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Mary
Alt
Graduate Student
Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering
I
would probably consider myself a 'non-traditional' student because
when I came to Binghamton for the Graduate Electrical Engineering
program, I had no electrical engineering background, only mathematics.
And from there it began, endless poking fun (all in good humor of
course) at the girl who had finally seen the light and realized
that a math degree would get her no-where and it was the engineers
who were really on top. In some sense, they were right; so many
doors were opened for me when I began here at Binghamton. I needed
to take some undergraduate courses first before I would able to
start the graduate program and it was there that I first met some
of my favorite professors. Professor Fowler in Signals and Systems,
intrigued me so much that I have taken every graduate class he has
had to offer. Professor Plumb's senior electromagnetics class worried
me so much I wasn't sure I was cut out to be an engineer but at
the same time, he encouraged me and counseled me every step of the
way. These are just an example of the strong faculty we have and
I have always felt that the faculty here is genuinely concerned
for their students' learning. Professors tend to be available for
just about anything you want to ask them even outside of their office
hours. If a door is open (and they usually are), you are encouraged
to stop by.
As
a graduate student, I have had more opportunities to get to know
my professors than I did as an undergraduate and I see them more
as everyday people like myself than as scary unapproachable professors.
Getting to know my professors has also had an impact on the things
I do outside of classes. When I wasn't quite a graduate student
yet but needed funding, I found my way to Enginet, the Distance
Learning Program, and not only have I learned some amazing things
working there, I have made several connections to other staff
members here at the school. Everyone is willing to lend a hand
and go out of his or her way to help. When the time finally came
for me to really get serious about picking a thesis advisor, several
opportunities came up due to my hard work in my classes and also
through knowing the professors a little.
Even
though this is a relatively small school, there are some great
opportunities for research given the laboratory facilities we
have. Students have access to computers and if funded for research,
probably their own lab to work in. It has been my experience that
the department is also very aware of students' needs and if our
labs do not have the necessary equipment, an effort is made to
improve them.
One
of the things I have enjoyed the most is how the graduate students
work together. We are very multi-culturally diverse but there
is never a time when feel ourselves divided by our ethnicity.
We are all very accepting of our differences and are therefore
better people for it.
Overall,
I think Binghamton was a great choice for me. The engineering
building has definitely become my home away from home!
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Cosmina
Hogea
Graduate Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
I am a 27 year old international student
who came to the United States in the fall of 2000 to pursue a
doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering. When I arrived at the
Watson School, I knew absolutely no one - no one in the same school,
no one in the same university, or even town. Despite all these
voids, I got to feel "at home" in this school very soon
- in about a month or so. One might argue that as a graduate student,
you spend most of your time in school, after a while it's like
you would live there - so feeling "at home" might come
naturally… But when I said "at home", I am thinking
about the people in this school: teachers, technical and administrative
staff.
I
come
from a higher education system where the relationships between
students and professors are more formal. So before coming here,
I used to picture a college professor as a sage on the stage.
In my very first semester of classes in Watson School, I came
to realize that things can be different. My professors have been
extremely open to any exchange of ideas, to considering my opinions
and to trying to answer all the questions. They are always available
for extra-class meetings and I can always go to talk to them to
clarify my confusions, misunderstandings, or simply to get some
advice on how to to move further. This "open-door policy"
is quite impressive in this school. I've noticed it on various
occasions. It has been true even when I took classes in other
departments or even when I knocked on the door of somebody who
I had no class with - just seeking some guidance. Ideas are welcomed
and encouraged and there will be somebody listening to you most
of the time.
For
me, as a very hard-headed PhD student, one of the most important
things in this school was the possibility of choosing what I was
interested in and building that into my program. To consolidate
my materials science knowledge - my interest being in mathematical
modeling in materials science - I have taken classes in three
engineering departments, as well as in Physics and Chemistry..
At
the end of my first year in the Watson School, summer of 2001,
my advisor decided to move to a university on the other coast.
The news was devastating for me. At that time, I already knew
that my husband had been accepted as a graduate student in the
Computer Science Department of the Watson School and he was to
come here at the end of that very summer. So I decided not to
join my advisor in leaving, but to stay. The decision was a tough
one, at least financially, since I came here as a research assistant,
paid by him: with him gone, my next year funding was up in the
air. In that period, I have come to realize how important the
support of the school was. People have listened to my problems
and they tried to offer help; the end of the story is that my
department offered me a teaching assistantship until I was able
to find a new advisor (which I did in the meantime).
To
somebody else, these might sound like small things; to me, they
are important and stay at the very heart of the appreciation I
have for this school: support when needed, advice when asked for.
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Systems
Science and Industrial Engineering student