Becoming an Engineer

    Many prospective students (like the many listed below of students who I have worked with) might be asking themselves can I be an engineer? Just a little about my story... I started my engineering education in 1995 enrolled as a "computer engineer". I didn't know what "engineers" are or what they did. I just thought that I liked programming, and therefore, people who use computers make video games. It turns out I didn't know much, but much like many of us in my progression through undergraduate I found professors and topics that were fascinating. I never made a game professionally until much later (verilogTown created as a professor).

    So can you be an engineer? The simple answer is, yes, regardless of who you are or where you come from. Is it an easy path? No, the degrees are intense in that you are required to learn a lot of chalenging topics that push most of us to the current limits of our intelectual strengths. Why are fields like computer engineering demographically narrow? I'm not sure, but one of my papers (Why Stories might help make engineering more diverse) suggests that we need stories to help us all see and understand that it is possible. In that veign, here are some sites that might introduce you to others stories that are similar to yours:

  • Technolochicas


Graduate Students



Undergraduate Students

This is the part I like the most - working with undergraduate students on interesting designs. These students worked with me on a research project, honor extensions, independent studies, or their senior design projects, which in my books, are a huge demonstration of their engineering desgin abilities. An (*) means they went to graduate school, but all of these students will or have blooming careers, and I would recommend any of them.
  1. 2025-26 - Sean Whyle - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure; Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott
  2. 2025-26 - Logan Liu - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure; Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott
  3. 2025-26 - Sam Shuman - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure; Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott
  4. 2025-26 - Jacob Rice - Senior Design: GNN's for HT detection
  5. 2025-26 - Joe Crim - Senior Design: GNN's for HT detection
  6. 2025-26 - Michael Brown - Senior Design: GNN's for HT detection
  7. 2024-25 - Dana Clark - Senior Design: Duplo Mindstorm
  8. 2024-25 - Cody Radabaugh - Senior Design: Duplo Mindstorm
  9. 2024-25 - Sam Stage - Senior Design: Duplo Mindstorm
  10. 2024-25 - Tommy Trinh - Senior Design: Duplo Mindstorm
  11. 2024-25 - Ezra Naik - Honors Thesis: Synthetic Benchmarks for Satisfiability Checking of Digital Circuits
  12. 2024-25 - Claire Hopfensperger - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure; Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott
  13. 2024-25 - Jess Grady - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure; Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott
  14. 2024-25 - Jerry Chen - Senior Design: Creating a Computer Architecture Hardware Trojan Benchmark under the Seeker's Dilemma Paradigm; Co-Advisor: Dr. Bhunia
  15. 2024-25 - Chris Lallo - Senior Design: Creating a Computer Architecture Hardware Trojan Benchmark under the Seeker's Dilemma Paradigm; Co-Advisor: Dr. Bhunia
  16. 2024-25 - Sam Asebrook - Senior Design: Customizing putters and automating characterization of them; Co-Advisor: Dr. Chadges
  17. 2024-25 - Brody MacDonald - Senior Design: Customizing putters and automating characterization of them; Co-Advisor: Dr. Chadges
