The Bridge - Issue 1, 2020 - 33

Student Profile

Grace Brazil

Zeta Chi Chapter
Chapter President
Grace Brazil, BSEE 2020 student at the University of
Central Florida, is Chapter President of Eta Kappa Nu
Zeta Chi Chapter. Outside of busy schoolwork, Grace
had the privilege to lead the chapter to promote the
HKN vision and values. She has enjoyed directing,
leading and championing the best interest of the
organization. Industry-wise, Grace held summer
internships at Intel and Motorola Solutions, which
fueled her desire to achieve and learn more in her
electrical engineering journey. Her interest lies along
System on a Chip (SoC) design, reconfigurable
hardware and 5G communications. As a budding
engineer, she enjoys employing engineering
principles to solve problems and continually
improving herself technically and personally. For
leisure, she enjoys a nice cup of coffee and being
a student of language. She currently is challenging
herself to get to Advanced Conversational (B2)
in both Spanish and Japanese. She says learning
languages needs substantial patience and of course,
open-mindedness to the culture that mainly uses it.
Overall, she see this as a good way to open up
her horizons.

Student Profile

What has it meant to you to be
inducted in IEEE-HKN?

Why did you choose to study
the engineering field?

Being an inducted member of IEEE-HKN has been
more beneficial than I initially thought. It gave me
an opportunity to be my best self as a leader, as an
engineering student, and as a friend. Being inducted
into the honor society has given me the chance
to be a part of something bigger, rather than just
sticking to myself during my time in school. The
Zeta Chi Chapter has given me community - I know
I can depend on my chapter officers - whether
it be organizing a networking event, working on a
collaborative project, hosting tutoring sessions or just
plain old "let's go get dinner and catch up!" I got the
chance to meet with the wonderful people in my
chapter who have seen each other grow and have
supported each other. To me, being inducted into
IEEE-HKN feels like belonging to a family, a family
that is competitive, smart, yet very warm.

I chose engineering because I want to work on
cutting-edge technologies that will enable the world
to live smarter and safer. I wanted to be able to
leverage my technical knowledge to solve problems
to make things easier. I live for the excitement of a
new technological revolution coming out. I thought,
"That sounds cool. How can I help push boundaries?"
The first step was to study engineering.

Do you have a best HKN story to share?
There are so many phenomenal HKN stories to
pick from. I wish I could say all of them have been
the highlight of my time in college. However, I think
that my experience at the 2019 Student Leadership
Conference in Medford, MA, has been the most
memorable. Not only was I with the other officers in
my chapter, we got to meet with other chapters from
around the nation. I have developed a friendship
with Precious Galvez, Chapter President of Zeta Iota,
and we have kept in touch ever since leaving the
conference. But wait, that's not just it: We also got
to meet with the chapter leaders from Italy, Taiwan
and Japan. The HKN workshops, sessions, and
networking have definitely helped me prepare for
my career and get an insight into the industry I want
to be a part of. After the conference, my chapter
officers and I visited the Boston, East Boston and
Cambridge area. We stopped by at the MIT museum
before leaving Massachusetts, and we all thought it
was fun.

What do you love about engineering?

Grace Brazil and UCF Chapter at HKN Key.

I have two top reasons why I love engineering.
One, I love the fact that in engineering, embracing
diverse ideas and team collaboration is the heart
of innovation. Two, I love the fact that industrial
disruption through engineering can transform the
world just like that.

reducing its latency and expanding its capability to
handle more devices. This will launch a more dense
and connected network that will be able to handle
products that employ data-intensive capabilities,
such as machine learning algorithms. What's more
is that 5G technology should not only enhance the
next smartphone but also improve connectivity in
underserved rural areas.

What is your dream job?
I want to be an engineer who helps to build an
adaptable and intelligent world. I want to work in the
semiconductor industry in a competitive company
that has a vision for a smarter world and is one of the
top technological innovators.

Whom do you admire and why?
Easy question: It's definitely 2020 IEEE PresidentElect Susan "Kathy" Land. In fact, I met her during the
Student Leadership Conference last year in Boston.
Her impressive background, career success, charisma
and confidence are truly admirable. I'm glad I was
able to personally meet her during the conference,
where I got an insight of her engineering journey and
her work with the IEEE organization.

What is the next BIG advance
in engineering?
The next big advance will be 5G or the fifth
generation of cellular technology. The fact that big
players such as Intel, Apple, Qualcomm and Cisco
are all ready to launch 5G capable devices soon is
what makes me say that. It is designed to take the
4G LTE to the next level by improving its speed,

What is the most important thing
you've learned in school?
The most important thing I've learned in school is
to work hard. Studying engineering is not easy, but
it's worth it. I say it is worth it because I was able to
strengthen my work ethic and time management
skills. I learned how to balance schoolwork,
extracurricular and social life. I believe this will make
me a strong engineer.

What advice would you give to other
students entering college and considering
studying your major?
If you like being intellectually challenged and can
see how we can change the world through solving
problems, I say choose engineering. If cool new
gadgets make you wonder how it was designed and
how it works, consider electrical engineering. As I
mentioned before, studying engineering is hard work,
but the pride you obtain from solving problems and
making our lives easier makes all the challenging
aspects worth it!

UCF HKN Induction Ceremony.

THE BRIDGE

HKN.ORG

https://hkn.ieee.org/ https://hkn.ieee.org/

The Bridge - Issue 1, 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bridge - Issue 1, 2020