering courses. I couldn’t study further without this fundamental knowledge. Besides the fundamental courses, I have taken Engineering courses. Among these engineering courses is Introduction to VLSI EE330 course. Dr. Geiger's VLSI Design class has entrenched a deep impression in my mind. This course not only taught me how integrated circuits are designed to function in a wide variety of daily applications in our life, but also taught me how to think independently and solve problems efficiently.
As time went on, my interest in engineering only grew stronger. With each core class I took I learned more and more about methods and techniques that I could actually apply in real life and use to solve problems. For example, I was able to use my knowledge of electrical engineering to design and implement a digital temperature sensor. The aim of the project was to make the device highly sensitive to temperature so that it could give us very accurate readings for the temperature that it will potentially measure. Working with another electrical engineer, we designed a rough idea of how we could accomplish this task using Cadence tool, and we came up with a digital sensor that was able to measure the temperature accurately in a range between -20 and 100 degrees Celsius. We first were struggling in making the design work using Cadence but After many iterations and tweaks we managed to get it working, and the reward of having created a functional object was entirely worth the long hours and hard work that we put into it. In the end, this project is what influenced me into pursuing a path towards VLSI design.
Overall, if I had a chance to make another choice three years ago, I will still choose engineering. Although it is not an easy major to study, but that encourage me to challenge myself and release my potential ability. The skills and experience I have gained will worth any other rewards.
As time went on, my interest in engineering only grew stronger. With each core class I took I learned more and more about methods and techniques that I could actually apply in real life and use to solve problems. For example, I was able to use my knowledge of electrical engineering to design and implement a digital temperature sensor. The aim of the project was to make the device highly sensitive to temperature so that it could give us very accurate readings for the temperature that it will potentially measure. Working with another electrical engineer, we designed a rough idea of how we could accomplish this task using Cadence tool, and we came up with a digital sensor that was able to measure the temperature accurately in a range between -20 and 100 degrees Celsius. We first were struggling in making the design work using Cadence but After many iterations and tweaks we managed to get it working, and the reward of having created a functional object was entirely worth the long hours and hard work that we put into it. In the end, this project is what influenced me into pursuing a path towards VLSI design.
Overall, if I had a chance to make another choice three years ago, I will still choose engineering. Although it is not an easy major to study, but that encourage me to challenge myself and release my potential ability. The skills and experience I have gained will worth any other rewards.
