High-Tech Texas Experience
By Cherissa Roebuck
July 12, 2024

Instructor of Electrical Engineering Kim Cornett teaches a class called Introduction to Integrated Circuits — which are the miniature circuits that make compact technology, like smartphones, possible. This past spring, thanks to JBU’s robust alumni network, six engineering students who took Cornett’s class got to experience integrated circuits in a way the classroom simply couldn’t facilitate.
Cornett connected with JBU alumni in the Dallas, Texas, area and planned a class trip that included a tour of Texas Instruments, a visit to a high-tech Walmart fulfillment center, and even a blustery sailing excursion on Grapevine Lake. One of the many companies manufacturing the type of circuits her Intro to Integrated Circuits class explores is TI, which has a circuit fabrication facility in the Dallas area. Audrey Dearien ’16, Javier Valle ’03, and Daniel Norwood ’21, three JBU engineering alumni who work for TI, helped coordinate a unique visit for JBU students. Norwood showed the students around his laboratory, and Dearien and Valle arranged a facility tour. Through one of their contacts, JBU students were even able to gain access to a TI clean room to see the circuits being made on a silicon wafer.
“Our alumni told me, ‘We don’t even get to do this as TI employees,’” Cornett said. “I worked at TI as a systems engineer working on integrated circuits, and I knew all the different job opportunities that a place like TI can offer. When working through an engineering degree, you don’t always understand the range of its applications. It was great for our students to see how many different career options were available even within this one company.”
Dearien used her position as business lead in TI’s High Voltage Power business unit to help facilitate the JBU student visit. “I think the most beneficial part of their experience at TI was to see what a real day-in-the-life as an engineer could look like and to connect what they are learning at JBU to real-life industry,” said Dearien, “Hopefully, it also gave them insight about where they want to see their future careers, and how fun it can be to solve real-life problems using their engineering skills at a company like TI.”
After visiting TI, the group toured Walmart’s high-tech automated fulfillment center, thanks to a connection from JBU alumni Sam Stewart ’09, a senior automation engineer for Walmart. “[The students] were able to see the full end-to-end operations, starting with our right-sized box maker by Packsize, our automated storage and retrieval system by Knapp, and how those two systems connect at a Knapp picking station prior to being taped up and sent out to our customers,” Stewart said. “It gave the students a great peek behind the curtains for what really happens when you buy something online.”
Stewart, who serves on JBU’s Engineering Advisory Board along with Dearien, said he hopes to establish a workforce pipeline between Walmart and JBU engineering.
To finish the Texas trip, the group sailed on Grapevine Lake with JBU alumna Cynthia Faires Griffith ’07. Cornett said she hopes the engineering trip to Dallas will inspire JBU alumni in other industries to pursue ways of engaging current JBU students with their unique industry connections.