The projects I have completed during my time at Penn State have helped to strengthen my own knowledge in the fields of Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering. I have learned resolve, perseverance, and efficiency in this learning environment.
Project 1: 5 Staged Pipelined CPU
As this project was a semester-long effort in my CMPEN 331 class, I learned each step of the pipeline over time. This really helped me dive into each section for a few weeks to fully master it. Since the pipeline is 5 steps, the project involved 5 coding assignments and each coding assignment involved a written assignment as well to prove my understanding of that section. These helped me improve as a technical writer by effectively expressing my understanding of topics not only through coding but also in writing.
Entering the course, I had never used Verilog. Now, I feel confident with the language even though it is very different than coding languages I have learned in the past. Verilog is a hardware description language used to model electronic systems so it is more in tune with connecting different systems together compared to writing scripts like in C or Python for example.
This project shows my ability to adapt and learn new skills quickly. In just a few weeks, I had to jump into a completely new coding language and by the end of the semester, I gained confidence with it. This can be extended past just a Computer Engineering class and can be really useful for learning just about any language that I would need for a career in the space.
Project 2: Rocket Probe Signal Conditioning and Interfacing Circuits
This was a two-week design project in my EE310 lab. This specific project really reinforced the topics we had worked on in previous weeks like non-ideal op-amp qualities and designing linear circuits. Having to consider these while building a large, five-staged circuit was a new experience that required ingenuity.
My lab report for this assignment ended up totaling 16 pages with many figures and oscilloscope readings explaining the correctness of each section. As a potential employee, I can express my findings in wording and back them up with experimental data.
In this course, I learned about the electrical properties of different fundamental semiconductor devices and their basic circuit design applications. This course dealt explicitly with both linear and nonlinear applications of devices, and with the practical aspects of design such as the inherently nonlinear nature of semiconductor devices. In the laboratory, I put the information I learned into practice by completing 10 unique lab assignments. Being a 300-level class, it also heavily relied on my prerequisites, so I was able to expand on my knowledge of op-amps.
This project specifically shows my creative ability to solve a large-scale project within my field. By combining together 5 smaller circuits to create one large circuit, the rocket probe problem is solved. This can be extended to any of the other fields of my knowledge including Computer Science and Computer Engineering.