Testimonial

Haihong Zhu

[ Ph.D. ME 2005]
Chief Technology Officer
Sentrinsic LLC
Atlanta, Georgia

I decided to do my graduate work at the Woodruff School because it is a top ranked graduate school in the United States. Also, I am a very practical and hands-on person. I like to turn my thoughts into real things, or say, make thing work. The Woodruff School is famous for academic research and for having sufficient research funding. The School has a group of extraordinary professors and covers a variety of areas. I benefitted from my adviser, Dr. Wayne Book, but also a lot of professors in other research areas. My peer students are also the best in the United States, and I can learn a lot from them.

Generally speaking, the graduate experience greatly helped my career. In the short term, my current company is based on a patent I filed during my Ph.D. research. When I was doing my Ph.D. research, a byproduct from the research came out to be a very good sensor. With two students from the GT business school, we formed a company. So far, the company is doing well even during the economy's "winter." In the long run, my dream is to build a robotics company. The work in the Woodruff School greatly helped in building knowledge, creativity, team work, independent research ability, and personality, all things necessary for future success.

In my view, the major strength of the graduate program at Georgia Tech is that it is a comprehensive program that covers a wide range of knowledge. It prepares the students in their major area, and also the knowledge that may help the major area. For example, engineering students can select management classes (that helped me to become an entrepreneur).

The Georgia Tech graduate program provides a good opportunity for students to learn practical, useful knowledge and skills that are a very close fit to real-world career needs. For me, these were immediately used when I graduated and started my company. The program also provides flexibility for students to decide and choose the knowledge and skill set they want and need. It also provides guidance to help a student choose their future career if the student doesn't understand what he/she wants at the beginning. Students pick a major area to start with. If later, he/she finds another more suitable area, he/she can always easily change to that area, or learn both. A lot of of options are built into the graduate program that ensure the student can identify and pursue what is really suitable for the student.

I was very satisfied with the quality of the graduate program. The faculty and study body are excellent. The facilities are better than all other schools from my point of view. I think the Woodruff School is the best place to learn if the student is strongly self-motivated, since the School provides the best facilities for research, sufficient help and advice, and a good environment in which to work.