Two Electrical and Computer Engineering students land big jobs with giant companies
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
The year 2020 wasn’t ideal for most people, but for two electrical and computer engineering graduates, the year 2020 ended with something to celebrate.
Hisham Abuella and Amit Kachroo will both graduate from Oklahoma State University this spring with their Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering (ECE). Both are currently studying in the OSU Wireless Lab (OWL) under Dr. Sabit Ekin, an assistant professor in ECE.
Abuella accepted a position with Qualcomm Inc. as a senior engineer on the Modem System team in San Diego, CA. Qualcomm is a wireless semiconductor design company that designs processors and modems (cellular and WiFi). The core business for the company is the 5G modem chip design, which is currently being used by most first tier smartphones such as Apple, Samsung and LG and Huawei. Abuella will be part of a team that is responsible for design and simulation of the future and current modem algorithms to ensure optimal efficiency, minimum power consumption and signal interference.
“I had a lot of projects that involved applying signal processing and estimation algorithm which provided me a great deal of experience,” Abuella said. “I took a couple of classes that added to my knowledge in wireless communication and machine learning. Moreover, I had a chance to implement some of the algorithms and test them using software-defined radio devices that we have in OWL which is a flexible hardware that can be modified/coded to perform different wireless algorithms.”
“I am so excited to be a part of this great company that is leading the whole world to the 5G era,” Abuella said. “I think that joining the company is just the first step. I want to be an important member of my team and then an important member of Qualcomm technical management. I think I have the talents and the motivation to grow and learn more as well as help new graduates.”
Kachroo accepted a position with Amazon Lab126 as an Applied Scientist II. Amazon Lab126 is an inventive research and development team based in the San Francisco Bay area that designs and engineers high-profile, consumer electronic devices such as Fire tablets, Kindle e-readers, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Echo and more.
“As a first generation college student from a remote part of the Himalayan region in India, OSU helped me a lot, not just for preparing me for industry, but in general throughout my time as a student,” Kachroo said. “The faculty and students at OSU are very helpful, kind and supportive.”
“This is like a dream come true to work for one of the biggest companies in the world – The Amazing Amazon,” Kachroo said. “I can’t have expected anything better than this.”
“Hisham and Amit were my first two Ph.D. students,” Ekin said. “Joining companies like Qualcomm and Amazon as new Ph.D. graduates is not trivial. Excellent training and research environment in ECE’s graduate program and their great performance in research and coursework made them very well-prepared for competing with top-level graduate students in the U.S. I am so proud of both of them. They were both working in these companies as summer interns and now they will join as full-time employees.”
MEDIA CONTACT: Kristi Wheeler | CEAT Marketing | 405-744-5831 | kristi.wheeler@okstate.edu