School of Engineering

VCU Engineering Graduates in Great Demand

As a computer science student at Virginia Commonwealth University, Robert Szabo got the chance to help design a blackjack game for a student contest.  

Now three months after graduation and employed as a Java developer with  CapTech, a Richmond-based technology consulting company, Szabo can be assured that his goal to be a computer game designer and his decision to obtain his education at VCU’s Engineering’s Computer Science program was a safe bet.  

Finding employment before and immediately after graduation is fairly typical for VCU engineering graduates says Vennie Filippas, Ph.D.,associate dean of undergraduate studies. “Ninety six percent of VCU Engineering graduates are employed or in graduate studies six months after graduation.”

“It’s a great feeling to have a job right out of the gate,” Szabo says. “It’s definitely taken a big load off my mind.”

Szabo credits the preparation he received from the VCU Engineering curriculum, saying it offered him a lot of opportunities to work with different student projects. One project was a student innovative design contest sponsored by User Interface Symposium of Technology. The contest asked students to write an innovative program that would run on a prototype computer keyboard, in which the keys consisted of individual LCD screens, so the keyboard could change its entire function in a split second.  

“We turned our project into a game and had a lot of fun coming up with different things to do with it,” Szabo says. “Our whole angle was trying to use a keyboard as a casual or social gaming interface.”

“We made our own version of blackjack as a proof of concept. We turned the keys into chips and used the LCD screen as if to display individual hands of cards on a keyboard. It was pretty interesting the way it all turned out.”

Szabo credits his collaboration with classmates on the keyboard project in preparing him for VCU Engineering’s senior design project. “We needed to learn everything there is to know about a project in a very short amount of time. Our work on the contest started as we began the senior project – it was a crazy couple of weeks for us.”

For Szabo, “the senior design project was a major opportunity, in that I became familiar with CapTech and the kind of work they do.”

His team’s senior design project was to write a mobile app for Android and iPhone to interface with an existing expense report system. It mimics a web site where employees can create and submit an expense report. At the end of the project the team provided a solid design.

“From the outset, we decided that CapTech would be successful only if we hired the best talent,” says Slaughter Fitz-Hugh, president and chief operating officer at CapTech. “We need more graduates from universities with technical degrees in engineering and computer science.

“We’ve been very pleased with the talent coming from VCU School of Engineering.”

“I couldn’t have done it without my classmates Alex Krall, Wyatt Pults and Michael Pfaffenberger,” says Szabo.

He says CapTech walked them through the entire process as if they were consultants. “We wrote a proposal and went through several design steps. It was a great opportunity to apply everything we learned in the classroom and put it towards a good use.”

After the project, several students were asked to apply to CapTech.  “I liked the mentors on the project and the company,” Szabo says. “It seemed like a great place to work, so when I was invited to apply, I submitted a resume and received an offer a month later. 

“I started in August – started working with clients in September,” he says. “VCU definitely prepared me in every way. I’m able to apply my education to my work every day.” 

With a great education and a terrific start on his career, it’s apparent that Szabo is playing a winning hand.