May 2020 graduate Braylee Brown earned the distinction of becoming the first to earn a dual degree in electrical and computer engineering at FSU PC.
A native of Panama City, Brown attended Bay Haven Charter Academy, graduated from Bay High School and was accepted to Florida State University in Tallahassee fall 2015. Initially, her goal was to major in Exercise Science but she soon realized that wasn’t the direction she wanted to take and made the decision to transfer to FSU Panama City later that year.
“When I decided to transfer to the FSU PC I was looking at the degrees offered and electrical engineering just kind of stood out so I decided to try it,” Brown said.
Brown made the leap into a challenging major and added computer engineering in order to fill out her schedule. The extra degree requirements meant taking just a few extra classes to complete and were a perfect complement to electrical engineering.
“A lot of companies like the double major because it shows them that I know both hardware and software, which is something that is occasionally lacking by just having one degree or the other,” Brown said.
Brown then applied and was accepted to the Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program (NREIP) at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC PCD). Here she worked on three separate projects over the course of three years and gained valuable real-world experience.
“I absolutely loved all three of my NREIP internships at NSWC-PCD,” Brown said. “I highly encourage anyone in engineering to apply for the internship, because it really is an amazing opportunity. I made professional connections during those years that will hopefully last a long time and even met one of my best friends during the program.”
While Brown is extremely proud to be the first to earn a dual degree in electrical and computer engineering, she feels that being a female and the first student at FSU PC to do this is a “little bonus"—especially since engineering can often be perceived as a male-dominated field. She attributes much of her success to great teachers in high school who made math and science interesting and easy along with great engineering mentors and professors.
“In engineering, we had some amazing professors who were always giving us advice on school and professional life,” Brown said. “Dr. Hadi and Dr. Barnes were always available and willing to help any of us with problems even if they weren’t related to school. Dr. Clark also had a big impact on me while going through FSU PC. He was always there if I needed guidance or just to vent about frustrations. Just knowing that there were people willing to listen and who cared about my success outside of the classroom as well as inside made a difference.”
Brown recently began working as an Electronic Warfare Engineer at Rally Point Management in Ft. Walton Beach and is currently working on a Master of Science in Engineering at the University of West Florida.