Alumnus Phil Pawlukovich graduated from UMBC to become an electrical engineer at Textron Unmanned Systems. 

     According to Pawlukovich, electrical engineering is a very broad field that touches about every area of our lives from powering our homes to making wireless communications work. Electrical engineers take what scientists and researchers have learned about electricity and the electromagnetic spectrum to develop safe and reliable technologies. 

     Pawlukovich works to support the sustainment of the Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS), which controls UAVs. Pawlukovich says, “There is no typical day at my job.” The engineer specializes in hardware but his daily work varies from helping resolve issues with hardware in customers’ (the army’s) individual UGCS units in the field, to developing procedures and processes meant to improve logistics and efficiency of the UGCS program, to developing, testing, and demonstrating future generations of the system with improved technology. 

     The alumnus studied electrical engineering in college. Pawlukovich says “this course was rigorous, bolstering my work-ethic and teaching me the fundamentals of electronics and electricity.” He claims the internships and his experience working on a formula electric unit for the FSAE competition during his senior year prepared him most for his job now. 

     The engineer claims he was “ecstatic to get this job.” Pawlukovich says he had a very small defense company, with plenty of room for growing and leaving his own mark that develops products that make “such an impact in defending our troops.” He claims he wanted to work in the defense company “when I was old enough to realize how blessed I was that my father returned from his service in Afghanistan while I was in elementary school.” 

     Pawlukovich claims he was “very sick of college by his senior year.” He says the FSAE project was “such an awesome opportunity for learning but took plenty of time and effort.” Pawlukovich claims he became “very annoyed with being pulled away from other aspects of my life to take care of classes that I knew I would not be using in my career.”