Huda Khan's University Honors Learning Portfolio

This past academic year, I joined VEX U Robotics. I had previously participated in FTC Robotics in high school and wished to continue participating in robotics in college due to how much I enjoyed the team environment and creative freedom it provided. Joining VEX U Robotics in college made me realize that my interests have shifted from aerospace toward robotics. In high school, I joined my FTC Robotics team because I knew it would provide good engineering exposure. However, over time, I realized that I genuinely enjoyed robotics specifically and wanted to continue working with robots professionally.

Joining VEX U was the final confirmation I needed to make this pivot. I had wanted to be an aerospace engineer since fourth grade, up until only a few months ago. I never thought I would move away from my initial career dream, as I had imagined myself as an aerospace engineer for so many years. Being involved in robotics for so many years has made me realize how versatile robots are and how much room the industry still has to grow. I had the privilege of attending a distinguished lecture by one of the founders of Persona AI, a UC alumnus. His story inspired me to think about how I can work for, or even create, a similar robotics company in the future.

Due to both joining a robotics team in college and attending this distinguished lecture, I solidified my desire to pursue robotics and added a Robotics and Automation minor. I had previously avoided programming as much as possible outside of required coursework; however, I now realize the importance of developing my programming skills, as many robotics and automation jobs require programming knowledge to some degree. Additionally, if I want to pursue personal robotics projects, I need to be able to program my own robots.

My fall co-op and future co-ops will encourage this growth, as I hope to gain experience and exposure to automation and then obtain a robotics-specific co-op in future rotations. The company I will be co-oping with, Sherwin-Williams, is a large company that offers automation and robotics co-op and internship opportunities that I hope to pursue in future rotations.

Some of my professional and academic goals for the upcoming school year are to start a rover robotics club, compete in VEX U Robotics and qualify for Worlds, and perform the best I can at my first co-op while making meaningful connections in my work environment. I also plan to work on a personal robotics project so that I can design, build, and program it myself from start to finish with minimal direct assistance. This will test my abilities more than my previous projects and help build my troubleshooting skills and perseverance.