Electrical and Computer Engineering - An Interview with Beth Polito

Let's explore the world of Electrical and Computer Engineering! Learn how electrical and computer engineering is all around us, and even how Taylor Swift uses it in her tour! Join me as I chat with current student Beth Polito and hear about her journey from not having any experience in ECE to helping launch a rocket her first year here. Plus, we sit down with Amanda in our office as she helps us understand financial aid.

https://www.ece.cornell.edu/ece/programs/undergraduate-programs
https://cornellrocketryteam.com/
https://finaid.cornell.edu/
https://visit.engineering.cornell.edu/
https://www.ece.cornell.edu/spotlights/danielle-regis-inspires-students-ask-why 

Transcript

Podcast Opening Credit:

Teri:

Hi, I'm Teri Carey and welcome to VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women. Are you interested in math and science? Are you curious about the world? Are you an engineer? Well, maybe you don't know yet! The world of engineering is huge and we want girls to be included in the future of it. So grab a cup of coffee, get your curiosity going and listen in as we talk to real women studying engineering at Cornell.

We hope you enjoy our view.

Introduction:

Teri: 

Hi everyone, welcome back to VIEW! I’m Teri Carey and I am so glad you found yourself here with us today.  This episode we are going to talk about electrical and computer engineering also known as ECE. One thing that comes to mind when introducing this is the classic snap circuit toy that kids play with. You get little connecting pieces on a plastic grid and some of them have switches on them or little motors and lights, and you arrange them in a way that makes a circuit. When the circuit is complete the power flows through and turns on the light or powers the motored fan or whatever magical task you were trying to accomplish works via the electrical path you just created.  I’ve also heard stories of kids being curious about gadgets and electronics around them as kids and taking them apart to see what is inside. Tearing apart toaster ovens and alarm clocks to see what kind of components are in there to make the technology work.  These kids are exploring the world of ECE right in their own home.  Another thought I had was when we decided to have ECE be our next topic, was that it was right around when Taylor Swift released her Era’s tour movie on a streaming service. And yes, I’m a big Swifty, and no I was not a lucky fan who got concert tickets, but when I watched her concert from the comfort of my living room there was something I just couldn’t get out of my head - this entire show is a triumph of engineering. Yes, she has amazing songs, her lyrics are incredible, and I don’t know anyone who can fight the urge and not dance to “Shake It Off” but truly, her stage was a master class in engineering. If you have not seen the concert or clips online, her stage was not just a dormant surface she sang on top of. It moved, it lit up, it opened for her to jump into. There were projections, lights, video screens…things happened in sync with her music and movement. She even included her audience by distributing bracelets that lit up together, programmed to have colors and light patterns perform along with the show across the stadiums.  It was truly one of a kind and integrated some of the most unique and exciting pieces of technology. And the thing that powered it all, was electricity. Electrical and computer engineering is a field that deals with the study and application of electricity and electronics. Electrical engineers work with a wide range of technologies, anything from power generation, to computer systems, to designing electrical systems in buildings, communication systems, they use their knowledge and skills to design, develop, and test electrical equipment and technology or improve upon them.  So basically anything that runs on electricity, robots, computers, lights, cars, or even Taylor Swift’s iconic Era’s Tour stage… was created with the help of an electrical and computer engineer. Probably someone who enjoyed working with little snap circuits or tearing apart their parents toaster oven.

Now, electrical engineering didn’t really become a field until the mid to late 1800s - why? Because we had no need for electrical engineering before the emergence of electricity in daily life.  And yes, I know there were plenty of people who knew about static electricity, there were electrical telegraphs, and Benjamin Franklin did his famous key experiment with lightening, but it wasn’t truly harnessed in a way that could be utilized until the 1880s. And when this happened it solved a lot of problems. All of a sudden people could illuminate their life with light after the sun went down without burning candles, they could stay up late to work, read, or visit with others. Communication became quicker, and technology grew. We had a new powersource that truly changed the world. They could utilize this new power source in so many ways! But along with all this new technology came a need for safety. Electricity could be very dangerous and learning how to utilize it properly was a problem many early electrical engineers had to face. Which they learned to do! And technology continued to move forward. After this advancement the world found new ways to utilize electricity to power our lives. When the electric computer came onto the scene it truly changed everything. We now have sensors, microchips, ways to collect data in small little spaces - and electrical and computer engineers are on the forefront of all of this. They are the ones who are working with the hardware to create faster computers, more advanced technologies, and bringing software together with the machines it is run on.  The world of electronics has truly expanded into every industry imaginable. 

