A Day in the Life is a new Campus Times series highlighting the studies and lives of UR students. Answers have been lightly edited for grammar, clarity, and/or style.
Tenzi Zhuoga is a junior majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
A Typical Wednesday:
- 9:30 a.m.: Wake up, get ready
- 10:25 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.: ECE 221 class (Electronic Devices and Circuits)
- 11:15 a.m.: Prepare for work
- 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Work at the River Campus Interlibrary Loan Program
- 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.: ECE 270 class (Probability for Engineers)
- 4:50 p.m. – 6:05 p.m.: CSC 172 workshop (Data Structures and Algorithms)
- 6:10 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.: Dinner, studying, free time
- 12:00 a.m.: Bedtime
Why Electrical and Computer Engineering?
It’s actually kind of a funny reason. I really disliked chemistry and biology, so I went with the only engineering major that didn’t require them, and that was ECE. It was something I had never really tried before in high school, and I was curious. I did know I wanted to go into engineering, because I liked to make stuff and be creative, but I didn’t know exactly what kind of engineering. My first year was my first introduction to ECE. When I started to take ECE classes, rather than calculus, physics, the pre-requisites, I started to realize it was something I never really learned before, and I enjoyed that aspect of it, so I stuck with it. I feel like there’s a lot left for me to learn in ECE, so that I will never get tired of it.
What is your favorite thing about Electrical and Computer Engineering?
I guess how diverse it can be in what I can do in the future. I can do more programming-based ECE or do hardware…really, the possibilities are endless. I like that I have a lot of options in how I apply it.
What are your favorite classes?
Currently I’m taking ECE 216: Mechatronics and Embedded Systems. In the labs you work on computer chips, and it’s a hands-on kind of class which I really enjoy. It feels like I’m learning something that’s not just theory based. I’ve also enjoyed […] a class called ECE 112: Logic Design. It was something new that I had never tried before, and I found that pretty interesting and exciting.
What is challenging about Electrical and Computer Engineering?
Definitely it’s the learning curve, because I feel like in the beginning, you really just don’t know anything. And then they start introducing all these topics that you’ve never even heard about before. I still feel like I don’t know what’s going on in class. But also, that’s just how engineering works I guess. How anything works, really. You never really know until you start.
What is something you want people to know about Electrical and Computer Engineering?
Don’t be afraid to try it. I would like to see a lot more girls in the class. I remember my first year, in ECE 101, I was the only girl in my class. It was kind of daunting, but I would love to see more girls try it in the future.
