[Mike]
I always wanted to do my master’s, but it
was impossible to do with working full time
and doing master’s. So when the evening
courses became available through the professional
master’s program, it seemed like a natural fit.
[Daniel]
Well the, you know, professional master’s
program is really tailored for engineers working
in industry. And that’s why we run it at
night, so it fits within people’s schedules.
[Blake]
The traditional electrical engineering program
will focus on those classic areas exclusively:
power, signal processing, communication and
control. And we do all those, and we do those
really well, but we’ll take you beyond that
to robotics, biomedical applications and alternative
energy – and take you really to the, where
the fields are going and what the cutting
edge and frontiers are.
[Mike]
We covered everything from protocols at the
digital level, digital signal processing,
modulation – all the way to propagation
and antennas. So if you take all of that knowledge
and combine it together that’s exactly what
I’m applying here in Kymeta.
[Blake]
If you’re getting a master’s in our program,
you’re not trying to be trained to do something
in today’s world, you’re trying to get
skills in a toolbox that will work for you
10 years out, throughout your career.
[Mike]
The professors were absolutely outstanding.
Regardless of the topic, regardless of the
subject, each and every one of them really
shows a passion in the work they do and could,
in that amount of time, get their material
across in a very clear and concise manner.
[Daniel]
And because the classroom is full of people
with industrial experience, well we get some
really good discussions going with people
who really have experience, have already come
across these problems and have already a practical
view of how, you know, how things work.
[Mike]
I recall that in these classes, we had students
with me that were ranging all the way from
brand new undergrads to folks that had been
in the work force for 30 years.
[Daniel]
It’s pretty clear that when you have a master’s
degree your career prospects are better. You
get to work on more challenging problems;
you get a better chance at promotions, for
example.
[Mike]
The master’s allowed me to change the level
of responsibility that I have for my engineering.
Great work as a staff and principal engineer,
but more of my work now regards systems engineering,
which means I have to have a broader understanding
of the entire system that we’re building.
[Daniel]
I think it’s a great program because you
get a chance to have as teachers a bunch of
people who are, you know, great researchers
in the field and can incorporate the latest
developments in their teaching. You don’t
find that in too many places.
[Blake]
UW is a great place to get a master’s degree
because, first of all, it’s a very energetic,
vital department where all the faculty are
really pushing the frontiers in their fields,
and also, we’re a very highly regarded program,
almost unique in the whole northwest region
for that.