An early electrical engineer you should know is Edith Clarke. She was the first female professionally employed electrical engineer in the United States and invented the Clarke Calculator in the 1920s.  It helped to simplify equations needed to solve issues with electrical transmission lines - you know those electrical lines you see along roadways and throughout towns? They transmit electricity and she was able to help make that possible for longer distances, about 200 miles from power plants instead of 50 miles that they were. She expanded our power grid capabilities! 

Danielle Regis is an alum of our electrical and computer engineering program, and now she works for a company called, LINGO. LINGO creates self paced STEM kits for kids. Using their kit, children can learn more about engineering. Recently she was interviewed by Cornell ECE and she told them her job helps show young people that the amazing devices they use every day are powered and built using coding and electronics. I thought this was such a unique way to use her degree from Cornell, she is a product developer, using her expertise in electrical engineering to help design toys that shine a light on engineering, helping to get others interested in this field or maybe just helping them learn how things around them work. Well, Danielle is helping forge a path for our younger generations to get excited about circuits, energy, and engineering to help find future engineers! 

So electrical engineering and computer science has a huge reach, and again like I have said in every episode of this podcast, they work with many other types of engineers. You can help find alternative energy sources with environmental engineers, design robots with computer scientists and mechanical engineers, improve the power grid with civil engineers and material scientists, or maybe even design Taylor Swift’s next concert stage alongside her sound engineers, choreographers, and even Taylor herself. I can’t wait to hear more about the future of electrical engineering by chatting with our next guest, Beth.

Student Interview:

Teri 

Hey Beth, how's it going?

Beth

Hi, I'm good, how are you?

Teri

I'm really good. Thank you so much for taking some time and coming on VIEW. Can you just introduce yourself?

Beth

Of course. So I'm Beth Polito. I'm currently a junior studying electrical and computer engineering here. I'm originally from New Jersey and I'm here just to talk about my experience as an ECE major and all the opportunities I've had over the past three years.

Teri 

Thank you. Awesome. Yeah. So tell me about how engineering was brought into your life. Like when did you first get introduced to it or become interested in it? Were you a kid? Were you in high school? I'd love to hear more about your background with it.

Beth

Sure, so I don't have a super exciting story for how I started thinking about engineering. My father is an engineer.

Teri 

Mm-hmm

Beth

He is a mechanical engineer by training, but he's worked in telecommunications for a long time. So his work has kind of spanned more into electrical engineering. I never really thought of myself as an engineer growing up, even though I was exposed to, you know, just hearing a little bit about the type of work that he did, but it was certainly in the back of my mind. I ended up just really gravitating towards math and science classes. And for me, the big draw in was like computer science. Like that was my first experience taking coursework that was more, you know, STEM and like design oriented. And I thought it was so awesome how you could, you know, build things with what you were learning, like build, you know, little games and websites. And that was how I started.

Teri 

Very cool. Yeah, I love how computer science, it's really integrated into many industries, but it's very closely tied into electrical and computer engineering as well. So yeah, that's really neat. And of course, having a role model like your dad, and as an engineer, I'm sure that was a great pathway for you to kind of be exposed to it. And you're from New Jersey. So maybe you had heard of Cornell growing up because you're on the East Coast, kind of in the Northeast. But tell me about how your journey to Cornell, went, like what, got you interested in Cornell or why did you apply?

Beth

Sure, yeah. So, yeah, being from Jersey, you know, you hear a lot about people going to different schools and Cornell was always a really big one that I knew a lot of people applied to and aspired to come to in many different fields, not just engineering. But for me, when I started looking into colleges, I was actually looking mainly for computer science programs. And what made me really interested in Cornell was participating in this program called the Curie Academy, which is a program through Diversity Programs and Engineering to introduce high schoolers to the College of Engineering and to all the different engineering disciplines over the course of a week. Typically the program is in person, but I was actually applying to college during 2020, which was the year of COVID. So I was accepted into the Curie Academy and I can't remember if it was like before or after I was accepted that I found out the program was going to be online. But nevertheless, it was a really incredible experience. All of the professors were so excited to be speaking to us even over Zoom.

