Cumulative Reflection

Four years ago, when I entered Iowa State University, I aimed to be an electrical engineer
for my future job. My interest in electrical circuits dates back to my primary school years. Even
today, one of the drawers in my room is still dedicated to wires, small motors, and other items
taken from defunct electric toys. Once entering university as a freshman, I began studying hard
for my career objective. ISU provides a very good academic environment and fosters my
communication, leadership, and cooperation skills. I took many basic engineering courses during
my first year at Iowa State University. I took several general science-required courses in the
second year, such as chemistry, computer programming, and physics. The most important course
I took in the first year was EE 185 with Dr. Mani Mina. It is the introductory course for people
just starting the electrical engineering program at Iowa State, and it teaches the importance of
design thinking and its relation to formulating and solving engineering issues. I thought it was a
good course for first-year engineers. It makes the students rethink what they thought learning
was and prepares them for lifelong learning. Design thinking was not something I was very
familiar with previously, but Iowa State has given me a better understanding of what it is and
how to use it in the process of formulating and solving engineering issues. Dr. Mani Mina not
only covered the course materials but also gave us some study skills. These skills will give me a
lot of help in my following study.
My junior and senior years at ISU are the most important and eventful. I finished all the
EE core courses and took many technical elective courses in many fields of EE. I found my
emphasis in EE. Before coming to ISU, I did not know which emphasis in EE I would follow
because I had not even learned any course in some fields of EE at that time. In my junior year, I
took my first core elective course EE 330 (Integrated Electronics). In this course, I learned more
knowledge than the material of the course itself. Under Dr. Degang Chen, the course requires a
lot of time and work I had never experienced before. The course emphasized IC design devices,
basic CMOS analog circuit design, and some digital IC design parts. In my opinion, I learned a
lot in the lab of the course. The lab is mainly about using Cadence Virtuoso to design IC. As a
result of taking this course, it sparked extremely interesting for me to study the VLSI design,
especially the analog part. Based on the interest inspired by this course, I took the advanced
course EE 465: Digital VLSI Design in my final semester. I always need to work as a group to
do the project. I learned how to cooperate with other students, break down a project into several
parts, and combine each team member's work to form the entire project. From doing this project,
I have gained a deep understanding of professional responsibility. Once getting contemporary
issues, I could have some solving ideas immediately.
In addition, I was involved in an online research seminar focused on Building an ECG
Sensor into a Smart Watch. This is the first time I have done professional research. For the first
time, I was not purely or passively absorbing knowledge anymore. I had to connect all the bits
and pieces of knowledge and skills I learned and apply them to carry out meaningful
experiments, solve real problems, or draw insightful conclusions. I worked as the group leader
and designed a circuit with an ECG sensor under the instructor's supervision. We completed the
system-level simulation results of ideally three op-amp instrumentation amplifiers. After this
research, I finished a paper accepted by MCEE 2022. Suddenly everything started to click, and it
became clear to me where my real passion was and what I would enjoy doing in my future
career.
Now, as a senior in electrical engineering at Iowa State, I have the opportunity of
working on a project with a team of students, a faculty advisor, and a client. Through senior
design, Iowa State has given me the opportunity to learn how to effectively work with a larger
group of people and keep everyone on task with the project. This has given me a lot of insight
into professional responsibilities and what working for this company may be like. Through this
project, I have already begun to put my knowledge of how to be an excellent engineer to the test.
Ensuring the team is staying on track with the project, and communicating concerns has been
fantastic. It has been great to begin implementing after learning so much through classes.
Looking back on my experience at Iowa State, I had a great time. I learned a ton of things
through the exciting and challenging courses I have taken, met many great people from all
around the world, and learned what I love to do. Now I am at a critical junction in my
professional career path. I strongly believe that my interest and passion are in VLSI design and
research. My short-term goal is to get a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. I
want to divide my studies into two distinctive stages. First, I will continue my studies of the
graduate-level courses in VLSI and master as many research tools and methods as possible. In
the second stage, I plan to join research projects or find an internship to gain practical
experience. Wherever I am taken, with the knowledge and experience accumulated, I am
confident that I will become a full-fledged scholar with a long-term goal to passionately and
competently serve the people and society at large.