  18. 2023-24 - Brendan Bohon - Senior Design: Customizing putters and automating characterization of them; Co-Advisor: Dr. Chadges
  19. 2023-24 - Mika Burmester* - Senior Design: Robot Agents to execute a Boids-based algorithm - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  20. 2023-24 - Ryan Campbell - Senior Design: Robot Agents to execute a Boids-based algorithm - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  21. 2023-24 - Rob Lytton - Senior Design: Robot Agents to execute a Boids-based algorithm - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  22. 2023-24 - Ben Eicher - Senior Design: Robot Agents to execute a Boids-based algorithm - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  23. 2023-24 - Jared Butler - Senior Design: Red/Blue Video Game for Attack and Defensive Analysis - Co-Advisor: Suman Bhunia
  24. 2023-24 - Riley Taylor - Senior Design: Red/Blue Video Game for Attack and Defensive Analysis - Co-Advisor: Suman Bhunia
  25. 2023-24 - Obed Amaning-Yeboah - Senior Design: Red/Blue Video Game for Attack and Defensive Analysis - Co-Advisor: Suman Bhunia
  26. 2023-24 - Deniz Misirlioglu - Senior Design: Red/Blue Video Game for Attack and Defensive Analysis - Co-Advisor: Suman Bhunia
  27. 2023-24 - Jimmy Roach - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott
  28. 2023-24 - Alecea Grosjean - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott
  29. 2023-24 - Ethan Barnes - Senior Design: Virtual Twinning to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott
  30. 2023-24 - Blake Rile - Prototyping a 3-D line-of-sight discovery algorithm; - Co-Advisor: Suman Bhunia; Senior Design: Creating a Computer Architecture Hardware Trojan Benchmark under the Seeker's Dilemma Paradigm; Co-Advisor: Dr. Bhunia
  31. 2023-24 - Zach Copenhaver - USS 2023 (Prototyping a 3-D line-of-sight discovery algorithm); - Co-Advisor: Suman Bhunia
  32. 2023 - Daniel Wood - USS 2023 (SLAM algorithm exploration); - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  33. 2023 - Caroline Van Neste - USS 2023 (Autocharacterization of robot sensor and actuators); - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy; Senior Design: Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure; Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott
  34. 2023 - Vanya Garmatyuk - USS 2023 (Data analysis of Psychophysical measurements); - Co-Advisor: Joseph Johnson
  35. 2022-23 - Kyle Newman - Senior Design (Swarm Robotics with sensors for new behaviors; ) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  36. 2022-23 - Sonny Grooms* - Senior Design (Swarm Robotics with sensors for new behaviors; ) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  37. 2022-23 - Jack Del Vecchio - Senior Design (Swarm Robotics with sensors for new behaviors; ) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  38. 2022-23 - Lam Ha* - Summer Research [Miami ECE supported] (Fidelity between Robot Simulation and Real Robots) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy; Senior Design (Swarm Robotics with sensors for new behaviors; ) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  39. 2022 - Tra Yen Nhu Phan* - USS 2022 (Fidelity between Robot Simulation and Real Robots) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  40. 2021-22 - Christopher Gibson - Senior Design (Design of a Game Engine to Execute Space and Time-based games on the Miami Trails and Campus)
  41. 2021-22 - Yuxuan Deng - Senior Design (Design of a Game Engine to Execute Space and Time-based games on the Miami Trails and Campus)
  42. 2021-22 - Zhilong Yu - Senior Design (Design of a Game Engine to Execute Space and Time-based games on the Miami Trails and Campus)
