Micah Bayless

Major: Aerospace Engineering
Class of 2006
Career Goal: Entrepeneur

Why did you choose UCSD?
Being the first-generation college student in my family, I had to find my own direction. I enrolled in junior college, and then took the time to research all of the major schools. I found UCSD’s aerospace engineering program was so strong, and the faculty and their research interested me.

When I visited the campus, I saw the culture of being a Jacobs School of Engineering student was just budding. It was exciting for me to be a part of something new--UCSD is very young--but at the same time, the engineering program is quite well established. When I walked around the UCSD campus, I got a different feeling from the people than I did at some of the other big schools—at UCSD, it was more like being give the right of way, rather than a rough shoulder.

Tell us about the education?
The faculty are so bright, and yet they have the interpersonal skills to teach you the content in a way that you can understand. I'm able to learn the content, instead of cram the content. Our professors are teaching us to be applied engineers. We must understand the material so we can use it now. At the same time, we're getting the theoretical background so that we can come back and pursue those high levels of education at the masters and Ph.D. levels. I think it's so beneficial what the faculty is really doing for us.

What makes UCSD so special?
This is an opportunist school. If you want to excel at something that you love, you can do it here. All you have to do is take that step forward. It became my mission to revive the Society of Automotive Engineers club. Within my first year at UCSD, we gathered student interest, built a race car, raised over $30,000, traveled, and competed against 140 schools internationally. It was just a phenomenal experience. Now my teammates are discussing the opportunity to develop a business out of making the racecar we built two years ago. I see the bonds and the friendships here taking me into my future years in business. I truly enjoy that. There is no other place with as many possibilities as UCSD.

More about Micah
Micah Bayless transferred to UCSD from Santa Rosa Community College. His passion at UCSD has been participating in the engineering student organizations, particularly the Society of Automotive Engineers club where he served as president and captain of the SAE Formula racecar team.

Micah was the 2005-2006 president of the Triton Engineering Student Council, and was able to launch a number of exciting initiatives, including a blow-out National Engineers Week February 20-24 focused on everything students need to know as they enter the job market.