Teri 

yeah.

Beth

And that for me was a really transformative experience where I started to really think that like, you know, I could be an engineering student. They also really strongly encouraged us to apply to Cornell for engineering over the course of the program. And they gave us all, you know, fee waivers and all that. And they said, you know, helped us get started with the process of thinking about how to apply. And so I did and the rest is history.

Teri 

Yeah, no, the Curie Academy is really, really cool. It is back to being in person, which is wonderful. 

Beth

Right

Teri

I'm glad you got some kind of an experience with it, even if it was online. But it's a really valuable program. I think it's awesome. In admissions, we actually do run a segment. I don't know if they did it the year that you were involved. But we talk to students about applying and what it looks like to apply. And we do a little workshop about it and stuff. So obviously you were interested in Cornell through the Curie Academy and you applied and ultimately you got in because you are sitting here. Can you tell me about the application process and then ultimately what it was like to get that email to say, welcome to Cornell.

Beth

Sure, I mean from start to end, it was a long process, but I'm really happy that I went through with it, even despite all the challenges along the way. So over the course of the summer, prior to my senior year of college, I started the process of writing all the essays. At that point, I had already researched schools. So at that point, I was just getting all of the materials that I needed together, getting ready to actually send it with all the applications and send them all in. I worked really hard on essays over the course of the summer. I found that to be the most challenging aspect because sometimes it can be hard to write about yourself and try to distill yourself down into that application. 

Teri 

Yeah.

Beth

Yeah, I definitely recognize the struggle. And I decided to take a leap of faith and ED to Cornell because of my experience in the Curie Academy which really made me see that it could open a lot of doors. Even hearing all the different professors from different departments, not just computer science talk was really inspiring. So that experience played a big part in my decision to ED. Ultimately, I think it was in December maybe the decisions were coming out.

Teri 

Yes.

Beth

I know a lot of people do like a big like video or something when they get their application, but I wanted none of that. I just wanted to like open the letter. But my mom was sitting behind me and she was recording me without me knowing just in case I did get in. 

Teri

That's so cool!

Beth

So I do have the moment on video. Yeah, yeah, I told her like, Mom, you know, you know, it's up to chance. I worked really hard, but you never know. So maybe I don't want to record this one, but.

Teri

But she had faith in you. She was totally a believer. She was like, yeah, this is it. You're getting in.

Beth

She knew that it would be nice to have, yeah. Yeah, she did. Mm -hmm. Yep.

Teri

 So what was it like? What was that feeling like when you saw the congratulations?

Beth

Yeah, it was honestly, I mean, kind of surreal because I think in high school, I know at my high school at least, there's just a lot of pressure and expectations surrounding the college application process. Like I went to a pretty big public high school in New Jersey and so there were definitely lots of people gunning to get into like top schools. And for me, I knew I was going to be happy wherever I ended up, but it was still surreal to know that the process had finally come to an end.

Teri 

Yeah

Beth

I could, you know, buy like a Cornell sweatshirt to wear. It is a lot of work applying to college. 

Teri

It is!

Beth

So, you know, the fact that the process is done and all the uncertainty is gone was an incredible feeling.

Teri

Yeah, and you got it done early, early decision. I know it's not necessarily for everyone, but if you do feel that you know you want to go to the school and it's your top choice, then ED, you can kind of get all of those feelings done early and have the relief. Yeah.

Beth

Yep. Mm -hmm. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, especially for me during COVID, I thought, like, I just want the uncertainty to be done. I'd like, I'd love to know if I can go to this place or if I should keep looking elsewhere, you know, so.

Teri 

Right, yeah. Oh that's so cool. Awesome. Well, I'm glad you do have it on some kind of a recording. You know, that your family was excited for you. So you're here, you're at Cornell and you're studying electrical and computer engineering. Can you tell me in your own words what that is?

