I.Q. Spotlight: PhD Student Gwendolyn Hummel
Gwendolyn Hummel, a PhD candidate in the electrical engineering program, is a standout student for her drive and what she’s been able to accomplish in just a short time at Northeastern, including publishing several papers and helping secure funding for her work with ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi.
Currently, she is working on improving wireless communications systems by finding ways to reduce the power and size needed for filter elements.
Below, Gwendolyn talks about how she became interested in her field, why she came to Northeastern, what she plans to do in the future, and how to encourage the underrepresented to become engineers.
How did you decide on electrical engineering?
I grew up in a small town in New Hampshire and I was actually homeschooled all the way through tenth grade. During my last couple years of high school I went to a public school and I had some interest in electrical engineering all my life because my father was an electrical engineer, but the thing that really decided me on the path of electrical engineering was I had a physics professor that basically helped me with some projects. So I had a chance to do some projects related to electrical engineering and found that I really enjoyed it. So I decided to pursue that for my college degree.
You found an interest in teaching as well?
When I was studying for my undergraduate degree, through the school I got a job tutoring at a high school in Chicago and basically my job was to help students that were having difficulty with the material, namely in math and science. So I did a lot of work with the troubled students and through that I realized that I really enjoyed helping students get it. A lot of them either they had family troubles so they couldn't make it to school sometimes, a lot of them just had the issue of not really getting what the teacher was teaching so I was able to find different ways to explain things so it kind of clicked for them. I realized that I really loved doing that and loved helping students finally understand something just by teaching it to them in different ways.
What drew you to Northeastern?
While working on my undergraduate degree, during the summers I did a couple of research internships. The first one was actually in Germany and that one is what started my interest in research in general. Because of that I signed up for a second internship at the University of Michigan and that summer I had an opportunity to work in a clean room and work with microsystems and things like that. That summer is when I decided that I definitely wanted to go to graduate school to have a chance to do more research because I really enjoyed working with new technologies and new designs and new materials to do something that mattered. When I was applying to graduate schools, I applied to a few different ones, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Harvard University, and Northeastern. During my applications, I did a lot of research into what research projects each university was working on and what areas were available for a new PhD student. I talked to professors from each university about different projects but Professor Matteo Rinaldi actually noticed a paper that I had co-authored from my summer internship in Michigan and contacted me about that work and let me know that he'd like me to come join his group to add my expertise. So I had a chance to talk with him and basically find out that I was going to be able to help design the project and even submit a proposal to obtain funding for it. In the end, it was that reason that even though I had been accepted to all three of the universities, I decided to go to Northeastern because I had a chance to start research right away on an exciting project which was the reason I wanted to go to graduate school in the first place.
How has the experience been so far with that project and Professor Rinaldi?
I found Professor Rinaldi to be an excellent advisor. Well, the first thing I did was I started work on that project three days after I finished my undergraduate degree. I was able to start right away in the summer which was excellent. I actually worked with Professor Rinaldi to create a proposal to submit to DARPA, we obtained funding and I basically jumped right into the project.
It sounds like you got what you were looking for when you came here.
Definitely and through that I've been able to publish about eight conference papers and a general paper in the first couple years of my degree. I love Northeastern and I'm really happy that I made that decision because it's never boring. I'm really happy at Northeastern.
Looking forward, what's the perfect situation for you after Northeastern? Is it teaching somewhere or doing more research for a company?
I'd basically like to do some of both. My hope after I get my PhD is to work for a research lab somewhere. I'm kind of open to where I go but I'd like to continue working in the midst of the research for a while and then, after a few years of that, I would like to become a professor at a university and actually take all of my experiences to help other students to enjoy research and achieve their degrees.
What do you think is a way to address the problem of underrepresented minorities in engineering including ethnic monitories and women?
I think a lot of the issue is it's a tough program. I know when I was working on my undergraduate degree, we started out with a class about 70 and there were 7 women including me. By the time we got to the second year we were down to about 3 women. So I know one of the main issues is it's just a tough program so you have to be really dedicated to stick with it.
I think another issue is just the whole general thing where women are only 10 percent of electrical engineers around the country. So a lot of women, I think, believe they can't do it or that they don't really fit and so I know for a lot of work that I've done for open houses for Northeastern, I'll often go and meet perspective students and a lot of females that come in thinking they might want to do electrical engineering are really excited to see a woman who has been successful and who has been there for a while and so just being there is one thing I can do to help but another thing is I really like to encourage people to be dedicated. If you find this interesting, if you love this, go for it and don't worry about being the only girl in your class or the only girl in your group. It's never something that's bothered me because I think in the engineering community, everyone gets treated the same. You have people from different countries, people from different backgrounds, different genders and we've never had an issue in my research group. We all treat each other with respect and we all view each other as just peers.
I think the engineering community is actually an excellent community for minorities and I think we just need to help those students realize that. Introducing people and letting them come in as maybe an undergraduate and letting them help out a little bit on the project, things like that can be a really excellent way to introduce them to the type of community we have.