  43. 2021-22 - Charlie Harders - Senior Design (Design of a Game Engine to Execute Space and Time-based games on the Miami Trails and Campus)
  44. 2021-22 - Huan Le - Senior Design (A RISC-V architecture that implements an Arduino Toolflow - Co-Advisor: Alan Ehret); Papers - Computer Engineering Education Experiences with RISC-V Architectures—From Computer Architecture to Microcontrollers
  45. 2021-22 - Nathan Martin* - Senior Design (A RISC-V architecture that implements an Arduino Toolflow - Co-Advisor: Alan Ehret); Papers - Computer Engineering Education Experiences with RISC-V Architectures—From Computer Architecture to Microcontrollers
  46. 2021-22 - Yicheng Qian* - Senior Design (A RISC-V architecture that implements an Arduino Toolflow - Co-Advisor: Alan Ehret); Papers - Computer Engineering Education Experiences with RISC-V Architectures—From Computer Architecture to Microcontrollers
  47. 2021-22 - Cole Hengstebeck* - Senior Design (Swarm Robotics base infrastructure - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy)
  48. 2021-22 - Noah MacDonald - Senior Design (Swarm Robotics base infrastructure - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy)
  49. 2021-22 - Grant Parker - Senior Design (Swarm Robotics base infrastructure - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy)
  50. 2021-22 - Jordan Smith - Senior Design (Power and Energy Measurement Logging of Off-the-shelf Computing Systems - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott)
  51. 2021-22 - Sam Rutschilling - Senior Design (Power and Energy Measurement Logging of Off-the-shelf Computing Systems - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott)
  52. 2021-22 - Owen Hardy - Senior Design (Power and Energy Measurement Logging of Off-the-shelf Computing Systems - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott)
  53. 2020-21 - Dalton Nisbet - 2020/21 Research Project on CUDA accelerated benchmark for aerosol dispersal
  54. 2020-21 - Alejandro Cabrerizo* - Senior Design (Lego Tactical Interface for CAD tool); Papers - Lego®-like Bricks to go from the Real to the Virtual World
  55. 2020-21 - Thomas Wright - Senior Design (Lego Tactical Interface for CAD tool); Papers - Lego®-like Bricks to go from the Real to the Virtual World
  56. 2020-21 - Will Zeurcher - Senior Design (Lego Tactical Interface for CAD tool); Papers - Lego®-like Bricks to go from the Real to the Virtual World
  57. 2018-21 - Eric Schonauer - Honors Extension ECE287 (Booth Encoded Multiplier); Senior Design (Evolving Cellular Automata such as Conway's Game of Life); Papers - Framework and Tools for Undergraduates Designing RISC-V Processors on an FPGA in Computer Architecture Education; Computer Engineering Education Experiences with RISC-V Architectures—From Computer Architecture to Microcontrollers
  58. 2020-21 - Carter Hale - Senior Design (Evolving Cellular Automata such as Conway's Game of Life)
  59. 2020-21 - Owen Hichens - Senior Design (Evolving Cellular Automata such as Conway's Game of Life)
  60. 2020-21 - Gillian Holman - Senior Design (GAs for Circuit Failure Detection - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott)
  61. 2020-18 - Lucy Rukstales - Honors Extension ECE287 (Quine McCLuskey in Python); Summer Research (GAs for Circuit Failure Detection - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott); Senior Design (GAs for Circuit Failure Detection - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott)
  62. 2019-21 - Michaela Mitchell* - Honors Extension ECE102 (3D printer); Summer Research (GAs for Circuit Failure Detection - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott); Senior Design (GAs for Circuit Failure Detection - Co-Advisor: Mark Scott)