Beth

Sure, I love talking about ECE. I was actually a freshman advisor for our freshman advising course for two years. So hopefully I have a pretty good pitch down at this point. But basically, electrical and computer engineering is a major with three main parts to it. And all of the parts are absolutely critical to solving some of the biggest challenges in the world today. So it's a really exciting major to come into.

And these three parts are first, the classic electrical engineering side where you're dealing with devices, physics. How do we build these computer chips with millions of transistors if you think about the Chips Act? So all of that hardware really goes into the physics side. And we have lots of professors who do really exciting cutting edge research in building devices and chips and designing circuits that can do things that we've really never done before. So the second part of electrical and computer engineering is the computer engineering side, which a lot of people call the digital side, and that's the part that deals with how we can design computer systems from the ground up. So not just learning how to program computers, but learning how they work on the inside. And that's the side that will do things like microcontroller programming, building robots, really bridging the hardware world and the software world together. And ECEs are very well equipped to do that because we get training in both hardware and software. And the third side is slightly lesser known, I would say, outside of the major, but it's the side that deals with math and signals. So what a lot of people don't realize about electrical and computer engineering is that we have a pretty storied history, which has allowed us to develop lots of theory in the area of signal processing, things like radar, Wi -Fi. All these things you really need a lot of math to analyze. And so that's a pretty broad part of our major as well. And I think the fact that our major is composed of so many different parts means that as a student, your education is very well -rounded. It's very exciting getting to explore all of these different facets of the major. Yeah. And definitely for me personally, over the past three years, I've gone back and forth. A lot of people try to specialize in one, but I've really explored all three and have just recently been figuring out where my interests lie.

Teri 

That’s really cool. And I haven't been able to explore the three distinct aspects of electrical and computer engineering. So I love how beautifully you laid that out. That was great. And the fact that you're still exploring, I think, is great because you're a junior. You still have a lot of time here. I mean, one more year, but that's still a lot of time to kind of figure it out. And even if you haven't figured it out by the end, you still have all of these options to continue to explore with whatever comes afterwards. So learning with ECE, I know that you're obviously in academic classes, but tell me more about like different labs or maybe research or project teams or organizations that you're involved in and how you're learning ECE through those programs.

Beth

Sure, so I guess first I can just talk about a club that I just happened to join during Club Fest my freshman year. I stumbled across the amateur radio club. So if you think about like the show Stranger Things, when they're building these giant antennas and radios and trying to contact people.

Teri

Mm -hmm.

Beth

We have a club for that. It's the second oldest club at Cornell, been around for over a hundred years. We have a ham radio shack. And that was really like my first experience. Like in high school, I never really did like robotics or anything like that. So joining ham radio club, my freshman year was like my first experience with like soldering and like building circuits and starting to really think about how hardware works and honestly, without that experience, I might not have been propelled to explore electrical engineering further because, you know, freshman year, you end up taking a lot of very foundational and theoretical classes like math and science classes, which don't get me wrong. You learn a lot from, they definitely have, you know, some cool parts to them. But as engineers, I think a lot of us want to get that hands -on experience right away. And this club was a great way to do that for me. I was building and tuning my own antennas and soldering circuit boards for these balloon launch projects where we would build custom payloads for high altitude balloons and then launch them and then collect all of our weather data back from them over the course of a couple hours. And that club was awesome because with project teams, you have to apply to them. But with the Ham Radio Club, you just show up and that was a really incredible experience, just getting to show up and then suddenly, boom, you're a part of this project. Yeah.

Teri 

And the community, right? You found people who are interested in the same things you're interested in. You guys have common goals and you're all learning from each other.

Beth

Mm -hmm Yeah, yeah, it was, yeah, truly, I am in a lot of classes with these people now. A lot of us, no surprise, turned out as electrical and computer engineering majors because of our interest in radio. So, yeah, and now, I mean now, so my interests in electrical and computer engineering are mostly centered around the area of communications and like, historically, like radio is where it all started in terms of communication and like thinking about how we can use electricity to move information from point A to point B. So that was for me pretty foundational, I would say, to my interests.

Teri 

Yeah, was your dad thrilled to hear that you're in communications knowing that his work was also foundational in that?

