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Of all the university tours that Robert John Soler (CCSE, M.A.S. CYF 5th Year) took when visiting Illinois from his home country, the Philippines, he says that Illinois Tech’s was the best.

“During the tour, I was captivated by the projects that the students made before graduating. Being an engineer by heart, I wanted to do something like that too,” says Robert. “[At Illinois Tech], you don’t graduate without actually building or inventing something cool.”

Now he has experienced this firsthand. He completed a project that incorporated machine learning, robotics, and cybersecurity that did so well that it got accepted in the annual national conference held by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and was published in an academic paper. 

“When I realized how successful this project had become, it made me appreciate the kind of education that Illinois Tech gives to its students,” says Robert. “Every project I made also came with a learning curve, and after every single one of them, I came out as a more skillful, knowledgeable person.” 

He has found many opportunities to continue his growth outside the classroom, including as a cloud engineer intern at ClearObject, Inc. and a cybersecurity operations intern at Sallie Mae, Inc., which he says, “played huge roles in my development as an engineer.” 

He says Illinois Tech’s Career Services has been a huge help, especially when he was looking for his first internship. 

“They trained me and helped me out, and now I have two internships on my resume. They really helped kickstart my post-graduation plans,” he says. 

Robert says he takes pride in being an Illinois Tech student. 

“I’m the first person in my family tree to not only get a degree in tech, but to also get it from outside our country, so it’s a huge deal for me,” he says.