  63. 2020 - Abel Belachew - USS (Covid-19 Remote - Reinforcement Learning for GA parameter selection
  64. 2020 - Isaac Nelson - USS (Covid-19 Remote - HLS Benchmarking; Papers - Is it time to include High-Level Synthesis design in Digital System Education for Undergraduate Computer Engineers?; Senior Design (Swarm Robotics with sensors for new behaviors; ) - Co-Advisor: Bryan Van Scoy
  65. 2020 - Kevan Pigott - Senior Design (BOIDs)
  66. 2020 - Haokun Qian - Senior Design (BOIDs)
  67. 2020 - Don Blank - Senior Design (PLC to FPGA); Papers - A Methodology for an FPGA Implementation of a Programmable Logic Controller to Control an Atomic Layer Deposition System
  68. 2020 - Janelle Ghanem - (PLC to FPGA); Papers - A Methodology for an FPGA Implementation of a Programmable Logic Controller to Control an Atomic Layer Deposition System
  69. 2018-20 - Tyler Mcgrew* - Senior Design (PLC to FPGA); Honors Extension (Python for FPGA design); Papers - Framework and Tools for Undergraduates Designing RISC-V Processors on an FPGA in Computer Architecture Education; A Methodology for an FPGA Implementation of a Programmable Logic Controller to Control an Atomic Layer Deposition System; Computer Engineering Education Experiences with RISC-V Architectures—From Computer Architecture to Microcontrollers
  70. 2019-20 - Geng Zhang* - Senior Design (ABM Disaster Simulation)
  71. 2019-20 - Wenbo Nie* - Senior Design (ABM Disaster Simulation)
  72. 2019-20 - Weiguang Zhao - Senior Design (ABM Disaster Simulation)
  73. 2019-20 - Cade Doebele - Senior Design (Reconfigurable Guitar Pedal)
  74. 2019-20 - Connor Meek - Senior Design (Reconfigurable Guitar Pedal)
  75. 2017-19 - Kyle Burge - Senior Design (ABM compiler); Summer Research (ABM for Bio; VerilogWorld)
  76. 2018-19 - Alexander Lee - Senior Design (ABM compiler)
  77. 2018-19 - Logan Johnson* - Senior Design (ABM compiler)
  78. 2018-19 - Prasidh Arora - Senior Design (ABM compiler)
  79. 2018-19 - Austyn Larkin* - Senior Design (Reconfigurable Pinball)
  80. 2018-19 - Kyle Nichols - Senior Design (Reconfigurable Pinball)
  81. 2018-19 - Scott Nicholson - Senior Design (Reconfigurable Pinball)
  82. 2018-19 - Storm Nicholson - Senior Design (Reconfigurable Pinball)
  83. 2016-17 - Alexandre Tessier* - Senior Design (Control Lab - Main Advisor Aaron Pittenger)
  84. 2016-17 - John Cloud - Senior Design (Control Lab - Main Advisor Aaron Pittenger)
  85. 2016-17 - Zach Morgan - - Senior Design (Control Lab - Main Advisor Aaron Pittenger)
  86. 2016-17 - Dilushka Balapiti Modarage - Senior Design (FPGAs to manufacture flat screens - Co-advisor Dr. Corti)
  87. 2016-17 - Dan Dezember - Senior Design (FPGAs to manufacture flat screens - Co-advisor Dr. Corti)
  88. 2016-17 - Christopher Burke - Senior Design (FPGAs to manufacture flat screens - Co-advisor Dr. Corti)
  89. 2016-17 - Edgar Caraballo* - Senior Design (FPGAs to manufacture flat screens - Co-advisor Dr. Corti)
  90. 2016-17 - Sam Werley - Senior Design (FPGAs to manufacture flat screens - Co-advisor Dr. Corti)
  91. 2016-17 - Xu Qian - Senior Design (FPGAs to manufacture flat screens - Co-advisor Dr. Corti)
  92. 2016 - Connor Blandford - USS (FPGA Collision Detection)
  93. 2016 - Jamie Shaffer* - Summer Research (verilogWorld)
  94. 2016 - Oakley Katterheinrich - Summer Reseach (FPGA Collision Detection)
  95. 2016 - Fredy Augusto Alves* - Summer Research funded by Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program sponsored by IIE (FPGA collision detection); Papers - Lessons Learned on which Applications Benefit when Implemented on CPU-FPGA Heterogeneous System; Designing a Collision Detection Accelerator on a Heterogeneous CPU-FPGA Platform