Beth

Yep. Yep. I mean, I never really intended to do, you know, something similar to my dad, but it just turned out that way. It's just such cool stuff. 

Teri

Yeah, and you did it your own way, right? 

Beth

Yeah

Teri

Like it's totally a different approach to it. You're studying something different, even if it is the same concept. You know, you did your own thing, but that's really cool that the roots are still there, right? 

Beth

Yup Mm hmm. Yeah. Yep. Keeping it in the family, I guess. 

Teri

Exactly yeah!

Beth

Yeah. Yeah. I did also join a project team. I can talk about that as well, too.

Teri

Yeah please!

Beth

Sure. So I guess a lot of students are very interested in project teams when they get here for good reason. You know, you hear about it. It's on the cover of probably just about every engineering you know, pamphlet or book or whatever. 

Teri 

Yep

Beth

So, yeah, and for good reason, it's an awesome program. I ended up joining the rocketry team just over the course of applying to a bunch of different teams and seeing where I felt like I would fit in the best and interviewing with all the teams. And the work on rocketry was really appealing to me because it was such an interdisciplinary team. So, I mean, at the time, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to go into communications so distinctly. I wanted to just like explore. I really wanted to learn how to design PCBs, which are printed circuit boards, which is definitely something that rocketry does for our electronic systems. Yeah, so I joined the team as a freshman, and by the end of the year, I got to see us launch a rocket to 10 ,000 feet carrying student designed electronics and payloads. And it was just about the coolest thing I'd seen all year.

Teri 

That's so cool. That's awesome. Where do you launch it? Is it on campus?

Beth

Uh no. So a lot of our testing, so the team builds custom solid motors and is now working on custom hybrid motors. And all that testing happens in a field that I think Cornell owns and allows us to test our motors on. But the launch itself happens on a field in Penn Yan, which is about like an hour and a half drive North. 

Teri

Wow!

Beth

It's a field that's owned by this like hobbyist rocketry organization and they have permits to let us launch things 10 ,000 feet into the air, into that airspace.

Teri

Teri 

That's awesome.

Beth

Yeah, so and then our competition, yeah, it was truly beyond what I could have imagined doing my freshman year. And then we have a competition every year in New Mexico, which I had the opportunity to travel to last year since I was a sub -team lead during my sophomore year. And we got to launch at Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. And we actually, which is, the competition is like the world's biggest intercollegiate rocketry competition. We got to meet people from all over the world and we ended up coming in second out of about 150 teams overall in the competition.

Teri 

Whoa, congratulations! Holy cow! Okay, so you like kind of start to be interested in engineering, you know, in high school to launching a rocket your sophomore, freshman, sophomore year in college. That's just so cool. Like the experiences that you're getting to be able to do that as a team working together, that must feel really good to have that community and that teamwork that you're second place. Like that's awesome.

Beth

Thanks. Yeah, it was like such a crazy experience to be. I mean, I really haven't traveled much. Like that was my first time ever leaving like the East Coast. So like getting to go to New Mexico and like launch a rocket with the team was like beyond my imagination. And like what you were saying about how like going from in high school, just like having like a little interest in engineering all the way to like launching a rocket freshman year that was incredible for me because like I said, I really didn't do robotics or things like that in high school. I did a lot of team things. I did marching band. I did yearbook. I was taking classwork and starting to explore engineering. Obviously did the Curie Academy, but like I really didn't have, you know, those crazy engineering experiences in high school. So it was a big shift to come to Cornell, but staying open to all the opportunities was like wonderful. I got so much out of it.

Teri 

Yeah, I can imagine. And that's something that I think people should hear, and I'm glad that you're saying it, is that you don't have to be somebody who has had 8 ,000 lab experiences, been on all of the robotics team championship, whatever. If you have an interest and you are capable of doing the math, the science, we want your experience at Cornell to be such that you are learning and you are able to do it. You can walk in and not necessarily have the same background as somebody else, but then still at the end of the year, you're launching a rocket in a field 10 ,000 feet in the air.

Beth

Yep

Teri

And so that's really awesome to hear, especially firsthand in your experience. So thank you for sharing that.

