Hometown: Essex Fells, NJ
High School: Seton Hall Preparatory School
What made you decide to attend USC: Well, the weather was very nice! The competitive level of the engineering school is also enticing. But what really did it for me was the fact that all of the advisors and other administrative staff members are personable, easily approachable, and really seem to care about each and every student.
Best experience/interaction with a professor: My favorite professors up to this point have been Dr. Bickers (physics) and Dean Yates (ENGR 101). Dr. Bickers helped me to engage my already natural love for physics. He made everything interesting and was always willing to stay late in his office to talk or help out with course material, and I still find myself visiting him occasionally just to say hi. Dean Yates taught ENGR 101 and is largely responsible for helping me to figure out exactly what I wanted to study. She asked me the questions I needed to be asked to help me decide on the right path for me.
Favorite class: Hmm…I took a Beatles class as a freshman (I’m a huge Beatles fan), which really was A BLAST! But I think a class on Digital Signal Processing that I’m taking right now is my favorite, EE 483. We are beginning to really explore the high level applications given all the building blocks we’ve mastered as underclassmen.
Involvements/extracurricular activities: Eta Kappa Nu - Vice President, IEEE, Digital Signal Processing Research, teaching myself guitar, USC Men’s Lacrosse (Freshman year), TA for ENGR 101, Surfing!
Favorite on-campus event: Difficult question. I’d have to go with any of the football games. They’re always an amazing time! Or all of the movie screenings at Norris.
Best off-campus experience: Skydiving freshman year. Surfing all over LA County. Also having In-N-Out for the first time…or any time after that.
What you like about being in LA: As previously stated, the weather is incredible. The beach is only a short drive away. There is always something to do on and off campus.
Research/study abroad experience: I spent the summer between sophomore and junior year in Madrid with the Viterbi Summer Abroad Program and had the time of my life!! It was AMAZING! With research I worked in Dr. Povinelli’s Nanophotonics lab, working on the use of optics as electrical components. This year I am working on a project of my own with the guidance and resources of Dr. Ortega. I am working on multi video compression techniques.
Hobbies/Interests: Music and the beach are pretty much my favorite things. I love everything about the ocean, and couldn’t live without music to listen to and to play. I enjoy travelling and would like to become multilingual if possible. I already speak some French, and would like to learn Japanese and German at some point (maybe some other romance languages? We’ll see). I also like to read; right now I’m reading Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas.