  96. 2016 - Brandon Baucher - Independent Study (Genetic Algorithm)
  97. 2014-16 - Alan Ehret* - Senior Design (AI on FPGA); USS (Landscape Generation using TSP); independent Study (Genetic Algorithm); Papers - Scalable Open-Source Reconfigurable Architecture for Bacterial Quorum Sensing Simulations; How to use Combinatorial Optimization Problems (Travelling Salesman Problem) for Procedural Landscape Generation; Computer Engineering Education Experiences with RISC-V Architectures—From Computer Architecture to Microcontrollers
  98. 2016 - John Shaver* - Senior Design (AI on FPGA)
  99. 2014-16 - Naoki Mizuno* - Senior Design (Hashigo - Co-advisor Dr. Corti); USS (Culture Code); Summer Research (verilogTown); Papers - Transforming Ladder Logic to Verilog for FPGA Realization of Programmable Logic Controllers; verilogTown - Improving Students Learning Hardware Description Language Design - Verilog - with a Video Game; A simple Multiplayer Video Game Framework for Experimenting and Teaching Cultural Understanding; VerilogTown: Cars, Crashes and Hardware Design
  100. 2015-16 - Drake Brunner - Senior Design (Hashigo - Co-advisor Dr. Corti); Papers - Transforming Ladder Logic to Verilog for FPGA Realization of Programmable Logic Controllers
  101. 2015-16 - Jimmy Cline - Senior Design (Virtual Boardgames)
  102. 2015-16 - Daniel Kellett* - Senior Design (Virtual Boardgames)
  103. 2015-16 - Austin Lowder* - Senior Design (Virtual Boardgames)
  104. 2015-16 - Ross Vaske - Senior Design (Virtual Boardgames)
  105. 2015 - Ryan Sunderhaus - Summer Research (Drone Tracker); Papers - Improved Method for Creating Criterion Maps for Automatic Mind Map Analysis
  106. 2015 - Chris Bell - Summer Research (verilogWorld); USS (verilogWorld); Papers - A simple Multiplayer Video Game Framework for Experimenting and Teaching Cultural Understanding
  107. 2015 - Braden Campbell - USS (Drone Tracking)
  108. 2015 - Bailey Hall* - USS (Weather Travel)
  109. 2013-15 - Nick Contini* - Senior Design (Drones); USS (drone)
  110. 2014-15 - John Thomas - Senior Design (Drones)
  111. 2014-15 - Chris Sigmon - Senior Design (Vibration System)
  112. 2014-15 - Eric Downs - Senior Design (Vibration System)
  113. 2014-15 - Boyu Zhang* - Senior Design (3D printing - Co-advisor Dr. Berberich and Dr. Sparks); USS (verilogTown); Papers - verilogTown - Improving Students Learning Hardware Description Language Design - Verilog - with a Video Game; VerilogTown: Cars, Crashes and Hardware Design
  114. 2014-15 - James Goldwig - Senior Design (3D printing - Co-advisor Dr. Berberich and Dr. Sparks)
  115. 2014-15 - Eric Wilcox - Senior Design (3D printing - Co-advisor Dr. Berberich and Dr. Sparks)
  116. 2014 - Jeffrey Eaton* - Summer Research (Graphlett Extraction); Papers - Towards a Better Graphlet-based Mind Map Metric for Automating Student Feedback
  117. 2013-14 - Kyle Rogers - Senior Design (GPS FPS)
  118. 2013-14 - Matthew Haberman - Senior Design (GPS FPS)
  119. 2013-14 - Cory Christopher - Senior Design (GPS FPS)
  120. 2013-14 - Brian Weber - Senior Design (GPS FPS)
  121. 2013-14 - Corey White - Senior Design (Vibration Locator)
  122. 2013-14 - Alex Williams* - Senior Design (Vibration Locator); Independent Study (verilogTown)
  123. 2013-14 - Joshua Collins - Senior Design (Vibration Locator); Independent Study (verilogTown)
  124. 2013-14 - Matt Peppo - Senior Design (Geosync Baloons - Co-advisor: Mr. Setlock)
  125. 2013-14 - Hani Navqi - Senior Design (Geosync Baloons - Co-advisor: Mr. Setlock)
  126. 2013-14 - Jessi Bramble - Senior Design (Geosync Baloons - Co-advisor: Mr. Setlock)
  127. 2013 - Alex Rush - USS (FPS game)
  128. 2013 - Tuo Li - USS (Graphlet Extraction); Papers - Evaluating Metrics for Automatic Mind Map Assessment in Various Classes
