Electrical Engineering Grad Makes a Sound Choice with SRT Minor
01/01/2024
By Ed Brennen
Electrical engineering alum Jacob Villeneuve ’23 enjoyed working as an audiovisual specialist in high school, running the sound and lights for school plays, graduations and other events. So he was happy that he could minor in sound recording technology (SRT) at UMass Lowell.
“It complemented my electrical engineering degree nicely,” he says of the highly regarded SRT program, which is offered through the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and has produced numerous Grammy and other industry award-winners. “A lot of things that I learned in sound recording technology courses, like signal flow, are grounded in electrical engineering—you’re just working in a different frequency range. One is in the audible frequency range; the other is more like data.”
Villeneuve, who is also a cadet in the university’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), completed his bachelor’s degree in December and is set to begin serving as an electrical engineer with the U.S. Air Force this spring.
“The ROTC program was very rewarding, especially because it meant a guaranteed job after college,” says Villeneuve, who looks forward to getting a lot of “hands-on engineering skills” during his four-year commitment to the Air Force.
In addition to his SRT minor, Villeneuve began working on a Master of Science in Energy Engineering as an undergrad through the Bachelor’s-to-Master’s Program—a degree he may continue, depending on where he is stationed. He became interested in renewable energy after taking a graduate-level course on solar panels.
“I’m an outdoor nut, so helping the environment with my engineering know-how is the perfect marriage,” he says.
A first-generation college student from Clinton, Massachusetts, Villeneuve landed two cybersecurity internships with MITRE Corporation—the first in Bedford, Massachusetts and the second in McLean, Virginia. During his senior year, he was an electrical engineering technical intern at BAE Systems, making sure documentation was up to date for older aircraft systems.
“It was very schematic-driven, almost like I was looking at components in one of my (electrical engineering) lab courses, just on a much higher level,” he says.
If Villeneuve does not pursue a long-term career with the Air Force, he can see himself applying his electrical engineering and SRT skills in the audio industry, perhaps at Shure in Chicago or, closer to home, at Bose in Framingham, Massachusetts.
“I’m keeping an open mind,” he says.
As one of the first electrical engineering majors to pursue an SRT minor, Villeneuve is glad that he was able to fit everything into his busy schedule.
“I knew I was going to do Air Force ROTC and major in electrical engineering,” he says. “Once I knew I could minor in SRT, it all worked out.”