In just one semester, Amy Deepee has completed her master of science in engineering.
Deepee is part of the accelerated bachelor’s-master’s (ABM) program, which allows students to complete both their bachelor’s and master’s degrees within five years. Electrical engineering, Deepee’s specialty, is one of several programs in the College of Engineering with an ABM program.
She completed her bachelor’s in electrical engineering back in December.
“I had no plans to, and then I went into an advising appointment during my junior year and my advisor said I should consider the ABM program,” she said. “I didn’t really know it existed.”
Deepee met the GPA requirement, and her professors knew she had the work ethic to complete the program.
“As time went on, I was kind of burnt out and I wasn’t really interested, but then there was this summer class that one of my friends told me about, this Python class,” she said. “I took it and it was really impactful.”
The course was offered as an undergraduate class, which Deepee planned to take, but her friends changed her mind.
“Everyone was like, ‘Hey, look, it’s gonna be a little bit harder, but why not just take the grad version and just get credit for it?’” she said. “I ended up taking it and it was probably one of the coolest classes I’ve taken to this day. That convinced me to do ABM.”
The Python course was the first of many graduate level courses Deepee took in her time in her bachelor’s program. She found the research components of the upper level courses particularly compelling.
Not only was she taking graduate-level courses in undergrad, but Deepee also did undergraduate research, participated in the electrical and computer engineering honor society and was a member of the ultimate frisbee club.
“Club level ultimate frisbee is obviously commitment, but it was something that was a break from everything else,” she said. “It was me running around, getting to play a sport. I’m not a big gym rat, but I do like the gym, and that’s something that’s always been my one to two hours of not schoolwork. I think the gym and sports have kept me sane.”
Deepee will be working full time at Lenovo starting this summer. She will be moving to nearby Morrisville, North Carolina.
“I should say, no more school for me for a while,” she said with a laugh.
Deepee said her experience at NC State really helped prepare her for job opportunities and her future in engineering.
“NC State advertises its undergrad research pretty hard,” she said. “I had to do research if I did engineering, and I think having the opportunity to do undergrad research was huge. I was working with Ph.D. [students] on their projects when I was a sophomore and junior. Getting to be involved in undergrad research set me up to get internships and get full-time jobs and gave me a lot of specialized knowledge.”
Of all her courses from the last five years, Deepee says her Python course especially prepared her for upcoming work with Lenovo.
“I’ll walk into an interview or talk to anyone and they’re like, ‘How did you get to work on that? How does that even work? That’s technology that I haven’t even worked on,’” she said. “So, full circle. The project-based classes really did it for me.”
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