From Baghdad to Lowell, His Engineering Dream is Aided by a Minor in Business Administration
01/01/2024
By Edwin L. Aguirre
As a young child in Baghdad, Iraq, Abdullah Jasim ’24 was passionate about cars.
“I would constantly pester my parents into buying me toy cars and racing video games,” he recalled.
That obsession led him to work on his parents’ car, at first doing simple things like oil changes and brake repairs. But when he got his first car, he devoted much of his time to upgrading the engine’s performance.
“I watched hundreds of videos online, learning as much as I could about the engineering behind cars,” he says. “All of these made me want to study mechanical engineering.”
So when it came time for college, Jasim, who was then living in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, set his sights on UML.
“UMass Lowell has always been my first choice, and it’s been a great decision,” he says. “The quality of education you get compared to the price is unmatched and sets the university apart.”
As he learned more about mechanical engineering, he saw how the field connects many industries and influences almost everything around us.
“Mechanical engineering has connections to robotics, aerospace, materials science, renewable energy and much more,” says Jasim, who is now a senior. “Engineering has always been crucial to society. Every advancement in society has some engineering behind it.”
The road to UMass Lowell was not easy for Jasim. When war broke out in Iraq, he and his family were forced to move to Turkey. After two years, they were relocated to the U.S., specifically Lowell, under a refugee lottery program.
“Eventually, my dad worked hard to get us our own home in Tyngsboro,” Jasim says. “I attended middle school and high school there, and it was very interesting to me how I would speak English at school and speak only Arabic at home. I felt alone, since there weren’t any other Arab speakers at my high school except for me and my sister.”
Still, Jasim persevered. He excelled in academics and extracurricular activities. At UMass Lowell, he signed up with the university’s River Hawk Formula SAE Racing Team and was elected president of the Middle Eastern Student Union. He also led a student team called Project Poseidon that won the Fan Favorite award in last year’s DifferenceMaker engineering prototyping competition for a pitch for an app-controlled rover that can help reduce plastic pollution from the ocean and beaches.
After his sophomore year, he landed a summer internship at Omni Components Corp., a Hudson, New Hampshire-based company that specializes in precision machining of dental and medical parts. As a mechanical process engineering intern, he was immersed in the workings of a CNC manufacturing plant, gaining firsthand experience in its operations.
After finishing his junior year, Jasim got a second summer internship at Watts Water Technologies in North Andover, Massachusetts. As a design engineering intern, he conducted comprehensive market research, performed laboratory testing on pressure-reducing valves and honed his proficiency in updating blueprints using Autodesk.
“In addition to Autodesk, these experiences exposed me to using industry-standard tools like SOLIDWORKS, Minitab, PSCAD and MATLAB, as well as creating reports,” he says. “They not only enhanced my theoretical knowledge, but also provided me with practical hands-on skills in engineering design, data analysis and process optimization.”
The Business Side of Engineering
Jasim’s internships at Omni and Watts reinforced his fascination with the business side of engineering, which is why he is also minoring in business administration.
“I want to broaden my knowledge and skills and maximize my learning experience at UMass Lowell beyond my major,” he says. “I’m really happy that I decided to go with the business administration minor. It has truly opened a lot of doors for me, and I’ve made meaningful connections along the way.”
He says his minor will be very helpful as he launches his career.
“I’ve developed my entrepreneurial, communication, management and leadership skills from this minor,” he says. “Ultimately, combining a mechanical engineering major with a business minor has positioned me as a versatile professional with a diverse skills set, making me a more competitive candidate in the job market.”
Jasim is also pursuing a Master of Science in Engineering Management through UML’s accelerated Bachelor’s-to-Master’s program.
“Completing my master’s degree at UMass Lowell was an easy choice because of its 4-plus-1 program and how smooth the transition is,” he says.