Beth

Yeah, sure

Teri

So you obviously have had some great experiences and you kind of said you're not quite sure what you want to do, but do you have any thought about where ECE is going to take you in the future?

Beth

Yeah, so I mean, originally my intention was to major in electrical and computer engineering, perhaps do the early M Eng program, which is a master's degree program that allows you to start during your senior spring so that you can take one extra semester. And the idea was to do that and then try and find the coolest job I could possibly find in electrical and computer engineering. As my interests were refined further, I knew that I wanted the job to be in the area of communications or potentially in space related things. And, you know, just like find a cool job where I could even further develop my skills. But over the past year, I've actually had the opportunity to start doing research in a more theoretical area of electrical and computer engineering.And that's made me start thinking about grad school potentially beyond doing an M Eng, which is never something I ever, ever thought I would even be thinking about, but I've just had such a great experience with this research that it's making me think I might not only want to, but might be like capable of doing something like that, which is pretty exciting. But again, grad school is like a really big, big thing could take a number of years to do. So. I really don't know where I'm gonna land afterwards.

Teri 

What is your research and what are you doing in the lab?

Beth

Sure, so it's more like theoretical research. It's in an area called information theory, which is all of the mathematical theory behind communication systems. It was developed originally at Bell Labs. I'm from New Jersey and pretty close to where Bell Labs is, which for anybody who doesn't know, Bell Labs is an industrial research lab that used to be run by AT &T that produced pretty much every cool electrical engineering thing out there. And one of the things that came out of Bell Labs was information theory, which was invented by Claude Shannon. And basically it's a mathematical theory behind how we can compress information and communicate it all around over noisy channels, like when your phone connects to Wi -Fi, there's always noise, there's always uncertainty. And information theory is...theoretical side of the math that lets us deal with that uncertainty to make our communication systems as reliable and robust as possible.

Teri 

Very cool. Well, I think you have options. I think this is good that you're exploring this and thinking about it and that your future isn't just like one thing. It can be so many things. And just like when you walked into Cornell, I'm sure you did not think by the end of my first year, I was going to be launching a rocket or, you know, on a team that comes in second place in a national competition. So I think that your abilities and your thoughts of maybe going to grad school are super valid and obviously should be should be considered. I think that's really awesome and cool and you still have time to figure it.

Beth

Yeah.

Teri 

So can you tell me about your experience being a woman in this field, especially knowing that electrical engineering is typically a male -dominated field. And here at Cornell, I think we do a pretty good job, at least what I've heard, for supporting women and making sure it's an environment where you feel comfortable. But can you tell me about your experience and your perspective?

Beth

Sure. I definitely recognize through all of my classes and all the groups I've been a part of here that Cornell really does do like an excellent job with the gender parity situation in engineering. I've had friends who go to different schools who I've met at internships who've just told me that like, you know, at their school, the electrical engineering program feels completely male dominated, feels like they can't get a word in edgewise, because, you know, there's just a lot of guys and it feels like maybe they're not the most included in the situation. For me personally though, the engineering classes here have been, felt completely inclusive and welcoming of people from different backgrounds. Yeah, I don't think I've ever had a class where I've been like the only woman. I think there's maybe have been classes as I get to like more advanced classes that the gender balance is like slightly less equal, but most of the engineering classes I've taken have been pretty 50-50, which has been great. Honestly, sometimes I forget that electrical engineering is like a male dominated field because the classes here feel so, so equal and on my like on rocketry, for example, like the electrical sub team lead has been a woman like since like last year and this year and next year. And I know that's the case on many student teams. And I think going into the workforce or going into grad school, having had the opportunity to like really experience this environment is going to benefit me greatly.

Teri 

Yeah, hopefully there's a foundation there and you can see where your voice is and that it should be included and it has been included, which is great. I'm glad to hear that. So even if you have been having this great experience or you're always going to have these days or these times when you are challenged, when you're feeling like maybe I can't do this, this is hard. So on those days,

Beth

Mm -hmm.

Teri 

Who is your support? Who do you talk to? Who do you try to connect with in order to make you feel better and feel like, yeah, I got this and I can do it?

