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Dinner Panel Session
Internship and Career Opportunities: Advice for Young Professionals

 

Thus, the opportunities for young engineers to get involved and contribute in this field are as strong as ever. During this panel session, the broad focus will be twofold: Where do the panelists see wireless technologies expanding in industry in the next five-to-ten years? Where do our panelists see opportunities for young professionals and what kind of careers are out there for both undergraduate and graduate level students? We invite our panelists, who have a wide range of experiences across industry, to provide their insight and advice, as well as answer any audience questions.

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Jonas J. Mendoza Sandoval is a Sr. RF filter design engineer at Qorvo, specializing in designing and developing BAW and SAW filtering components for state-of-the-art wireless RF applications. As a specialist in various design techniques and continuous process improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma and Lean and his past experience in tech projects organization, Jonas has participated in and provided support to top-end projects that are revolutionizing the way we communicate and stay connected. He obtained his B.S. in electrical engineering from Universidad de Carabobo in Venezuela and continued his education at the University of South Florida, earning his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Jonas enjoys exploring the great outdoors through hiking and other outdoor activities in his free time. He is excited to share his experiences and insights with soon-to-be graduates at the panel session and hopes to inspire the next generation of engineers.

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Shradha Basil is an Application Engineer at Mini-Circuits. She received her Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Texas at Dallas in 2018. After graduation she started her journey with Mini-Circuits as an RF-Microwave Electrical Engineer as a part of the Engineering Pipeline program. Through this program Shradha worked with Engineering Test, Failure Analysis and Manufacturing Control, where she learned about Mini-Circuits products and procedures and had the opportunity to interact and work with employees from different departments. In her current role as an Application Engineer, she works with worldwide Mini-Circuits customers to find the right solutions for their systems and resolve any technical challenges they face. While in college, Shradha was a member of the Society for Women Engineers (SWE) organization and participated in various workshops and conferences which provided her the resources and motivation to pursue a career in Engineering, following SWE’s core values, Shradha knew she wanted to work towards building a more inclusive environment for everyone and helped in creating a SWE employee group within Mini-Circuits where employees can come together as a community, learn and share ideas.

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Hugo Morales, M.S.E.E, is Vice President of Engineering at Modelithics. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in 2002, and his M.S.E.E. in Electrical Engineering in 2015. He previously worked as a Research Engineer at the Center for Ocean Technology, USF College of Marine Science focused on wireless communications and sensors from 2003-2006. Since 2006 he has worked at Modelithics in the areas of microwave/mm-wave linear and non-linear measurement, and modeling of passive and active microwave components.

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Stavros Vakalis is an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida. He received the PhD and MSc degrees from Michigan State University, MI, USA and the Diploma degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from National Technical University of Athens, Greece. His research interests include applied electromagnetics with an emphasis on wireless millimeter-wave systems for imaging, radar, sensing, and communications.

 

Aaron Pendino is a senior undergraduate student at the University of South Florida studying Electrical Engineering.

Aaron has experience in the electrical engineering field as an intern working on engine harness design and requirements development. His main areas of study are RF and Microwave engineering as well as Bioelectricity, and he is planning to pursue a master's degree in electrical engineering starting next Fall to deepen his understanding of these concepts and related ones with a particular emphasis on RF and Microwave engineering. He is excited to share his perspective with other students and hopes they can use his insights to help them in the future.

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