Maverick Engineering Social Media

Maverick Engineering Alumni Spotlight

Dale Will graduated in 1991 with a B.S. degree in Computer Science & Engineering. Since that time, he has held increasingly responsible positions as an engineer, an architect and a software development director. In his current position as an engineer at Sun Microsystems, he is responsible for client interaction and general support for Sun’s healthcare industry strategy.

Dale provided some thoughts about being an alumnus and remembrances of his time at the College of Engineering.

What makes you a Maverick?
To answer that, I’m going to take some poetic license with UT Arlington’s Mission Statement, which provides a foundation for each UT Arlington student’s unique, personal approach to his or her career and life. UT Arlington’s mission is ‘…the advancement of knowledge and the pursuit of excellence. The University is committed to the promotion of lifelong learning….’ Simply put, these few words encapsulate what it is to be a Maverick and certainly provide a path that I strive to follow.

What do you know about UT Arlington that others do not?
What a tremendous school it is and the level of preparation given to problem solving.

What is your fondest memory of your time on campus?
During my senior year, I ended up on a ragtag team for the CSE Senior Project. I was an older student at the time, recently married and working a couple of jobs while going to school. (I also walked uphill both ways to school through three feet of snow…). These life distractions made school a bit challenging and didn’t enable me to spend much time on campus. They also didn’t help my GPA, either.

When it came time to work on the project, my team was comprised of five individuals who didn’t know each other and who certainly hadn’t worked together. So, when we started, we had to go through the ‘storming and forming’ necessary to build a team. We lived through this and went on to complete our project, which, in hindsight, was really very mediocre. Anyway, four days before our presentation and demonstration, one of the team members decided to ‘fix’ a perceived problem on his own. That ‘fix’ resulted in a multi-day marathon using bubblegum and bailing wire to hold things together. When we delivered our presentation and everything worked, I’d say the unmitigated joy of that success has been rarely duplicated.

How has the College of Engineering changed?
Hopefully, this won’t sound like a cliché, but so much has changed, yet really nothing has changed. There are dramatic changes, for sure; the College of Engineering has grown and expanded in terms of its offerings, student population and overall technologies. This is tremendous! But, at the heart though, the College has fundamentally not changed; it’s a College with a maniacal focus on producing top-quality engineers.

What lessons of life have you discovered?
First, never take yourself too seriously. Secondly, being fortunate to have attained some level of success, I believe that I now have a responsibility to give back.

What is most interesting about being an engineer?”
The ability to apply problem solving skills to technical and managerial challenges.

What will be your legacy, both professionally and personally?
The two are very similar – to exert a positive influence on the direction of my family, friends and colleagues as well as to the industry I serve.