Original post from UMBC News & Magazine
In February 2020, Carter Gerhardt visited the UMBC campus as a newly admitted student. Six years later, he attended the same event, this time as a senior computer engineering student answering questions about his experience. During his time at UMBC Gerhardt faced the challenge of virtual learning during the COVID pandemic and doubt over whether his math skills were strong enough to pursue a major he was interested in. Supportive friends and faculty encouraged him and this May he will walk across the stage with a degree he was close to giving up on. “I’m getting a degree that I originally thought that I couldn’t do,” he says. “I’m proud of that.”
Q: Why did you choose UMBC?
A: I picked UMBC because I knew the class sizes were smaller. The financial aid was also generous, and that was certainly a big factor. I wasn’t 100 percent sure what major I wanted to do—I was considering mechanical engineering, computer science, and computer engineering. When I looked at companies and organizations in the area that I might want to work for, I saw that a lot of UMBC graduates ended up at those places.
Q: What are some of the challenges you faced during your college experience?
A: My entire first year of college was virtual because of COVID. My math grades were not as high as I was used to them being in high school. So you could say that college was a wake-up call. It was partly for that reason that I first chose computer science as a major—it was less intimidating than computer engineering.
But I still enjoyed working with hardware and working with my hands.
So about two years later, I revisited that decision, encouraged by my friends in the computer engineering major. I talked to my advisor about what changing majors would involve and he walked me through it. Classes were back in person, and that was helpful. I decided I could do it.
Q: What do you like most about the computer engineering degree?
A: Computer engineers have to be good at a lot of things. You learn about electrical signals and power distribution on the hardware side. And you also need to understand software and algorithms. The breadth of topics you get exposed to is really fun to explore.
The sense of community within the major itself is also very strong, especially as you get into upper-level computer engineering courses and your class sizes get a lot smaller. Last fall, I took a communication engineering class with Dr. Seung-Jun Kim and there were five undergraduates in the entire class. (It was cross-listed as a graduate course.)
The depth of material that you can dive into and the level of instructor support here is fantastic.
Q: What are your next steps after graduation?
A: I’m part of a scholarship program here at UMBC called Scholarship for Service. It’s a cybersecurity focused scholarship, and for every year of support you receive, you commit to a year of working in the government on cybersecurity. Most of the scholars in that program go into federal service, but you can also work at the state, local, or tribal level, or you can be a cyber educator. I’ll fulfill that commitment, and then see what happens.
My interests are mainly in wireless/hardware security and radio-frequency engineering, and I would be interested in making medical devices secure. Whether it’s in government service, or in the private sector, the idea of developing products that make people’s lives safer is very appealing to me.
Q: What are some of the student activities you were involved with during your time at UMBC?
A: Since May of 2021, I’ve been a student worker in the Division of Information Technology (DoIT). My supervisor, Courtney Burkett, has been a great mentor and it has been a great experience. It’s taught me job skills and time management, and also it’s been a fun way to learn about the campus and make friends. I’ve been part of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society, the UMBC CyberDawgs, and part of the Baja Racing Team.
Currently, a few other students and I have been working with Dr. Kim to develop a computer engineering Council of Majors. As a student organization, it would link students and faculty in the major. We [envision the organization growing to be able to] plan social events, networking events, and try to educate students about the opportunities available to them, such as working on research in faculty members’ labs.
In 2021, Carter Gerhardt was part of the UMBC Baja Racing team. Team members, from left to right are Manny Conrad, Carter Gerhardt, Emilie Shoff, Nick Myers, Michael O’Connor, Peter Stein, Alec Atwell, Zachary Love, and Alex Povodyrev. (Image courtesy of Gerhardt)
Q: Has there been a piece of advice that someone at UMBC has given you that has really stuck out in your mind?
A: I’d say the advice that’s stuck the most would be to take the path less traveled. I am currently taking the Computer Engineering capstone engineering class with Dr. E. F. Charles LaBerge [Ph.D. ’03]. When it came time to decide on our project, my teammates and I were leaning toward a flashy project building a vehicle and its sensor systems. But Dr. LaBerge encouraged us to take on a project focusing on an error detecting and correcting algorithm called Reed-Solomon. It’s the same algorithm that helps your phone read QR codes, even if you’re not lining everything up perfectly. It was a topic none of us were really familiar with and it has pushed us out of our comfort zone in a great way. I’ve seen how things I’ve learned across my classes are really coming together in this project and it has been super interesting.
Q: Looking back, how do you think you’ve changed the most since senior year of high school?
A: Overall, I guess you can say I’ve matured. I would say my ability to look at a problem and break it down into manageable pieces is much better. I’ve come to realize no matter how big a problem you’re presented with, you can tackle it with the right tools.
And the other thing that I’ve learned, especially after having my first year be virtual, is the importance of taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally. It can be easy with the rush of assignments and deadlines to let everything else fall to the side. Some of the things that I’ve incorporated are that I make my bed every morning. That’s definitely not something I did when I was in high school! I exercise regularly and try to get a good night’s sleep every night. I’ve learned I need to take care of myself so I can take care of other people and put my best work forward.