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    Ee 494 - Cumulative Reflection

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    Marcelo Abrantes is a senior electrical engineering student from Brazil. He transferred to Iowa State University in 2018 after initially studying in Florida. At Iowa State, he gained experience through internships in controls engineering and working on research projects. His favorite classes focused on electronics and integrated circuit design. Through his coursework and experiences, he developed skills in controls engineering, electronics design, and circuit fabrication that will help him find work as an engineer.

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    Ee 494 - Cumulative Reflection

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    Marcelo Abrantes is a senior electrical engineering student from Brazil. He transferred to Iowa State University in 2018 after initially studying in Florida. At Iowa State, he gained experience through internships in controls engineering and working on research projects. His favorite classes focused on electronics and integrated circuit design. Through his coursework and experiences, he developed skills in controls engineering, electronics design, and circuit fabrication that will help him find work as an engineer.

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    Marcelo Abrantes is a senior electrical engineering student from Brazil. He transferred to Iowa State University in 2018 after initially studying in Florida. At Iowa State, he gained experience through internships in controls engineering and working on research projects. His favorite classes focused on electronics and integrated circuit design. Through his coursework and experiences, he developed skills in controls engineering, electronics design, and circuit fabrication that will help him find work as an engineer.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    58 views3 pages

    Ee 494 - Cumulative Reflection

    Uploaded by

    api-509400064
    Marcelo Abrantes is a senior electrical engineering student from Brazil. He transferred to Iowa State University in 2018 after initially studying in Florida. At Iowa State, he gained experience through internships in controls engineering and working on research projects. His favorite classes focused on electronics and integrated circuit design. Through his coursework and experiences, he developed skills in controls engineering, electronics design, and circuit fabrication that will help him find work as an engineer.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Abrantes 1

    Marcelo Abrantes

    Mr. Anthony Moore

    EE 494 - Portfolio

    05 November 2020

    Cumulative Reflection

    My name is Marcelo Abrantes. I am a senior in electrical engineering. I was born and

    raised in Brazil, and since elementary school, I have talked about moving to the United States to

    get my bachelor's degree here. I first found out about Iowa State at an educational fair back in

    Brazil. When I learned about everything I would have access to at Iowa State, I decided to study

    here. However, due to some personal circumstances, I first moved to Florida and took my first

    two years of college at Valencia College. Finally, in 2018, I transferred to Iowa State.

    In high school, I had my first contact with robotics, and that experience helped me decide

    to major in Electrical Engineering. I also wanted to participate in research activities and saw

    Iowa State as the perfect opportunity to engage in such activities. At Iowa State, I took most of

    my engineering classes, except Intro to Circuits and Probability and Statistics. Here I learned

    everything I needed to know to start my career as an electrical engineer. My favorite classes

    were the electronics courses, where I learned how to design entire electronic projects (EE 333),

    learned the basics of amplifiers and filters (EE 230), and how to design integrated circuits (EE

    330).

    I connected with many companies through Iowa State and got my first internship as a

    Controls Engineering Coop at Bridgestone Des Moines. It was a fantastic experience that

    provided me with the resources to start my career successfully. I learned things that I would have
    Abrantes 2

    never learned in college, such as working in a manufacturing facility, program PLCs, HMIs, and

    design controls systems with the necessary safety features and quality control. Due to that

    experience, I decided to pursue the control sequence. My first internship experience also led me

    to a second opportunity, but this time with Danfoss. Working at Danfoss was great. There I

    learned how to program legacy PLCs and work with SCADA systems. They also allowed me to

    talk to engineers working at Danfoss Silicon Power in Munich, Germany. They showed me a

    little bit about how their department works and the fantastic projects they have done through a

    virtual meeting.

    Although my internship experiences led me to choose the control sequence, after taking

    EE 330 with Dr. Geiger, I decided to change my specialization. In this class, I discovered VLSI

    and decided that I wanted to work more with that. So, as technical electives, I chose Analog

    VLSI and Digital VLSI. My 330 project was to design a digital potentiometer IC that allowed me

    to have a clearer idea of creating integrated circuits.

    Besides the professional experiences and the classroom related activities, I have also

    engaged in clubs (ISU Robotics Club and AI Club) and research work. As I mentioned

    previously, I have always wanted to participate in research projects. So, during my first semester

    at Iowa State, I started looking for opportunities. In a few days, I found one that fit perfectly with

    what I was looking for. I started working as an undergraduate research assistant at The Bentil

    Group, a research lab in the mechanical engineering department. Their research focus is studying

    the mechanics of biological materials, which is not related to my major, but provided me with

    valuable experience. I am the only EE student there, so I am mainly responsible for designing

    circuits and machines for their research. I also developed a low-cost capacitive force sensor,
    Abrantes 3

    which helped me better understand the electrical properties of different materials. There I also

    had the opportunity to assist in the process of writing a research paper.

    In conclusion, the control engineering knowledge from my professional experience, the

    electronics design knowledge from the classes and research projects will allow me to have an

    edge in finding a job in electrical engineering. The networking with companies and professors

    also helped me understand my possibilities after graduation better and provided me with a clear

    idea of what I want for my future. Currently, I am looking for a full-time opportunity as a

    controls engineer or as an electronics design engineer. Initially, my goal was to stay in the United

    States after graduation, but after meeting with so many people from different places, I decided

    that I am open to opportunities in Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The experience

    at Iowa State helped shape who I am today, and I am sure that all that I have learned here will be

    extremely useful during my career as an engineer.

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