Duality

I filled out the EECS undergrad student survey today. Not because they’re raffling away an iPod mini [it won’t take my email address! =(… ], but because I care—I finally care. I answered that I feel my classes are interesting and useful. That my EECS education at Berkeley has prepared me for the industry.

Three years ago, I wouldn’t have bothered. Just a freshman—younger and more foolish. And I knew nothing too. It’s hard to care when you know nothing. It’s hard to get excited about topics which seem so far from application.

One of the hardest aspects of EE is how long you have to wait before you get to build all the cool stuff you said you’d build when you got in. Not to say that CS is easy, but in CS, you get to build things from the get-go. In my freshman year, I got to code a board game (Amazons) in Java with a GUI and AI. I thought that was cool.

It’s not like that in EE. My first real EE project was designing an amplifier (in simulation only) for EE 140, spring semester 2004. That’s 2.5 years into my college career.

I remember having these plans of building my own DDR pad a few years ago. I remember telling Xero that I’d use my EE knowledge to make it. I never did get to do that. But admittedly, this semester I’m working on something a whole lot cooler.