I am Andrea Arguelles, assistant professor in Engineering Science and Mechanics at
Penn State's College of Engineering. Engineering scientists possess highly
interdisciplinary skill sets that transform the latest scientific
discoveries into state-of-the-art technologies.
Through this multidisciplinary honors program entering science students build
a broad foundation with coursework in the sciences and associated mathematics
that underpins many areas of engineering including mechanics materials
electricity and magnetism thermodynamics weight phenomena computational analysis
design and neural engineering engineering scientists are found in
every field throughout the private and public sectors their career
opportunities are limited only by their imaginations
due to the breadth and depth of their training engineering scientists rapidly
become national and international leaders in academia legal profession
medicine business politics and government service Penn State
engineering science and mechanics alumni are successful entrepreneurs business
executives captains of industry leaders and national laboratories startup
founders physicians professors and university officials the engineering
science program at Penn State is the official undergraduate Honors Program of
the College of Engineering every student performs research and writes in defense
and honors thesis in their senior year on a range of topics attracting the
university's brightest most creative and most ambitious engineering students
students are always thrilled to hear how customizable the program is they can
really choose their classes to go in the direction that they're in personally
interested in they're able to conduct research in an area that they like but
also their coursework can align with exactly what they want to do in the
future in their careers they can really choose the program to be exactly what
they want it to be I've always been mechanically inclined
growing up however I did have interests in other fields such as physics and
material science electrical engineering and a few others and engineering science
really gave me the opportunity to develop a curriculum that tailored to
all of my interests not just one specific field of study so engineering
science is rooted in the four core areas of end
mechanical engineering electrical engineering computer science and
materials so within those four core disciplines engineering science majors
have more flexibility in their junior and senior year to choose courses in
those areas or in other areas for example biomedical engineering or
chemical engineering whatever it is that interests them most some of the benefits
of majoring in engineering science is that you have relatively small classroom
sizes compared to other engineering majors and at Penn State and since you
have small classroom sizes you get to have a personal relationship with your
professors and you have a personal relationship with everybody that's in
your major it is an honours major so you can earn an honours degree at Penn State
without being in the Schreyer Honors College and it is the only major at Penn
State in which you can do that you are required to complete senior thesis in
which you perform original research so research is actually very deeply
integrated into the program and there are a variety of courses and
opportunities throughout the program in which you can actually get established
with an advisor to help get you prepared for that program because Esai majors
have such a broad multidisciplinary background they show up in just about
every industry whether it's aerospace or automotive or defense agriculture you
name it there's a there's a spot for Esai people and that was one of the
things that I really liked about it is it gives you so much flexibility it's
pushed me to learn about a field that I never thought I would be part of I am
designing a electronic device that uses two LEDs to determine how much blood is
in any region of the body but I'm looking at the brain and from this we
can get heart rate and oxygenation diagnostic ultrasound is really changing
the way that we do medical diagnostics we're continuing to push the boundaries
with the capabilities of the technology as well as the amount of sheer
information that's collected with our mechanisms and our products the impact
that I hope to make and engineering is to enhance people's lives through
taking medical devices for them especially for drug delivery what
inspires me most about becoming an engineer is the fact that I will be able
to have an impact on the world to make this world safer and to make it a better
place for everyone enduring scientists can really bring solutions beyond all of
our imaginations each individual can bring their own experiences and really
develop these technologies and push the boundaries on what can be done