It’s 6 in the morning and that all-too-familiar alarm tone sounds. You hop out of bed, get ready for work and head out the door. For some, the alarm may ring earlier for a morning workout. Others might grab breakfast before they leave. 

For John Robie, his day begins much like this, and probably much like everyone else’s. But when his workday ends--things start to look much different.

John works at the Naval Support Facility—Dalghren in Dalghren, Virginia and has been employed as a scientist there since 2017. Much of his day at work is spent modeling, predicting, and testing the behavior of radio frequency systems. John earned his bachelor’s in Physics from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA, which landed him the job at Dahlgren, but he has always loved engineering in the form of solving complex problems.

He realized that in his professional career, he was using an engineering skill set every day and that having a deeper understanding of the discipline would be beneficial to him. He was longing for more. A new challenge. That next step. 

“Every day at work I was researching journal articles to find solutions to a problem. During my searches, I just kept finding things from Virginia Tech faculty and others associated with the university.When I came across the Master’s of Engineering Program (MEng), the decision to continue my education at Virginia Tech was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made.”

The Virginia native always knew he wanted to continue his education, but when COVID showed everyone that teleworking had become a more permanent fixture of everyday life, John seized the opportunity of the MEng program and the flexibility that went along with it.

“Virginia Tech’s program already had a virtual/hybrid option which made it really appealing to me. With working full time and not being super close to the Northern Virginia campus, I didn’t think I’d have time in the evening after work to get to any physical in-person classes. The freedom to take classes from almost anywhere made the program really appealing to me.”

At the end of John’s work day, he takes off the Dalghren employee hat and puts on his MEng student thinking cap.

“Most of my classes have been immediately after my work day. Generally, they start at about 4 p.m. so I usually have a 4-5:15 and then a 5:30-6:45. I make every attempt to attend the lectures live on zoom; and since so many students are doing the same thing, it doesn’t seem strange at all.”

By joining the lectures synchronously on Zoom, John is able to ask questions in real-time and get answers to those questions just like he would if he were physically present in the classroom.

“I don’t feel any loss there (not being in person). In fact, it is more convenient for me. With working a full-time job, it is way easier than having to get in my car, fight traffic, and drive to attend classes in-person.”

Of course almost every working professional knows that sometimes things during your workday come up at the last minute. This is where the flexibility of the MEng program really shines through.

“Fortunately, I have the flexibility to attend classes synchronously most of the time, but if something comes up, like a meeting that I can’t reschedule, I just reach out to my professor with as much notice as I can and the work considerations are always understood.”

MEng students who might miss a live lecture are able to go back and watch the recording later so that they are still in the loop. Follow-up questions are always answered timely by the faculty teaching those courses, too.

John Robie and other MEng students also have the ability to interface with all of the lab equipment they may need to use for research remotely. All of the lab hardware is networked, so students can access the lab server through the VPN and get hands-on experience from almost anywhere. 

Robie also mentioned that the flexibility of this program is made possible by other students in the M.S. and Ph.D programs who are part of his research group. 

“There are some things that need to be done in-person, but luckily there are students at the research center full-time who are always willing to help swap out an attanae or something like that, if needed. It is nice to know that I can depend on my research partners and something wouldn’t be in need of repair or out of commission until I could drive up there.” 

The Virginia Tech Advantage

In addition to being one of the Top-20 graduate programs for Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Virginia Tech Research Center is part of the new and still-developing Innovation Campus.

Robie shared that the professors within the MEng program have made his decision to continue his education at Virginia Tech even more worthwhile.

“If you go down a technical rabbit hole about something very specific, I am always amazed because more often than not, there is someone at Virginia Tech who not only studies that particular niche topic, but they are often THE go-to person for that research.”

He also talked about the great learning experience he has had by taking courses from not just professors, but industry professionals in the field. 

“The collaboration between cutting-edge research and industry experience from the professors in this program has been really exciting to see.”

Robie has enjoyed learning from all of the MEng professors he’s had and is excited to one day pass on the knowledge he’s gained by mentoring another young engineer in the future.

Future Plans

Robie knew that to get the technical credibility he was looking for, continuing his education was the way to make that happen.

“Nobody makes you go back to school. It was really about wanting to continue my education for myself in a very advanced way.”

He started his Master’s of Engineering journey in Fall of 2020 and will be finishing up in Fall 2022. His intent is to continue on and start working toward his Ph.D in January 2023. While he is still undecided about wanting to teach in the future, John definitely sees himself in the entrepreneurial space. He is specifically interested in defense and cyber security.

“Particularly within electrical engineering and computer engineering, there are a lot of professors who are tenured track faculty and have been teaching but also start up a business of their own. They build a team of former students and create something that is useful to federal customers in the D.C. area–especially as it relates to hot topics like defense and machine learning.”

Final Thoughts 

Robie made it clear that being back in school, especially in the MEng program, was something he loved and would recommend to anyone looking to continue their education in a field that has a lot of future growth potential. Being able to work and still complete his degree in a timely manner made his decision easy.

“Within my experience, this is the best program available to me in the country and the flexibility is what has really made this doable for me.” 

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