Majors: Electrical engineering, computer engineering
Minor: French
Year: Fourth year
In high school, Grace Wilcox came across her childhood Nintendo DS while cleaning out her closet and felt inspired to repair it. Thinking a fuse had blown, Wilcox went through the trouble of finding a replacement on eBay and using a very low quality soldering iron to put it in place.
Unfortunately, the fuse didn’t solve the problem—but it did reveal a new passion for Wilcox. The fourth-year student at Case Western Reserve likes to joke she chose her computer engineering and electrical engineering majors for the sole purpose of learning how to revive her childhood gaming console.
“Electrical engineering is honestly so fascinating,” Wilcox said, reflecting on her love of the specialty. “It touches pretty much every aspect of modern society; all technology has been made possible by advances in the field. It is a way of understanding the world around us and using physics to make things previously unimaginable possible.”
Wilcox also appreciates how universal engineering is, which is especially convenient for her as she hopes to travel—and maybe even move abroad to Paris after graduation, where she’s studying this semester. Wilcox is taking part in intensive French studies at The Sorbonne, a university in Paris, which will count toward her French minor at CWRU.
While she’s enjoyed her time in the city of love, Wilcox is extremely motivated to graduate and enter the field she’s so passionate about.
“At the end of the day, I am really blessed to just truly enjoy my field of study,” she admitted. “I like learning about electrical engineering and even though it is really hard sometimes, I think it’s that interest and passion that lets me push through the long nights of studying.”
At CWRU, Wilcox has also been involved with Undergraduate Student Government, and she served as a teaching assistant for an engineering class, Introduction to Circuits and Instrumentation.
“It’s actually been through this role [as a TA] that I’ve realized my passion for teaching at the collegiate level,” Wilcox said. “Right now I am more interested in working in industry, but I see myself one day returning to the field of academia and potentially teaching in the engineering field.”