kenn15

[kenn15]

From Traveling all over the US, to visiting Silicon Valley, to visiting graduate schools, to proving an experiment theoretically and experimentally, to building circuits, to competing in design competitions, to making virtual reality videos. This video is just a synopsis of my junior year at Hampton University, which is finally coming to an end.

[kenn15]

Almost Senior Year...

My junior year was full of many great experiences, and as I reflect back i realize that I have had these experiences due to all of the hard work I have done since I started at Hampton University. I would like to share some of these experiences on my blog to encourage others to keep working hard and take every opportunity that interests them.

One of my favorite experience took place back in October 2018. I was selected to be a 2018 UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit Fellow. As a Fellow, UNCF paid for my transportation and hotel in San Francisco, CA. The objective of the Innovation Summit was to select the top students out of the many applicants around the United States and fly them to San Francisco, CA for a week-long experience visiting top technology companies in Silicon Valley. Visiting these places enabled students to see the campuses and network with professionals within these companies. During  the summit we visited Google, Salesforce, Adobe, EA, Walmart Labs, and many more of the leading US tech companies. After visiting, we attended a career fair that UNCF created for us to interview with them. I was fortunate enough to receive an internship offer from one of the companies for this upcoming summer. Not only did UNCF give us opportunities to show our talent, but they also had minority professionals talk to us about entrepreneurship, venture capital, and other professional and personal development topics. The summit was a once in a lifetime experience and I enjoyed every minute of it.     In February 2019 I attended the Black Engineer of the Year Award Conference, also known as BEYA, which is a  three day conference where professionals and students can network, share their experiences, attend seminars, and possibly leave with a internship or job. According to the BEYA Conference website,” The goal of the BEYA Conference is to create connections between students, educators and STEM professionals while facilitating partnerships with individuals and their local STEM resources.”. There are many opportunities for minorities in STEM that many do not hear about. I recommend BEYA as one of the top conferences to attend if you are in the Field of Engineering, Computer Science, or Business (technical). Last year I experienced BEYA’s career fair first-hand and there were hundreds of companies giving out internships and full time offers. Even though it was my first time at BEYA I got an on-site interview and that night I received an offer as a Data Analysts Intern at Dominion Energy in Richmond, VA. This year at BEYA I was selected to be sponsored by Microsoft and became a Microsoft Scholar. Microsoft paid for my travel, stay , meals, and I received a free Microsoft Surface Go with a detachable keyboard. I enjoy attending BEYA because I love to see others that look like me in my field. As I walked around the conference, I saw young black men and women dressed in business professional attire ready to present themselves to many professionals and companies in the STEM Field.

One of the most recent projects I worked on was with Oculus where we created a virtual reality experience of Hampton University. Oculus is a virtual reality technology company owned by Facebook. I was apart of a small cohort selected to participate in the video shooting. Through this experience I learned a lot about  shooting virtual reality videos and the virtual reality industry. Our goal was to produce an original content video for Facebook. I was able to pitch my vision for the video and everyone liked the idea so i became the creator/writer.  As someone who chose a major in the technical field, I also enjoy arts/media and love that I got the chance to express my ideas for a client such as Facebook.

[kenn15]

Why Engineering?

Life can seem hard as an Engineering student from making sure your grades are up with all the rigorous courses, to being involved in the Engineering community on and off campus, to making sure your mental, physical, and emotional are at 100%. In this post I would like to discuss the pros to getting a degree in Engineering and I also want to discuss how to enjoy life while pursuing an Engineering degree.

There are many pros when it comes to pursuing a career in Engineering. One of the main reasons I chose engineering was because of the many fields within the Engineering industry. Options include but are not limited to Chemical, Electrical, Biomedical, Mechanical, Environmental, and Industrial. Personally, I chose Engineering because I love science and math, and wanted to choose a career with a variety of job options. Another pro to becoming an engineering is the salary. Engineers have some of the highest paid entry level salaries, some starting salaries are even six figures. Jobs for engineers are always high in demand and all over the world, therefore Engineers literally have job opportunities everywhere. Engineers also have a diverse work environment. Most Engineers are not like other professionals who sit at one desk all day doing the same thing working from 9:00 am to 5:00pm. Instead, they work in rural areas, big cities, mountains, and many other places all over the world. Important factors in choosing a career are passion, job opportunity, travel, salary, and location so I could not see myself in any other career field besides Engineering.

Many people think the workload of an Engineering student makes it impossible to live a well-balanced life. However, since I have been at Hampton I have had some of the best experiences of my life as an Engineering student. Besides getting many opportunities to travel and network, there are many things to do at school. At Hampton, the engineer majors are like family so we always plan and find fun things to do outside of school. A few tips to surviving college as an Engineer major are listed below:

If you have trouble understanding material use the resources available to you : teachers, students, online resources (Khan Academy, Crash Course via YouTube). The online sources are great for teaching yourself subjects or understanding concepts better. Also, do not be afraid to ask teachers if you do not understand. If you still do not understand try asking a peer, sometimes peers can explain things better than the teacher.

Learn when to be focused and when to relax. Majority of the time engineering students have to do labs, homework, or study. However, take time out of your week or day to sit down and get a mental break. I make it my goal to go out and enjoy myself at least once a week.

 Do not stress yourself out! One thing I learned after my freshman year of college was to enjoy my college experience and not stress myself out.

