On the evening of Thursday May 23rd, 2024, University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program at the Universities of Shady Grove (USG) hosted a graduation dinner to celebrate the senior class of 2024. Among the graduates were Amna Hayat, Calvin Li, Nicholas Prakoso, and Renzheng Zheng. It was a lively dinner attended by the graduates, their families, friends, CPSE faculty, CPSE alumni, administrators from UMD’s Provost Office, and CPSE’s rising senior class.
One of the graduates, Amna, said that her interest in engineering started in high school. After high school, she enrolled at Montgomery College and became a computer science major. She quickly realized that she wanted something that was more hands-on and dealt with circuitry, so the CPSE program was perfect for her. Amna is interested in analog circuits and microelectronics and she found that the skills she learned and concepts she was introduced to in the CPSE program—about IoT-related protocol, microelectronics, and building circuits—prepared her for the workforce. She particularly valued learning about hardware and software together. She also learned a lot about perseverance when she was working on her capstone project with CPSE faculty member Dr. Wu, and she learned how to improvise when something goes wrong. Amna is most proud of the full-stack website she built from scratch—with the guidance of CPSE Faculty member, Dr. Tiglao—where she created a dashboard to manage a smart sprinkler system. In terms of advice, Amna encouraged the incoming students about using their time wisely and to never be afraid to ask questions because no one has to (or can) know everything. Currently, Amna is working on a project with Dr. Gomez, building a submarine-like apparatus to float over the nearby lake, at USG, and collect images using a GPS system, depth sensors, and cameras.
Calvin Li discovered the program when Dr. Gomez, director of the CPSE program, spoke at one of his classes at MC, where he had the chance to show Dr. Gomez drones that ended up becoming part of his capstone project. All of the students, including Calvin, appreciated the small class sizes that allowed them to interact more with their instructors and always have the support they needed. CPSE program taught Calvin about embedded hardware design, web platform design, and edge computing. Calvin is most proud of his Frogger Project (which can be found here) because he created a user-level program for kernel-level drivers. Through that project, he gained an immense amount of knowledge about how a lot of the technology around us works. His capstone project involved using machine learning to guide drones by hand—which could be used for unmanned search and rescue missions, especially at night or over a large landscape. He is currently working on publishing two conference papers, one with Dr. Tiglao and another with Dr. Wu. Calvin hopes to land a job doing control work, hard processor systems, or embedded Linux work (which is his dream job). He advises incoming students to do the projects that are more challenging, even if they take more time, because they will benefit from those experiences and those projects will stand out in their resumes.
Nicholas was always interested in coding and computer science. He decided to pursue the CPSE program because of his interest in engineering and the location at USG was close to home, which was a plus. He loved the small classes and tight-knit community they created. At UMD’s CPSE program, he learned about the logistics of collaborating with others, which is quite valuable considering the end product is always the result of individual excellence and collective coordination. Like Calvin, Nicholas also wrote a few conference papers for IEEE. He expressed how beneficial it was to learn about writing in professional papers. Nick would recommend the CPSE program because of the rich content that one can learn. He also expressed that he liked the way the program taught the basics (like coding and circuit design) while still connecting those fundamentals with modern innovations in AI and machine learning. Nick found it particularly helpful that Dr. Wu incorporated a lot of his professional career into his lessons. Currently, Nick is in the process of touching up his resume and looking for work in embedded systems engineering or in software development.
During the dinner, Dr. Gomez took to the podium to commend the recent graduates and faculty/staff on huge milestones. In his speech, he applauded Renzheng Zheng, a graduate of the CPSE program, who will be pursuing an M.S. degree at Columbia University this upcoming Fall semester. He congratulated Dr. Wesley Lawson, professor in the CPSE program, who was the recipient of the UMD Clark School of Engineering Faculty Service Award in 2024. He also praised the CPSE program coordinator, Brian Schoem, who received the UMD Clark School of Engineering Newcomer of the Year Staff Award for 2024. Additionally, Dr. Gomez acknowledged CPSE’s beloved Faculty Assistant, Matthew Schuyler, who was the proud recipient of UMD’s inaugural Provost’s Do Good Innovator Award.
The CPSE program is a great option for Montgomery College graduates looking to transfer, so if you or someone you know is interested, whether they’re looking for a job in industry or to further their education, the CPSE program can prepare you for success.
Interested in learning more? Visit: https://shadygrove.ece.umd.edu/ and find them on social media @umdcpse