Cumulative Reflection

My name is Jeremy Wallace. I am currently an Electrical Engineering undergraduate

student at Iowa State University with a focus in controls. My fascination with engineering in
general started in middle school with my love for roller coasters and how they worked. Going to
the local Six Flags was always something I always looked forward to. One day at the park, a
certain roller coaster caught my eye. It was an Intamin Impulse roller coaster. This particular
rollercoaster can be described as a half pipe that uses LIMs to propel the train back and forth up
the front and back towers. The LIMs use electricity , magnetism, and the use of controls to
function. This propelled my involvement in STEM classes during high school and tinkering with
devices such as robots. These served as my first steps into the long and daring voyage with
technology.

I first started out at my local community college. It was free and provided some breathing
room in case I wanted to change my career path. When I started out, I was initially undecided. I
was having trouble deciding if I wanted to do mechanical or electrical engineering. My love for
roller coasters and robots aligned with both majors. Toward the end of my time at the college, I
was able to make the decision to go to electrical engineering. This was due to the fact that I was
fascinated with magnetism, control systems, and how circuits work.

I soon transferred from my community college to Iowa State to finish my education. The
transition was tough, especially when you take into account that I transferred during the
semester COVID sent us all home. I wasn’t able to go on campus the next semester after and it
set be back a year. My GPA dropped significantly and landing an internship became incredibly
difficult. Fortunately, I was able to persevere through the endeavor and make it to where I am, a
Senior in electrical engineering at Iowa State.

As a Senior in Electrical Engineering, I was able to put all of the skills I learned here to
the test in my senior design project. The project allowed me to work with 6 other intelligent
students spanning different departments in engineering. Throughout the course of the project, I
was able to be exposed to Software, and Mechanical engineering and see how all of our areas
of expertise combined into one. With that in mind, I was able to develop how to communicate
with other team members and stay on track toward our goal. After all of those semesters of
learning about the theory behind a lot of the engineering, it was refreshing to be able to put
them to use into something tangible. There was finally something to show for it other than a
degree.

Throughout my whole college career, one of the greatest skills I have developed
overtime was the ability to ask questions. This is often an overlooked skill because it seems
obvious, but being able to admit that you’re not knowledgeable on a subject is important to
improving yourself as an individual and an engineer. You won’t be able to know everything about
everything. You aren’t alone and there are people out there that want to see you succeed.
That’s something I learned from my time here at Iowa State University.