Nathan Ankomah-Mensah ’19 has probably worked out to the minute how he’ll approach pursuing his master’s degree in computer engineering. It’s how he approached his undergraduate degrees.
Ankomah-Mensah graduated with two majors, computer engineering and electrical engineering, and two minors, computer science and math. Awarded a highly competitive GEM Fellowship, Ankomah-Mensah’s tuition for his first year of graduate school at Purdue University is covered. In the second year, Ankomah-Mensah says he’ll likely become a teaching assistant or a resident assistant.
Unique opportunities
URI was a great school at a reasonable price, Ankomah-Mensah said. And it provided him with a number of unique opportunities. One example: His work in Kunal Mankodiya’s biosensing lab enabled him to apply the theoretical quickly, “solidifying the learning process,” he said.
Ankomah-Mensah’s long-term goals are simply stated: full-time employment right out of school, preferably something in digital circuit design in research and development for airlines, health care organizations, or the military sector.
His advice to future engineering students: connect to persevere.
“I can’t emphasize enough that you should not be afraid to reach out to your peers. To go at it by yourself is shooting yourself in the foot,” Ankomah-Mensah said. “You won’t work that way in life. And you’ll make long-lasting friendships that way.”