This story is featured in the 2023 edition of the HPU Magazine.
With less than 24 students in every class, professors of HPU’s Webb School of Engineering know students by name.
Stuck on homework? Need hands-on help in a lab? Just want to bounce around ideas? Students have access. Intimate classes and close student-faculty relationships — those are the keys to students’ success in engineering, math and computer science at HPU.
Plus, at HPU they’re in a premier life skills environment. Why is that important? Because students develop problem solving and critical thinking skills that go beyond engineering. Here, they learn how to sell their ideas and evaluate different perspectives — essential skills for success in the sciences. Discover just a few HPU advantages that let students engineer their future.
Make Your Future
Engineers use math and science to solve people’s problems. The result? They make the world a better place, and HPU gives students the hands-on skills to lead a better future.
Students challenge themselves in the MakerSpace. It’s a free-flowing, low-stakes environment where students can sharpen their problem-solving skills. Best of all, it’s there when you want it — 24/7.
Engineering students get their feet wet with a 3D printer, vacuum former, PCB mill, computer-controlled router, laser cutter and state-of-the-art soldering gear. Students will get hands-on experience with these cutting-edge tools starting their freshman year. They’ll dream up and create new products for a design project or make innovative, eccentric machines on their own.
“Engineering is about tinkering. Every single one of my classes has a lab component. It’s about working in real stuff,” says Matthew Costantino, ’24, president of HPU’s Robotics Team. “We have an entire MakerSpace — all for students to make something.”
This electrical engineering student has compared notes with friends who are engineering majors at other schools. Based on what they tell him, HPU students have the edge. Costantino can do hands-on work himself — no red tape.
“If I have a cool idea at 2 a.m., I can go to the lab and get started. My friends can’t believe the access at HPU,” says the Naples, Florida, native.
Work With Apple’s Co-Founder
Imagine working with Thomas Edison to create a lightbulb. At HPU, students get the next best thing. Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, HPU’s Innovator in Residence since 2016 (pictured above) teaches students how to turn lightbulbs on with their minds and helps them build thought-controlled model cars.
On campus, he gets up close and personal with students. The purpose? To help them solve problems and troubleshoot. He leads microsessions with software engineering classes. He leads Q&A sessions with students interested in game design. He brainstorms with HPU Minds, a group that is using a headset to read brain waves and control devices. He also gives campus-wide presentations where students have plenty of opportunities to ask questions and connect. And yes, they get pictures taken with him and even ask him to sign their MacBooks.
“If it’s hard work,” says Wozniak, “it’s way more fun in the end.”
Sharpen Real-World Cyber Skills
If you get a degree from HPU in cybersecurity, the future belongs to you. Every company needs to protect itself from hackers. You will be in demand. There are only enough cybersecurity professionals to fill 66% of job openings, and the field will grow by 33% between now and 2030, according to a Forbes Advisor report.
Cybersecurity students study in the CELF — the Cybersecurity Engineering Learning Facility. Unlike at other schools, it has its own internet connection — no running afoul of HPU’s network. The only limit to what students can do in the CELF is one thing — their imagination.
HPU’s cybersecurity team earned top team honors in 2022’s two-day statewide TracerFIRE cyber competition sponsored by Scandia National Laboratories. Computer science graduate Nick Greiner, ’23, competed as a post-attack incident responder in TracerFIRE on a team with three other HPU students and got the highest score.
“I decompiled code to find flags and learned how to use a tool called Volatility that let me look at memory dumps. It was like a real-world experience,” says the Annapolis, Maryland, native.
Always Innovating
Students grow at HPU. Faculty push students to achieve beyond what they thought possible. That’s not all. The school itself is growing. Plans call for a new 80,000-square-foot building to open its doors in the fall of 2025. New majors in mechanical engineering and civil engineering are planned and will complement existing electrical and computer engineering degree programs.
If you like challenges, you will find them at HPU.
“I have a love for problem solving,” says Josslyn Payne, ’24.
Ask Payne what words best describe HPU, and the answer comes easily: extraordinary, creative and growth-mindset focused.
But what is a growth mindset?
“It’s going into new opportunities, not expecting to be perfect but looking for opportunities to learn and grow,” says the Tampa, Florida, native who is double majoring in mathematical economics and data analytics and statistics.
