The College of Engineering Student Stories

Meet Quynhnghi

In high school, I became interested in smart city models that center communities in their approach to transportation, infrastructure, energy and the environment. I believe it is important to design cities that serve people with the intention to also serve future generations. I had considered other fields such as urban planning, architecture and even public administration, but I found civil engineering to be the best way for me to create direct change. At UTA, the degree plan and the faculty emphasize sustainable approaches in their classes, which closely reflects my own engineering values. For this reason, I found UTA to be the best place for me to begin my engineering career. After graduating and gaining more industry experience, I want to work in public works and contribute to serving a community that incorporates sustainable and resilient engineering practices.

My favorite class was Engineering Measurement and Computer Modeling. The class focused on the basics of field surveying and how to translate data into a digital drawing. The semester I took it, I was still on the fence about whether engineering was for me. I came into the class not having any idea of what surveying was. For our first lab, our professor had us outside using old-school leveling cameras to survey around the engineering building. I was lost the whole time! However, by the end of the course, I found there was a thrill in learning something completely new, a satisfaction in putting in the work to master the class and value in gaining hands-on experience.