Jamal Wilson

[BSME 2002, MSME 2006, Ph.D. ME 2008]
Senior Engineer
Technology Innovation and Intellectual Property
Fabric Care Technology
Whirlpool Corporation
Benton Harbor, Michigan

e-mail: jamal.wilson@gatech.edu

For me, deciding to attend the Woodruff School at Georgia Tech was a rather easy decision. The consistently high academic rankings, its location in Atlanta, and its excellent reputation for graduating minorities engineering students all made GT my top choice. In addition, I participated in the Dual Degree Engineering Program between Morehouse College and Georgia Tech in undergrad, so I was already familiar with the high academic standards and the plethora of campus resources.

My graduate experience at Georgia Tech definitely prepared me for my career in industry. While doing research with Dr. Rosen in the Systems Realization Laboratory, I was always encouraged to be a thought leader and independent thinker. In our lab, research projects are not laid out for you; the student is encouraged to search for and identify new research questions, hypotheses, and plans to validate these hypotheses. Although this process was still under the advisement of my professor, the deep and independent thinking required for planning and executing the research developed skills that directly transfer over to my career in industry and are sure to take me a long way. In addition, working on research at the crossroads of Biology and Mechanical Engineering facilitated the type of interdisciplinary teaming and learning that is valued in industry today.

During my graduate school process, I also participated in the TI:GER program with the GT School of Management and Emory Law School. In the TI:GER program, PhD (from GT), MBA (from GT College of Management) and JD (from Emory Law School) students teamed to tackle issues surrounding the commercialization of high technology research coming out of the labs at GT. Exposure to many of the business and legal issues surrounding technology commercialization helped to expand my knowledge base outside the traditional realm of engineering research.