Three colleagues and I were featured in an article, recognizing us as GEM Fellows funded through the National GEM Consortium with Draper Laboratory (Cambridge, MA) as the company sponsor. This article highlights the importance of Draper’s partnership with GEM and the need for Diversity and Inclusion in the STEM fields.
In an effort to show the public really cool examples of engineering, Draper has partnered with CBS to create a series of short vignettes featuring graduate students from the Boston area as “FutureInnovators.” These vignettes initially aired during “The Big Bang Theory”, introduced by 2 of the Big Bang cast members (Melissa Ivy Rauch and Mayim Bialik).
As a Computer Engineering Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern University, I joined this series to discuss my path to doctoral-level training, how North Carolina A&T helped to shape my professional acumen in the field, and the continuing work HBCUs provide the world in training minds for critical industrial fields.
This poster session provided me with the opportunity to present a potential technology to use the body’s naturally generated bioelectrical signals to verify a person’s identity—a method that may prove tougher to spoof than a fingerprint, facial recognition, and iris/retina based-detection.
At the 2016 State of the University, I, along with other university students, leaders, faculty, and staff, presented Northeastern’s new academic plan. I engaged the audience about my tenure at the university and how my exposure to experiential learning at the doctoral level has shaped my development and Northeastern’s drive to integrate this form of learning into various doctoral curricula.
I had the privilege of being featured in the cover story for the 2014 summer edition of the ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education) publication, Prism Magazine. This issue addresses the lack of representation of African-American males in the field of engineering.
In August of 2014 I participated in a Technical Presentation Competition at the 2014 GEM Annual Board Meeting And Conference of The National GEM Consortium. In this competition, sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University, students presented their MS or PhD level research. The winners are broken down into Master’s Level and Ph.D. Level. I was fortunate enough to place in the top three, taking away the 2nd place prize in the competition.
Featuring the testimonies of numerous HBCU alumni, this article informs readers that despite finite resources and less racial diversity, colleges that historically cater to African American students could offer lessons on how to train successful, confident scientists.
William J. Tomlinson, Jr., Ph.D. 