GoKawiilKyle McGinley graduated from high school in 2018 and, like many teenagers, he was unsure what career he wanted to pursue. Recuperating from a sports injury led him to consider becoming a physical therapist for athletes. But he was skilled at repairing cars and fixing things around the house, so he thought about becoming an engineer, like his father.
McGinley, who lives in Sellersville, Pa., took some classes at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, while also working. During his years at the college, he took a variety of courses and was drawn to electrical engineering and computing, he says. He left to pursue a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering in Philadelphia at Temple University, where he is currently a junior.
Kyle McGinley MEMBER GRADE Student member UNIVERSITY Temple, in Philadelphia MAJOR Electrical and computer engineering
The 26-year-old is also a teaching assistant and a research assistant at Temple. His research focuses on applying artificial intelligence to electrical hardware and robotics. He helped build an AI-integrated android companion to assist in-home caregivers.
Temple recognized McGinley’s efforts last year with its Butz scholarship, which is awarded annually to an electrical and computer engineering undergraduate with an interest in software development, AI development systems, health education software, or a similar field.
An IEEE student member, he is active within the university’s student branch.
“My career ambition after I graduate is to gain real-world experience in the engineering industry to learn skills outside of academia,” he says. “Long term, I want to do project management or work in a technical lead role, with the primary goal of creating impactful projects that I can be proud of.”
Building a robot aide
McGinley is a teaching assistant for his digital circuit design course. In a class of 35 students, it can be a struggle for some to digest the professor’s words, he says.
“My job is to answer students’ questions if they are having problems following the professor’s lecture or are confused about any of the topics,” he says. “In the lab, I help students debug code or with hardware issues they have on the FPGA [field-programmable gate array] boards.”
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