Engineers Meet Engineering!

By Darpan Shah

This week, Prof. Mallini’s EE 244 and ES 104 classes had a field trip to JDS Uniphase, a large engineering company. Students enjoyed visiting the communications, test and measurement section of the company located in Germantown, a few minutes away from Montgomery College. Students had an opportunity to directly interact with the engineering director of the company and a few engineers. This interaction was also joined by the director of business development, Mr. Douglas Holly.

Throughout, students were able to see and realize what an engineer does. Students saw various models of working digital/analog systems prepared by the company and understood how they are used by the telecommunication industry. When the engineers opened up the table for questions, students were able to have conversations with the electrical, computer and mechanical engineers present. They explained how various fields of engineering blend together and how this can be beneficial. The speakers were from different universities and held a Graduate or Undergraduate degree. Students in class study the concepts, but rarely see actual field implementations. During the visit, students not only saw them but also the behind-the-scenes parts it takes to implement these concepts.