Haoning Wang is a senior studying computer engineering at Texas A&M University. With a strong work ethic and an eagerness to dive into new experiences, he has found himself a part of many different opportunities within the university throughout his academic career.
Wang has been involved with the Corps of Cadets since he joined Texas A&M as a freshman. He credits the Corps with building up his leadership skills and broadening his perspectives. His early involvement with the Corps has served as a catalyst for the other activities outside of his coursework in which he has participated.
During his sophomore year, Wang participated in the ENDEAVR (Envisioning the Neo-traditional Development by Embracing the Autonomous Vehicles Realm) Smart City Project, a nonprofit organization led by a multidisciplinary group of Texas A&M professors. The project is dedicated to preparing small communities to tackle future challenges by enabling them to become smart cities. The idea of ENDEAVR is to train the next generation of Aggie engineers to work with diverse stakeholders, perform sophisticated analyses and make decisions under complex, and often uncertain, situations. This program allowed Wang to work with students in other majors across campus in a team setting to execute road flooding prediction utilizing their different skill sets.
The following year he pursued two separate undergraduate research opportunities, one through AggiE_Challenge, and the other as part of Human Factors and Machine Learning Lab under Dr. Tony McDonald, assistant professor in the Wm Michael Barnes ’64 Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
There are so many opportunities here at A&M to grow your hard skills as well as your soft skills in terms of communication, leadership and character development.
AggiE_Challenge is designed to engage engineering undergraduate students with multidisciplinary team research projects related to engineering challenges facing our society. As part of it, Wang participated in the Disaster Informatics Solutions challenge under Dr. Ali Mostafavi, associate professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
“AggiE_Challenge was a rewarding experience because I got to work on something that had a real-world impact while also expanding my skills in terms of coding,” Wang said. “In the Human Factors and Machine Learning Lab, I was able to apply the skills taught in my coursework to analyzing cyclist overtaking behavior in simulated driving.”
This past summer, Wang completed a 12-week internship with General Motors (GM) where he worked as a design release engineer intern under GM’s Electronic Components and Subsystems Function. In this role, he used skills obtained through his computer engineering coursework to evaluate the data from suppliers to ensure that what they were offering would be beneficial for use in future vehicles.
“(Texas) A&M offers a variety of opportunities, both within the College of Engineering and outside,” Wang said. “I think one of the strongest points about A&M is that you're not just siloed with the College of Engineering for four years. There are so many opportunities here at A&M to grow your hard skills as well as your soft skills in terms of communication, leadership and character development.”
Each of these experiences has built upon one another to create a unique and fulfilling academic experience. By stepping out of his comfort zone and pursuing vastly different opportunities at every turn, Wang has proven that sometimes the need to succeed is the motivation to continue putting yourself out there, even when it might seem daunting.
“I think what drew me to study at Texas A&M is obviously that it has a really fantastic engineering program,” Wang said. “Students who graduate from A&M go into a variety of industries and are a part of some of the best companies in the world. I feel that if you do come to A&M to study engineering, you'll have as many opportunities offered to you as you desire.”