[kenn15]

Robots can be “Racist”

We are currently in the time of technology. New technologies and ideas are being created everyday to supposedly make life easier for humans. Artificial Intelligence is one of those hot topics in technology right now. AI is an area of computer science that focuses on creating machines that perform and interact like humans. The downfall to AI is that machines learn from humans and humans can be racist, sexist, prejudice, and many more unattractive characteristics. Robots are being programmed to learn human language abilities, but they are also learning the biases within the patterns of language fed to them by human engineers. An example of Robots racial profiling is a 2017 video of a Facebook employee’s failed attempt to use an automatic soap dispenser because the dispenser could not detect his dark-skinned hand. The video began with a white man using the soap dispenser and soap immediately coming out. Then, the video showed the employee using the same soap dispenser and nothing came out for him. This is a very dangerous issue the technology industry and for minorities. This issue is also apart of my reason for encouraging other minorities to pursue careers in technology. In order to protect minorities, minorities must make the technologies and inventions people use on an everyday basis.

“Robots have been racist and sexist for as long as the people who created them have been racist and sexist, because machines can work only from the information given to them, usually by the white, straight men who dominate the fields of technology and robotics. “

-Laurie Penny

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/20/robots-racist-sexist-people-machines-ai-language

[kenn15]

Successful Minorities in Tech and Engineering

In this blog post I would like to introduce a few successful minorities currently in the tech and engineering industry.

Christopher Young:

Christopher Young is one of the most successful minorities currently in the technology industry. He is the chief executive officer of McAfee, a global computer security software company. Young leads the business generating revenue over $3 billion. Through his leadership, the company protects systems and data of some of the world’s largest publicly traded corporations, government agencies,non-governmental organizations, and over 400 million consumers who need solutions for their personal devices. Young’s expertise in cybersecurity led him to become a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. Young received his bachelor’s from Princeton University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Jessica Matthews:

At the age of 22, Jessica Matthews, a Nigerian-American woman, became the founder and CEO of Uncharted Power, a recognized renewable power company that specializes in harnessing kinetic energy to create ecosystems of power for communities around the world. Many of her inventions provide energy and  serve corporations and governments throughout Africa. Her awards include Fortune’s Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs, Forbes 30 under 30, and Harvard University Scientist of the Year. Also, Matthews was invited to the White House by President Barack Obama to represent small companies for the signing of the America Invents Act in 2012. Matthews received her bachelor’s from Harvard University and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Guy Primus:

Guy Primus is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Virtual Reality Company, a producer and distributor of cinematic Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality content. The other co-founders of VRC are Robert Stromberg, who directed Disney’s Maleficent, and Chris Edwards, the CEO of The Third Floor. VRC is known for producing original content and being one of the leading companies in the VR Storytelling industry. In 2018, VRC made a deal with Universal Studios and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and launched Jurassic World VR Expedition, an interactive cinematic virtual reality (VR) game where players engage in an adventurous rescue mission inspired by the Jurassic World movie. Primus received his bachelor’s and master’s from Georgia Tech and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/list-of-the-most-influential-blacks-in-technology/

[kenn15]

First Post !!!

Hey everyone, my name is Kennedi and this is my first blog post! I am currently a Junior Computer Engineering Major at the real HU. When I got to college three years ago, I did not understand what it was to be an Engineer. All I knew was that I enjoyed math and science in high school. Throughout my life I have always done well in school, it was never really a challenge. However, engineering challenges me to use my knowledge to come up with solutions for a variety of problems. Even though I act like I hate my classes (lol) I have gained a love for my degree and how it has sculpted me into the person I am today. Engineering is very diverse itself, from writing/reading research papers to designing systems for optimal results. So why is it that minorities make up a small percentage of science and engineering occupations in the US. According to NSF, blacks make up 6.5% of Science and Engineering occupations, and 4.3% of Engineering occupations. Women make up 57.9% of Science and Engineering occupations, and 14.5% of Engineering occupations. Even throughout my previous internships I was aware of my environment and noticed that I was the only black person in my area of work for 2 out of 2 internships I have had so far, and I was one of the few women in my workspace as well.

One of my teachers gave us an assignment to make a blog about any topic we desire. I could have chosen any topic for my blog, but I decided to go with a topic that was very close to heart. My blog is centered around the topic of Minorities in Engineering. I want to discuss how life is as a black woman transitioning into a career in STEM, specifically Engineering. The purpose of this blog is to motivate others, especially minorities, to choose a career path in STEM by sharing my knowledge and experiences. Promoting diversity in STEM  is something I love to do because diverse minds create innovative ideas.

So far, I have been very successful with my endeavors. As a Junior Engineering major, I have had enough experience and gained enough knowledge that my resume is wayyyy longer than 1 page. Also, I have maintained my University Scholarship by keeping a high GPA. I even bagged my third and last summer internship, which will be in Silicon Valley at a top tech company.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking… it sounds like a lot of work and no fun. However, the best parts about being a successful engineering student are the paid internships, all expense paid for trips, and let’s not forget about the conferences! When sharing my experiences with others I always notice a spark in their eye, like I just gave them a million dollars. I love how putting in hard work can motivate those who watch me and aspire them to do the same. I plan on blogging all of my experiences to do the same for those reading my blog. I need more people who look like me in my career!