Beth

Yeah, well, there definitely are those days sometimes. It's unavoidable. I definitely think for me, sometimes, you know, I want to just talk to my sisters and my parents. But sometimes it's also good to talk to people who are experiencing the same thing that you're experiencing. You can get a lot of support from your family and your friends from high school, but maybe they don't recognize some of the challenges that come with being an engineering student, since they're not in the same boat at the same time, and that's totally alright. So having a support system of friends who are also engineers, I think is pretty critical. And it's been something that I've been lucky to gain through the different clubs I've been involved in and my project team.

Teri 

Very nice, awesome. All right, we're going to wrap up here, but my last question is always the same. And I want to hear your view of engineering and why girls should explore ECE.

Beth

I think that for people who want to become engineers, ambitious high schoolers who are ready to change the world, they might not know exactly what they want to be doing technically per se. Maybe they haven't had the exposure to know really what different types of engineers do. But I know that a lot of times, engineers will have a mission. They'll have something that they're passionate about and a problem that they can't imagine not trying to solve over the course of their career. And for some people, that's maybe the environment. They want to help transition us to a cleaner grid. They can't imagine not helping the world. And some people, that's they want to bring about a new era of space exploration. And they want to go work for NASA or SpaceX or something like that and build the most cutting edge space technology that you can possibly find.

And I think what a lot of people don't realize is how much electrical and computer engineering can contribute to solving pretty much any of the big problems of our time. It's not just solving circuits with like resistors and batteries like you might see in AP physics. It's not just writing code and see all day on a computer in like a dark room. Electrical and computer engineering is a very broad field. It's very exciting and I think just about any of the big problems of our time is gonna need electrical and computer engineers to put our heads together and come up with a solution. I mean, chat GPT is so big right now. You hear about the CHIPS Act in the news if you read that type of news. Yeah, so it's big. It's connected to all of the big problems right now. And honestly, sometimes I can't imagine studying anything other than electrical and computer engineering. And even if you don't have a mission or something that you're passionate about to that point yet, I would say try out electrical and computer engineering anyway. You'll see it through the classes. You'll see all the opportunities to make a huge impact. And there are so many different avenues to do so. And especially as a woman, you know, we should be the change we want to see and make it a more equal field. Yeah, these big problems are going to need all hands on deck to solve them.

Teri 

I couldn't agree more. That was beautifully said. And I'm so glad that you're in this field. I think, you know, I'm in such a privileged position because I get to hear from all of these really, truly incredible students. And every time I have a student come on and interview and talk to me, I just can't help but think like, I am so glad that they're in this and helping the world and doing it because… you guys are so motivated and capable and you think so much bigger than just yourself. I think there's a lot of people in the world that can't see forward too far. And you have this ability to see so much bigger than just right in front of you, seeing the world, solving problems for everyone. And I'm just so grateful that I get to hear these stories and share them. And so thank you so much for being a part of this. I think you have an incredibly bright future.

And because of that, I think we all have an incredibly bright future because obviously you're going to do things that change the world. So thank you so much for being a part of this.

Beth

Of course, best of luck to everyone in your college application process.

Teri 

Thank you.

Admissions Segment Special Guest Amanda:

Teri 

We are back again, and I am really excited because my coworker, Amanda, has decided to join us again to talk about a special topic, financial aid, which sometimes financial aid is a part of the admissions office and sometimes it's separate. And we are so lucky because Amanda worked in financial aid before she came into Cornell Engineering Admissions. And so I asked her to come back and she said yes. And she's going to talk to us about some questions about financial aid because I know that it can be intimidating and confusing. So I'm so happy you're back, Amanda. Thank you so much. And we'd love to hear more about financial aid.

Amanda 

Hi Teri, thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be back!

Teri

Awesome. So like I said, you worked in financial aid before you came into engineering admissions. And there are a couple of different terms that I think people hear with financial aid. And we would love to give them a good idea of what they mean. Some of those terms are like need blind or need aware. And that applies to Cornell Engineering here in terms of how we process admissions. Can you tell us what the difference is between need blind and need aware?

Amanda 

Sure, absolutely. So I think it is important to remember that Cornell's undergraduate admission process is need blind for U.S. domestic students. And what that means is interest in or need for financial aid is not a factor that we consider in our admissions decisions.

