Pitch Perfect: How Electrical Engineering Students Benefit from Senior Design Project Presentations

On February 24, the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science held senior design project presentations. The event was well-attended by department alumni and industry professionals, who provided valuable feedback to the students showcasing their projects.

One of the students who presented, Duncan Marshall, found the experience to be very beneficial in terms of pitching ideas. Although he felt a bit nervous initially, he ultimately felt confident in the progress his group had made throughout the project. Marshall also noted that they received unexpected but important questions specific to their project, which helped them prepare for future presentations.

Daniel Schwartz, an alumnus and lead electrical engineer at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, praised the teams for their ability to effectively summarize their design work from the past semester and a half. He highlighted the event as a valuable opportunity for evaluating students for potential employment and identifying parallels between their projects and industry work.

Presenting at the event also taught Marshall important lessons about patience, clear communication, and addressing concerns promptly. Despite some questions regarding safety that they planned to address later, the feedback from experienced professionals emphasized the importance of starting early on such critical aspects of the project.

Arielle Williams, a controls engineering manager for Marshalltown and a graduate of the department, expressed her enjoyment of attending the presentations. She applauded