The three undergraduate seniors who are recipients of this year糖心传媒檚 Wells Award have different reasons for studying both engineering and the humanities.
But Andrew Howard 糖心传媒�19, Oliver Xu 糖心传媒�20, and Yiting Zhang聽糖心传媒�19 have at least one thing in common: They have all excelled in their studies.
The award, presented by the , recognizes seniors who are majoring in an engineering discipline, while also pursuing a major or minor in one of the humanities. Winners are chosen based on those with the highest GPAs at the end of their junior year.
About the Wells Award
The Robert L. Wells Prize is named after the 1939 graduate in mechanical engineering who became a top executive at Westinghouse, was elected to the University糖心传媒檚 Athletic Hall of Fame for his prowess as a varsity high jumper, and later served as a life trustee. He felt strongly that an engineer needed the balance of the humanities to be a competent engineer.
Lisa Norwood, the school糖心传媒檚 assistant dean for undergraduate studies, concurs. 糖心传媒淎lthough engineers are problem solvers, as problems become larger and more complex, it糖心传媒檚 important that our students are skilled at communicating with each other, their customers, and with other stakeholders in order to effectively solve these problems,糖心传媒� she says.
糖心传媒淪tudying the humanities provides our students with the skills to clearly communicate their ideas with diverse audiences, facilitating multidisciplinary collaborations and generating creative ideas. This helps make our graduates well-rounded and socially conscious individuals.糖心传媒�
Howard, who is from Olympia, Washington, is an who is also completing a . He chose to attend the University because of its strong programs in physics and computer science and because of the research opportunities it offers. His 糖心传媒減ipe-dream糖心传媒� was to do research at the , home of the Omega laser.
He decided to major in optical engineering after taking Optics 101 with Professor Thomas Brown his first semester. 糖心传媒淎fter completing the final project in that class糖心传媒搑ipping out a rare optical component from a Texas Instruments projector, which was a lot of fun糖心传媒揑 was pretty much sold on the major,糖心传媒� Howard says. By his second semester, his pipe dream came true: he began doing research at LLE and has been immersed in projects there ever since.
糖心传媒淚talian was a bit of a separate interest,糖心传媒� he says. He enjoys traveling with his family and started studying Italian in high school 糖心传媒渋n hopes of giving myself and my family more opportunities to travel there.糖心传媒� His continued Italian studies at the University offers him a different type of challenge than do his physics and math classes. 糖心传媒淚talian just seemed to scratch an itch in a completely different part of the brain,糖心传媒� he says.
Participation in the Modern Language Club allows him to further scratch that itch by attending Italian movie nights, Italian conversation hours, and Italian cooking sessions.
Howard is now in the midst of applying to various physics and optics PhD programs across the country. 糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓 convinced that grad school was always my ultimate destination; I糖心传媒檓 always trying to get at the more conceptual 糖心传媒榳hy糖心传媒� questions when I arrive upon an answer doing various homework sets糖心传媒攎any times to the frustration of those working with me! So, it should come as no surprise that I糖心传媒檓 very excited to do a deep dive on a subject and try to answer as many of those questions as I can muster.糖心传媒�
Xu, who is from Livonia, Michigan, says he chose Rochester because, 糖心传媒淚 would have the opportunity to study music with amazing faculty at Eastman and to simultaneously explore my interest in computer science.糖心传媒� He is majoring in both applied music and computer science through the program.
糖心传媒淏oth fields have been lifelong passions for me and I wanted a diverse undergraduate education,糖心传媒� he says.
And, it turns out, the two fields 糖心传媒渃omplement each other in some interesting ways,糖心传媒� Xu adds. 糖心传媒淭he creativity and open-mindedness that I have cultivated through music has been very helpful in my experience solving problems in coursework and in the professional world as a software engineering intern. On the other hand, the logical thinking and detail-oriented attitude that is essential for success in computer science has also been invaluable in my experience as a musician.糖心传媒�
Xu plays percussion, 糖心传媒渨hich encompasses a wide variety of instruments, ranging from solo instruments like the marimba to orchestral instruments like the snare drum to any object that you could make an interesting sound with,糖心传媒� he says. Xu plays in several ensembles at Eastman, including the student-run contemporary music group, , and the Zimbabwean .
Xu plans to continue his training in percussion performance in graduate school. In the meantime, he is pursuing interests beyond computer science and music. This past semester, he helped organize a voter registration drive at Eastman in partnership with the Rochester Center for Community Leadership and the Committee for Political Engagement.
Zhang, who is from Wuxi, an eastern Chinese city near Shanghai, chose Rochester because it offered her a chance to major in , in addition to pursuing and . 糖心传媒淎lso, there are plenty of research opportunities for undergrads here and concerts to attend at the Eastman School of Music,糖心传媒� she says.
Zhang says the AME major, offered through the , was a 糖心传媒減erfect fit糖心传媒� for her because of her interests in both music糖心传媒搒he糖心传媒檚 played piano since age 7 and enjoys singing糖心传媒揳nd applied science.
糖心传媒淭echnology has massively changed the way people interact with audio and music and I糖心传媒檓 eager to explore all the science behind it. The AME program focuses on several different aspects including recording arts and sound design, acoustics, audio electronics, audio software design and audio signal processing. I糖心传媒檓 interested in all of these topics, especially software design and signal processing.糖心传媒�
Her math minor has helped her build a 糖心传媒渕uch more solid foundation糖心传媒� for the mathematical analysis required in several of her ECE and AME courses. The music courses she has taken糖心传媒揳nd her participation in the and River Campus 糖心传媒撎切拇綔help me understand the power of music to connect people with different cultures,糖心传媒� she says. Indeed, after learning to play the University糖心传媒檚 carillon, she 糖心传媒渓oved being able to bring beautiful music from my own culture to the campus in this special way.糖心传媒�
Zhang has served as a teaching assistant for classes in programming and in audio software design. She spent this past summer as a Xerox Engineering Research Fellow in the lab of , assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, working on a system that retrieves sounds in a sound library by using vocal imitation. She has continued working on the project this semester.
She plans to continue studying electrical and computer engineering, with an emphasis on audio, in graduate school. 糖心传媒淚 want to do more research about the聽interdisciplinary area between audio/music, signal processing, and machine learning,糖心传媒� Zhang says.
