Undergraduate Profiles

Sergio Sanchez, Junior Computer Engineering Major

(see the first part of Sergio's profile)

More About Sergio:

• Hometown: Downey, CA
• Hobbies - Eating, playing music, programming, eating
• Something Unique About Sergio - I started taking technology apart at the age of three but putting it back together just recently started

Sergio's Favorites:

• Activity - Eating good food
• Sport - Fútbol
• Book - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Geeky Possession - Albert Einstein Action Figure

Favorite Things About:

• UCSB - Everyone is friendly and mellow. No one really stresses.
• The CE Program - The program is tailored to each person's liking - many paths available
• Santa Barbara - You live on the beach. What's not to like?

The Curriculum:

• List the benefits of a program that is a cross between Computer Science and Electrical Engineering - It's perfect for anyone who doesn't quite know whether or not they'll like working with hardware or software more.
• What have you learned that has surprised you the most so far? - Assembly language and how all of the Nintendo and Super Nintendo games were programmed in it. That must have been a nightmare to debug!
• Have you done an internship? - I worked with The Boeing Company in Seal Beach. My internship was in Information Technology and I worked on reprogramming dynamic reports and hardening thin client computers.

Sergio's Off-campus Life:

• What is the social scene like for CE students? - Though not much time for it, I enjoy going out with friends and dancing, singing, playing rock band, watching movies, etc.
• Describe your housing situation - I live in an apartment with two other engineers. My neighbors are also engineers. It's one big happy engineering family.

Jason Kaipo Oberg, Senior Computer Engineering Major

Jason's Favorites:

• Class: ECE 152B
• Geeky Possession - Soldering Iron
• Hobbies - Surfing, Golf, Relaxing
• Book - The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

About Jason:

• Hometown: Omao, Kauai, Hawaii
• Senior Project: Remote Controlled Submarine w/ Video Processing System
• Student Organization Memberships - Tutoring Chair of Tau Beta Pi
• Something Unique About Jason - My mom has won 7 world titles in surfing

Why CE / UCSB:

• Why Computer Engineering? - CE gives me the perfect balance of computer science and electrical engineering. It allows me to understand what happens at the low-level hardware layer and simultaneously an understanding of what happens at the higher software layer, essentially making me extremely interested in computer systems.
• Why UCSB - I love attending a reputable engineering program while being able to see the ocean from the majority of my labs.

Favorite Things About:

• UCSB - UCSB feels like a small university but has a large student body.
• The CE Program - The one-on-one interaction between the students and the professors.
• Santa Barbara - The weather and activities. There is always something to do.

The Curriculum:

• What was your most challenging but rewarding course? Why? - ECE 152B where we designed and built a 4-bit microprocessor. The days were long and tiring, but it was worth it once we got it to work.
• What have you learned that has surprised you the most so far? - How complex the communication between a computer application and a piece of hardware is.
• List the benefits of a program that is a cross between Computer Science and Electrical Engineering - The program lets you understand what happens at the higher level operating system/application layer all the way down to the discrete transistor level layer.
• Have you done an internship? - I have done a lot of paid research as an undergraduate. I have done research on underwater modems and an information flow tracking processor at UCSB. I have worked on a real-time face detection system at UCSD.

The Future:

• What area do you want to specialize in and why? - I want to work in embedded computer systems and/or computer architecture. Designing systems is awesome because I feel like I could make anything. Computer architecture is fascinating because there are so many different ways to design a processor.
• What are your plans after graduation? -I plan on going to graduate school. I have yet to decide if I want to pursue a PhD or a Master's degree. Once I finish my graduate work, I plan on going into industry. I want to work for a systems company working on developing the system of a cell phone, for example.

Advice to students/parents about applying to UCSB and CE:

• Students - Don't be shy. Seek help when you need it from your professors or TAs. Understanding all the material is tough on your own.
• Parents - The program will definitely get your son/daughter prepared for a career in engineering and make them feel confident about their abilities.

Jason's Off-campus Life:

• What is the social scene like for CE students? - The CE program has a small student body and everyone seems to know each other. I have made a lot of friends through this program and I actually now live with two of them.
• Describe your housing situation - I live on Del Playa drive with three other guys. It's awesome, you get to know everyone close by and friends are just a skateboard trip away.