  129. 2013 - Shawn (Fan) Zhang - USS (Genetic Algrotihm Crossover)
  130. 2013 - Markus Ernst - Summer Research - FPGA communication
  131. 2013 - Marcus Renno - Summer Research - “Brazil science without borders” (Ciências sem fronteiras)” - Graphlet Extraction
  132. 2013 - Richard Marcus* - Senior Design (RedBlade Vision - Co-advisor Dr. Morton)
  133. 2013 - James Morton* - Senior Design (RedBlade Vision - Co-advisor Dr. Morton)
  134. 2012-13 - Patrick Shine - Senior Design (Sports Tracker)
  135. 2012-13 - Dan Ohlemacher - Senior Design (Sports Tracker); Papers - Getting Positional Play Data - It's, likely, in the crowd
  136. 2012-13 - Nate Kanta - Senior Design (Sports Tracker)Papers - Getting Positional Play Data - It's, likely, in the crowd
  137. 2012-13 - Andrew Heldt - Senior Design (Sports Tracker)Papers - Getting Positional Play Data - It's, likely, in the crowd
  138. 2012-13 - Rachel Grady - Senior Design (Single lense stereovision); Summer Research (stereovision)
  139. 2012-13 - Elizabeth (Ahles) Bieler - Senior Design (Single lense stereovision)
  140. 2012-13 - Aaron Pittenger - Senior Design (Pulley Tower)
  141. 2012-13 - Brian Breitsch* - Senior Design (Pulley Tower)
  142. 2012-13 - Brandon Withrow - Senior Design (Pulley Tower)
  143. 2012 - Jack Hall* - USS (Meta-heuristic Games); Papers - Research Directions for Pushing Harnessing Human Computation to Mainstream Video Games; Metaheuristic Entry Points for Harnessing Human Computation in Mainstream Games
  144. 2012 - Josh Wilson - Senior Design (Robot Soccer)
  145. 2012 - Jesse Griffis - Senior Design (Robot Soccer)
  146. 2011-12 - Brian Hunt - Senior Design (Sports Tracking; USS (Bio Tracking); Papers - Getting Positional Play Data - It's, likely, in the crowd
  147. 2011-12 - Michael Paige - Senior Design (Sports Tracking; Summer Research (Xbox Kinect)
  148. 2011-12 - Martha Garasky - Senior Design (Document Analysis); USS (Parallelizing Affinity Propagation)
  149. 2011-12 - Evelyn (Cossel) O'Farrell - Senior Design (Document Analysis)
  150. 2011-12 - Mark Stratis - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton); USS (FPGA 2D Processing)
  151. 2011-12 - Mark Carroll* - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton)
  152. 2011-12 - Robert Cole - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton)
  153. 2011-12 - Chad Sobota - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton)
  154. 2010-11 - Ryan Wolfarth* - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton); USS (FPGA CAD Visualization; Papers - Redblade: Miami University's Multifunctional Autonomous Robot
  155. 2010-11 - Brandon Williams - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton); Papers - Redblade: Miami University's Multifunctional Autonomous Robot
  156. 2010-11 - Steve Taylor* - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton); Summer Research (RedBlade); Papers - Redblade: Miami University's Multifunctional Autonomous Robot
  157. 2010-11 - Aditya Wibowo - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton); Papers - Redblade: Miami University's Multifunctional Autonomous Robot
  158. 2010-11 - Vincent Gatto - Senior Design (RedBlade - Competition Robot - Co-advisor Dr. Morton)
  159. 2010-11 - Wade Cole - Senior Design (Network System)
  160. 2010-11 - Robert Mastronicola - Senior Design (Network System)
  161. 2010-11 - Daniel Talpas - Senior Design (Network System)
  162. 2010-11 - Ryan Kelly - Honor's Thesis: UNIQUE MULTI-TOUCH INTERACTION AND SOFTWARE DESIGN
  163. 2009-10 - Anthony Czarnecki* - Senior Design (Route Planning)
  164. 2009-10 - Alicia Klinefelter* - Senior Design (Route Planning)