BlackboardRyan Kopinsky
Ryan Kopinsky is a senior electrical engineering international student from Surinam, South America, where the native language is Dutch.
When Kopinsky was four years old his Dad let him play with AutoCAD on his laptop. "From that point on," said Kopinsky, "my Dad knew I was going to have an interest in computers and engineering." In high school Kopinsky became interested in physics and mathematics. When he asked his Dad what major has a lot of math, physics and would enable him to contribute to discovering future energy sources, his Dad instantly answered electrical engineering. "Not unexpected," admits Kopinsky, "since he is an electrical engineer himself. When the opportunity came to me I decided to enroll here in the ECE program."
In his junior year of high school, Mrs. Bronson, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Scholarship Coordinator at that time, came to Surinam to recruit students with scholarships from Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America). Kopinksy successfully took the SAT and other required tests and was awarded a full scholarship to attend FAMU. "I had always wanted to study abroad," he said, "and broaden my horizons, so this was the perfect opportunity to do so."
Kopinksy's favorite subject in electrical engineering is studying energy sources necessary to improving electric vehicles. "I am really passionate about electric vehicles," he said. "Right now I am conducting research with the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems group doing research with Jim Zheng on energy storage devices. I've been doing this kind of research for a year and it's really interesting and I hope to continue this work in graduate school."
Kopinsky's greatest experience so far came in a research opportunity with another engineering department. "One summer," said Kopinsky, "I worked with Dr. Emmanuel Collins, mechanical engineering chair and director of the Center for Intelligent Systems, Control, and Robotics (CISCOR). I was working on the interface to be used with terrain classification systems for robots. It was not in my major exactly, but it gave me an opportunity to improve my C programming skills and also to learn more about a whole new research field in robotics and autonomous vehicles. That was really fun and I really enjoyed it."
"My greatest challenge, however," said Kopinsky, "has been the final project for my digital logic programming class. My partner and I were working right up to the last second of the deadline and couldn't finish. We were heart-broken. None-the-less, we went home, got some sleep and then worked all weekend to finish and were able to turn it in Monday. That was hard."
When asked about studying abroad, Kopinsky laughed and said he was studying abroad! He quickly said he would like to also study in China for a year or two to learn the language and experience the culture. And Brazil, as promoters of renewable energy, attracts his interest too; and for a chance to learn more about Brazil's pioneering work in bio-fuels as an alternative energy source.
When he is not studying? "I study a lot," Kopinsky says with a grin. "But when I am not studying, I am most likely sleeping or playing video games, hanging out with friends, watching movies or listening to music. I love music."
"In five years I hope to have my Ph.D. in hand and to be doing research in the field of energy storage devices," Kopinsky says. "I envision that the electric vehicle is the future of automotive industry. I hope that within five years I'll be able to research new and innovative energy storage devices."
"Right now," he says, "EV batteries are not providing the range and the battery life that's desired. So if you change the materials used to make batteries and improve on the charging technology, it should make the electric vehicle feasible."
What would he tell prospective engineering students? "If you like math and physics, do engineering," he says. "It will pay off. But you will need a lot of dedication and motivation."