Teri 

Right, so when we're reading your applications, we have no idea if you have applied for financial aid, if you need financial aid, and that does not have any bearing on whether or not we admit you. But that is different from need aware, correct?

Amanda 

Yes, it is. And for international students, there is a limited amount of financial aid available and it is a need aware process, meaning that when we're reviewing applications, we do know whether a student needs financial aid or has applied for financial aid or not.

Teri 

Yes, exactly. And I think one of the really useful tools that we have on our website for financial aid is called the Financial Aid Calculator. Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and why it can be helpful?

Amanda 

Sure, I think it's important to remember a couple things when you're applying for aid at Cornell. There are two applications that you will submit. So students will submit a CSS profile, which is the application for institutional aid for Cornell grant. And they will also complete the FAFSA, which is the application for federal student aid, which are things like Pell grants and also federal student loans. So there's a couple different applications that will be reviewed when determining a student's eligibility for aid. And another important thing to remember is that Cornell meets 100 % of demonstrated financial need for all of our admitted students. So also, I know you mentioned the net price calculator, so there is a really interesting tool, and I think it can be really helpful. It's on the financial aid website, and it's the financial aid calculator. So if you have submitted those applications or you're curious to see what you might be eligible for, you can plug your information into the financial aid calculator and it will give you a good idea of what you might qualify for in terms of aid.

Teri 

Yeah, exactly. So if the information you're putting into that is accurate, you're going to be getting pretty good and accurate information back to give you just an idea of what your financial aid package could be coming into that and how much the cost actually is for the tuition coming to Cornell Engineering. So, can you tell me, is there a fee associated with filing for the FAFSA or the CSS profile?

Amanda

There is an application fee to file a CSS profile. It's a $25 application fee for the first application and then $16 for subsequent schools to be added. And there is a fee waiver and students actually find out when they're completing the application if they are eligible for the fee waiver. And if they are not eligible, but they have extenuating circumstances, maybe that have happened recently, they can kind of contact the College Board to explain those extenuating circumstances and they still may be eligible.

Teri 

Great, thank you. That's really great to know. All right, so we understand that higher education is sky high in regards to price and that that can be really a huge deal when it comes to deciding on where you go to college, on deciding how you're going to pay for college. And I thought this episode was a really good episode to kind of pull some statistics about annual salaries and what your investment in education could bring you to. So according to the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average national starting salary for an electrical engineer, which is what this episode was about, is $67,500. But looking at what Cornell Engineering's average starting salary, it's actually $92,800. So that's a huge difference, right? So when you're thinking about your investment and what Cornell and Cornell engineering can give you as an education, I think that that's something to take into consideration.

Amanda 

Yes, absolutely.

Teri 

So yeah, so thinking about that and thinking about how your investment in your education can really bring about a lot more financial stability in the long run. If you're able to, you know, start have a starting salary that's much higher. I think a lot of companies understand and see the kind of education you're going to get at Cornell and value that. And so that goes right back into our students. Yeah, I think that that's a really good way to end this episode. Amanda, I want to thank you again for coming on and talking about financial aid. And again, giving your voice for this. I think that it's super helpful. So thank you.

Amanda 

I'm happy to talk about this, happy to answer questions, and happy to be here.  The financial aid website is fantastic. They have tons of FAQs, lots of resources, and it can be found at finaid.cornell.edu. I think one other thing to keep in mind is when you're applying for aid, just be mindful of the deadlines so that you can get your application in and receive your financial aid award closely following your admissions decision.

Teri 

Perfect. Great advice. Thank you, Amanda. I really appreciate it. Well, we have come to the end of another episode of VIEW. I want to sincerely thank our amazing student, Beth. Thank you, Amanda, for joining us again and helping us understand the world of financial aid. And finally, thank you all for listening. I hope you learned something today. And maybe it was that you're an engineer.

Closing:

Teri

VIEW, Voices of Incredible Engineering Women Is a podcast produced and written by the Cornell Engineering Admissions Office. Please remember to like, follow, subscribe and share our podcast and help us bring engineering to the ears of young women everywhere. To find out more information about Cornell engineering please visit our website visit.engineering.cornell.edu.