Profile-Teo Patrosio, '23

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, COMPUTER SCIENCE, AND MATH WITH A MINOR IN ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT FROM NEW MILFORD, NJ

The first thing I noticed about Teo during our Zoom interview was their massive collection of plants. “I love doing work under a tree,” they laughed in explanation. The second thing I noticed was their passion and drive for everything they set their mind to. Whether it was setting up special shelving and purple lights to support their many plants (including the four avocado trees behind their desk), taking on a wide variety of internships to get a broad depth of experience, or triple majoring because they were only “three classes away anyway,” Teo is a shining example of the passion and drive that Tufts students bring to life on the Hill.

Teo first found out about Tufts through a visit to the Boston area during their sophomore year of high school. “Tufts ended up on my list because I knew it had engineering and also because it is a QuestBridge school and provides full financial aid. And then I went to the fly-in for prospective engineers. And then I applied Early Decision because of course!” Tufts’ fly-in program, called the Voices of Tufts Diversity Experience, is not just for students interested in engineering—it’s an incredible experience for all attendees. “It was the first time I was around such a diverse group of high school students. I think my high school was very diverse, but in a way that we all had similar experiences. It was really cool to see people of different backgrounds just checking out Tufts, it was really cool.”

They also found a passion for engineering in high school. “I went to an engineering high school, so we had basic mechanical and a couple of electrical engineering (EE) classes. I gravitated towards the electrical ones because they were challenging but also super engaging. I idealized the computer science (CS) track too, so when I came to Tufts I went super hard, super early on CS and then followed the regular EE track. Then I realized I was only one class away from a minor and three classes away from a [math] major!” As for finding a way to combine their interests in multiple fields, Teo has had no problem with that. “I love the combination of hardware and software. Taking math and using it in a way that you can prove this hardware/software configuration is mathematically sound is really, really cool for me.” One particular way of combining these interests is through cybersecurity. Teo’s experiences at various internships, jobs, and lab research throughout their undergraduate career has given them experience with topics as varied and complex as hardware security and embedded side channel analysis focused on reading EM waves off of chips to break encryption algorithms, to supporting other students in the Nolop makerspace on campus. All Tufts students can make use of Nolop, located in the Science and Engineering Complex, and staff like Teo love the work because of how welcoming and encouraging the space is. “I absolutely love it because it’s such a great community. I think right now I’m the only Asian and queer person on staff, and it’s great because I really feel like I get to represent people and support them with [their projects].” As for research, they are most involved with Professor Marco Donato’s Tufts Emerging Circuits and Systems (TECS) Lab and are in the planning stages for their senior thesis this fall. “It’s probably going to be about security. My directed study (independent research) was on comparing matrix compression algorithms and seeing how hardware accelerator versus software implementations were different.”

As we finished our interview, I asked Teo what their main advice for applicants to Tufts was. It came in three parts: “Know what you can handle. But always challenge yourself. Know yourself and challenge yourself appropriately!” We can’t think of a more Tuftsy way of putting it.