Kuangcheng Wu

[Ph.D. ME 1995]
Project Engineer
Signatures & Hydrodynamics
Northrop Grumman
Newport News, Virginia

E-mail: kc.Wu@ngc.com

In winter 1990, I applied to several schools for the Ph.D. program and chose to go with the Woodruff School because of its early starting summer quarter. [Georgia Tech reverted to a semester calendar in 1999.] It turned out to be one of most important decisions in my life.

The major strength of the Woodruff School is people: the faculty, the students, and the research advisor. The faulty in the Woodruff School are not only focused on their funded research but are more eager to prepare and to teach classes. Text content and formulations were not the only focal points. More importantly, they help students to visual and grasp the physics meanings behind any mathematical formulations and equations.

To prepare the Ph. D. qualifying examination, my senior colleagues at the same research lab posted questions on a white broad and asked oral questions to coach me for the testing. It turns out these colleagues and other fellow students are becoming my best friends in my professional career and life.

The most time I spent during my Ph. D. program was performing research for my dissertation and interacting with my advisor, Dr. Jerry Ginsberg. He provided a systematic training, adjusted the levels of difficulty according to my progress, and directed a path to guide me through obstacles. He always joked that his graduate students were his "academic children." Once he and I had tried to trace down a computer bug in my program; we discussed the problem back and forth. It took us three months to find the bug and resolve the problem. His persistence and patience have always inspired me in my life.

As a project engineer in Northrop Grumman Newport News, I have engaged in a wide variety of Navy initiatives and lead internal research and development programs for an assortment of Naval platforms. The learning experiences provided by the people in the Woodruff School have given me a solid foundation to think out of the box and to consistently pursue solutions to meet day-to-day challenges.