Joseph Q.

Experience

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  Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE)

  Aug 2020 - Jan 2022

  English Second Language Teacher

  In this exciting role I had the pleasure of teaching English as a second language to a night school class of 15-20 recently immigrated individuals to the United States. My responsibilities included preparing lessons, measuring the progress of my students, and making sure the students had the essential skills needed, both linguistic and cultural, to live functionally here in Nashville.My lessons placed a heavy emphasis on conversation. Having learned 3 other languages myself, I understood the importance of practicing the material early, often, and out loud, so each lesson was concluded with time for structured conversation amongst the class. The students often expressed this to be their favorite part of the period and reported feeling more confident speaking with their bosses and peers at work.Overall, this was an incredibly meaningful and enjoyable experience, and I hope to be able to return to NICE again in the future. Show less

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  Open Avenues Career Pathways

  Jan 2022 - Mar 2022

  Student Consultant, Software Development

  In my first industry technical role, I was tasked with creating a functional query search tool using React.js to help restaurants better filter through important metrics to support their business. As a non-CS major with little coding experience at the time, especially on industry projects this was a big challenge and something I had never learned about before.Through this project I harnessed and heavily employed my problem-solving skills and "figure it out" ability to learn all I could about the software framework we were using, how webpages are rendered, and development environments to successfully complete the project and demo.By scheduling extra meetings and asking lots of questions with my team-lead, I was able go beyond simply creating a visually appealing and user-friendly web app demo for our industry sponsor's needs. In addition to the base project requirements, I also had time to add an extra feature to the app to display brief overviews of the data ranges requested by the user. This would allow the user to spend even less time combing through their data and give them more time to focus on what to do with that data instead.This experience ultimately left me with a deeper appreciation for problem-solving skills and a stronger desire for more team driven projects. Show less

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  Open Avenues Career Pathways

  Jun 2022 - Aug 2022

  Student Consultant, Electrical Engineering

  Having enjoyed my previous experience through Open Avenues, I decided to return, this time in an Electrical Engineering position. During this summer, our industry sponsor, QPAC Systems, was in need of a custom voltage regulator PCB design.The first part of the summer was spent getting familiar with the basics of PCB design, such as what a PCB is, how there are made, what a trace is, etcetera, before moving into understanding the more technical aspects of design, such as trace length, shape, and width, choosing the best components to meet specifications, space constraints, and simulation/verification of the design. We were also introduced to using various PCB design software, namely KiCAD, EAGLE, and easyEDA.Simulation of the circuit was done with SPICE. Once familiar with SPICE simulations, I created various iterations of the circuit that was to be printed to analyze differences that resulted from small changes like component choices, connections, and trace specs. This was a substantial source for my understanding of the importance and usage of each of these parameters.At the end of the internship a final design presentation was given to the project lead detailing the process and design decisions made to end up at the finished product. Show less

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  Vanderbilt University

  Jan 2023 - May 2024

  Undergraduate Teaching Assistant

  As an undergraduate teachers assistant for Digital Systems, I hold office hours during which I help students understand the fundamental concepts of digital logic, binary, assembly, and machine language, as well as basic computer architectures. I also assist with grading assignments, tests, and quizzes.

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  Reliable MicroSystems, LLC

  May 2023 - Aug 2023

  Electrical Engineering Intern

  At Reliable MicroSystems, I had the pleasure of working with the team to work on electronics solutions to radiation effects at the transistor level. My role, from a technical standpoint, involved a lot of simulation work in Cadence Virtuoso, as well as layout for various circuits. I was also lucky enough to have worked on some modeling efforts which was done using curve fitting strategies in Python.As part of a separate project, I also got to work on a deep-dive into FPGA and CRAM architecture.Finally, I spent a great deal of time reworking the internship program itself, increasing the overall efficiency of the training portion of the summer while making it a more enjoyable experience for the interns. Show less

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  Reflow Design Co.

  May 2024 - now

  Partner and Engineer