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Jacob Lyons

Tony Moore

CprE 494

20 October 2023

A Reflection of My Cumulative Experience at Iowa State University

My educational experience at Iowa State University has equipped me to tackle the many

challenges I will face in the future. First and foremost, I have learned many skills from my classwork. For

example, Cpr E 381 and Cpr E 281 taught me how to design complex hardware, Com S 309 and Cpr E 491

taught me ways to work, communicate, and develop a product as a team, and Eng 314 and Sp Cm 212

taught me how to best communicate engineering problems and concepts effectively. My diverse

classroom experiences have also shown me the importance of ethical and professional responsibilities by

showing the impact that following ethical standards has on the world around us.

In addition to my classroom learning, I have utilized many resources outside of the classroom to

further my learning and grow as an engineer. One case of this is in my undergraduate research

experiences, where I read many published papers to better understanding of what I am working on and

what has been contributed such that I can add on to this knowledge. I also have used Iowa State’s career

fairs to engage with employers and learn about the field I will enter after graduation.

In addition to using external resources to learn, I have taken out-of-classroom opportunities to

deepen my learning at Iowa State. This is shown most prominently in the aforementioned undergraduate

research experiences that I participated in. These experiences allowed me to specialize my knowledge of

the topic being researched. In my case, I learned a lot about wireless communications and about the file

systems on our devices. These experiences taught me how important lifelong learning is by showing me I

will need to continue learning and applying new knowledge. The skills and knowledge I gained from
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these experiences have enabled me to both build onto what I’ve learned in the classroom as well as

apply my learning to new and changing situations.

At Iowa State, there have been many times where I’ve needed to adapt to changing situations

and face new challenges. This was especially true with my undergraduate research with the Data Storage

Lab, where I often ran into software issues and progams that didn’t work quite correctly. I’ve also

experienced changing situations while serving as a representative for the Frederiksen Court Community

Council (FCCC) due to the evolving needs of my residential community. These situations forced me to

look at many new approaches. In the above situations, I have done this by looking at other ways to

implement certain functionality in software and by reaching out to the community as an FCCC

representative to see what other students want changed. The adaptability I have embraced at Iowa State

due to these changing situations allows me to learn additional skills to address the changes I encounter.

Knowing now what I have learned in my educational career, one thing I would do differently if I

started my undergraduate journey anew is talking with my professors more, both by engaging with the

professors in the classroom and by attending office hours. During my freshman year, I did not get to

know my professors or talk to them very often, which was only exasperated by the remote classes during

the pandemic. As classes became in person again and after having professors as mentors in my

undergraduate research experiences, I learned how important it is to talk to your professors, as they can

answer your questions, set you on the right learning path, and give you a better understanding of

classroom knowledge. Knowing professors also helps open doors for undergraduate research, jobs, and

graduate programs.

I have learned a lot during my time at Iowa State, and I now possess knowledge that I can use to

further my career in the computer engineering field. One instance of an engineering topic I’ve recently

learned more about and embraced is the operation of digital file systems on devices. I first encountered

this topic in my operating systems course with Dr. Mai Zheng. Since I wanted to expand my knowledge
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on this topic beyond what was taught in that class, I applied to and was accepted to work with the same

professor for the Data Storage Lab at ISU. This position has given me much knowledge about how file

systems work and how to test them. I struggled at first with the sheer amount that I needed to learn to

succeed in this position, though I used the learning strategies I learned at Iowa State to quickly learn

what I needed to know to contribute to the lab’s research.

In addition to gaining knowledge, I’ve also had many opportunities at Iowa State to apply what

I’ve learned into innovation. One instance of this was in my time working for Iowa State’s ARA Project,

which experiments with an array of antennae spanned across three counties in Iowa to explore ways to

provide high-speed broadband to underserved rural communities. Most of what I did in the first few

months in this position involved reading published research papers to learn about the workings of

cognitive radio networks that allow the owners of frequency bands to lease out unused frequencies.

Later, I was able to use what I learned to help develop scripts to randomly switch channels over a set

time interval when scanning network bands for unauthorized use, which I would not have known how to

do without this knowledge. I’ve also utilized creativity to create innovation as well, such as by devising a

way to port a file system configuration generator from one file system type to another, despite the major

differences between the different types.

The amount that I have learned at Iowa State has also necessitated that I improve my learning

strategies. One way in which I have done this is by learning not to be afraid to ask questions, whether it

be to professors and teaching assistants at office hours and labs, or to my peers in the classroom, in

research, and in group projects. Asking more questions has allowed me to learn from other people and

solve problems much quicker than otherwise.

Looking ahead, I know that there is still much growth to be done as an engineer. One area that I

believe I can improve in the future is by more proactively seeking new opportunities for learning and

growth. I also plan to continue my learning journey by building onto the knowledge I gained at Iowa
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State by continuing to learn in my career and possibly also by pursuing graduate education. I also plan to

continue experimenting and building programs during my spare time to further the knowledge I can

apply to my career. In essence, I can apply what I have learned at Iowa State, both in and out of the

classroom, to further my career by building even further onto the foundation of knowledge I gained and

applying what I learned to the real world.