A Reflective Journey: Navigating Your Cumulative

Experience at Iowa State University

Nathan Cook

During my time at Iowa State University, I have learned an amount that I would
have thought unthinkable during high school. The classes I have taken and the people I
have met have molded me into a good Computer Engineer and, even more importantly,
a better person. My experiences with others have broadened my worldview and allowed
me to become well-rounded, much different from the pessimistic, shy, and close-minded
person who arrived in Ames in 2020.
My motivation to pursue Computer Engineering began very early in life when I
would take apart game consoles, controllers, toys, and other devices since elementary
school. This was only strengthened by the discovery of the hobby of computer building
in high school which sent me down the path of trying to understand what makes a
computer good and what parts or things I should look for. This led me to the coup de
grace of my motivations, my first experience with ICs, which arrived through the
disassembly of replacing broken fan in one of the first laptops I owned. Looking at the
PCB inside of the Chassis made me marvel at the complexity of such a small device
and what the potential technology could bring. After this, I began consuming a large
amount of computer and IC-related content from the internet, from YouTube videos to
papers written on quantum computing, which all accumulated in deciding to go to Iowa
State University.
Through my classes, I have learned about the things that are important to my
field and things that are important to understanding the people around me. During my
time here, I have struggled with learning how to study and become more proficient in
that area. I have searched for information from other schools on topics I am unsure
about or used tools at my disposal to figure it out myself. One of these examples is
using LTSpice circuit schematic software to verify my answers to circuit analysis
problems in my Circuits I and II classes. This has led to a more practical understanding
and the ability to approximate the components and their values needed for the circuits I
am designing.
Working in groups is a large part of any engineering discipline, especially
Computer Engineering. I learned the upsides and the downsides, of it through multiple
class experiences. A bad experience I had was within a software design group, the
group started off well, doing our work and getting goals done on time or even before
they were due to one person falling behind and continuing to fall behind which led to the
whole group being pulled down and imploding by the end of the semester because of
the low morale within the group.
 A much better experience I have had within a group is with my lab partner in my
Circuits 2 class. We would work together using our strengths, mine being in circuit
design and his writing reports and troubleshooting the circuits. During this class, we
both put in many hours past lab time to get projects and reports done, a memorable
experience was him and I showing up to the lab on the weekend to work on a project for
an extra 20 hours just to get it done on time. During this class, I learned the importance
of bouncing off each other's strengths to strengthen each other's weaknesses and
streamline design processes and report writing.
I am currently finding my senior design project the experience I have learned the
most from. From interacting with clients and arranging materials before meetings to
doing research to understand technology and concepts not taught in class, especially
newer technologies. I am currently researching ReRAM technology, a relatively new
technology within the computing field, as well as its applications in memory use and
how it can be expanded to computing.
My time in college has been at times very hard but has also led to a tremendous
upgrade of myself and my thought process through the knowledge taught in classes, out
of classes, and through other people I am confident in my ability to be a good influence
and a good engineer to work and interact with.