Introduction: Realigning Your Vision

I wanted to create this blog for the purpose of sharing my thoughts to the world and hopefully help those with similar questions and obstacles that I’ve had and been through. Like many, I went in to engineering as an idealist thinking what I can help create or be a part of something that can make the world a better place. Initially, I was enrolled in a Biological Engineering program at the University of Illinois at Chicago with the intention of getting into the medical industry to help others in need. I wasn’t too sure about this idea after a couple months since many universities with these programs aren’t that well established in my opinion. It seemed that every job site I looked (even medical industries) required an Electrical Engineering or Computer Science major to get a internship/job. The world of electrical engineering was very foreign to me at the time I took Physics II: Electromagnetism.

I honestly thought the class was very challenging and wasn’t so into the idea of switching majors at all my sophomore year after taking Physics. That really changed when my program required an Intro to Electrical Engineering course as another prerequisite for my Bioengineering degree. I excelled in this class mainly because it was a freshman level course and I was already a junior at the time. What was vastly different is I began to see the big picture of how all these things worked (electromagnetism in general) in the real world and got introduced to the digital world as well. I first remember really beginning to understand the beauty of the transistor and how this component has completely revolutionized the world. I think my love in understanding the transistor later when I switched programs is what made we feel that I made the right decision when I ended up changing majors that summer mid junior year. I wasn’t too far behind in course work because all engineering disciplines require similar prerequisites.

Once I did change majors, I went up to my ECE 101 professor and kind mentioned to him that I felt that I wanted to do something that made me feel fulfill in the work I did. He said, “That’s a very romanticized idea. You can do a lot to the world honestly by just raising a good son.” Not your typically fairy tale advice, but he had a point. Nevertheless, I always knew that’s what I wanted to do and that’s was during the time I really got into climate change action. I’ve seen all the climate change documentaries on Netflix after all and I thought, “That’s what I want to do; be an electrical engineer to solve our energy crisis.” Everyone around my age had already become the biggest Elon Musk fan and by then I began to think that I’m going to work at Tesla. That’s my vision board that I imagined at the time and I ran with it.

So, what is this blog for?

I mainly want to create a blog that introduces various courses in Electrical Engineering with an application of Climate Action. Once you get in to your third or fourth year in college as an EE, you would think your choices in a career begin to narrow down. On the contrary, the more you know the more ideas you’re going to attain, and one can easily get lost in the field of electrical engineering. I hope to help realign those lost whether currently in school or in industry to live the romanticized life that we all envision for ourselves.

My first goal is to try to start learning TCAD on my own to create or help teach others what a solar cell is and what companies are doing in their research to create a more efficient solar cell and to introduce the limitations.