Over the summer, Raider Athletics caught up with MSOE Men's Soccer alumni to look back upon their time in the Red and White, reflect on how they got to where they are, and share some wise words to current and future students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

What is your name, class year and what degree did you graduate with? What are you up to nowadays? 

Spencer Cook, 2008, B.S. Architectural Engineering: I currently live with my wife Vickie '08, BIOE and our two boys in Muskego, WI. I left my position as director of mechanical engineering at a local engineering firm earlier this year and will be on to my next career step in the coming months.

Matt Keating, 2012, Architectural Engineering: Currently living in San Francisco and working for a consulting engineering firm as the department lead for the Commissioning Team and co-commissioning market leader for the West Region.

Riley Bruce, 2019, Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering: Nowadays I live in Rancho Cordova, CA with my girlfriend and two cats. I work at Intel as an SoC Design Methodology Engineer. In my free time I am learning to make house music, DJing sometimes in Sacramento, and playing soccer on weekends!

Compare/contrast or describe how MSOE prepared you for your career/life both in the classroom and on the soccer field during your time on campus?

SC: In the classroom, nothing is easy at MSOE—the classes are demanding and the workload can be difficult at times. The schoolwork prepares you not only with the knowledge needed to kickstart your career, but it also prepares you for the work it takes to be successful when you enter the real world. The real world is not only about knowledge—it is about understanding the effort it takes to be successful, and MSOE does a great job preparing students for that. Soccer prepared me for the real world because the team matters more than you do as an individual. Whether it be the matches, the practices, the off-season gym sessions, and the pickup games, you had to be there for your team and work for that team. Those teammates become like family, where you lean on each other to get through both school and soccer together. There are highs and lows in sports just like in life, and soccer taught many of those lessons within the team. Twenty years later, my best friends to this day are still guys that I played with at MSOE. They become family due to the amount of time you spend together both on and off the pitch. Put the classroom and soccer together, and it taught me how to best utilize my time. Going to a school with great academic demands while playing soccer requires a lot of time management, which is hugely important in everyday life. 

MK: The thought I keep coming back to is how well MSOE prepared me to work in group settings and be the best team player I could be. You might think you have the best idea, or you try to control a situation in a certain way, but at the end of the day, you need to rely on people you are working with to do their jobs and complete their assignments. Listening to your teammates, whether it was on the soccer field or in a group project, and implementing the ideas that are best for the team is something really important I learned at MSOE (and something that I still do to this day).

RB: MSOE was really challenging and encouraged self-directed learning while reaching out for help when needed. The classroom prepared me for how to be an engineer and learn really complex or difficult subjects, which translated well to the semiconductor engineering world I have been a part of for the last 7 years. The soccer field helped me learn to push myself, work as a team, understand how different people are, and have fun while doing hard things. Both the classroom and the field helped me feel like a well-rounded engineer and person.
 

What made you choose MSOE? What about the Raiders drew you in compared to other schools and programs?

SC: I had decided that architectural engineering was a field that interested me. I liked buildings and I was strong in math, and it seemed like a good fit. Ultimately, the small campus within a bigger city is what drew me to MSOE. I enjoyed the small class size with a lot of hands-on learning that was described in my campus visits. The other schools and programs I looked at were in smaller college towns, and growing up in South Dakota, living in a bigger city like Milwaukee interested me. I also knew that MSOE had a Division III soccer team, where my other main college consideration was a Division II program. I loved playing soccer, and I knew that coming to MSOE would give me a better chance of continuing to play if I could make the team.

MK: Playing on the soccer team and academic scholarships were a couple main reasons, but I was also excited to experience Milwaukee. I grew up in a relatively quiet suburb in Illinois, so I do not remember being too interested in other schools where the entire town was the campus. The chance to live on my own in downtown Milwaukee sounded like a blast! From an academic standpoint, not having a lot of "gen ed" courses and starting with engineering classes right away was something I appreciated. I wanted to jump right into engineering-specific topics and learn technical ideas starting on Day 1, and MSOE was one of the only schools that offered that opportunity in their curriculum.

RB: I chose MSOE because it was very job focused and I wanted to go to college with the goal of getting a good job. I really liked the idea of being able to spend time with the professors teaching my classes rather than teaching assistants. I took advantage of this a lot during my time at school, and it really helped me when I look back.

What do you look back on as your favorite memory from your time in Milwaukee? What do you miss the most?

SC: My favorite memories of Milwaukee were spending time with my teammates both on and off the soccer field. Whether it was in the Kern Center, in the vans on the way to away games, or participating in extracurricular activities, I miss just spending time with the guys before there were real-world responsibilities. My teammates and best friends from those days now live all over the country with their families and it makes it much more difficult for all of us to get together. What I would give to go back and play one more game or enjoy one more cold beverage on a warm Milwaukee summer night with those teammates and friends.

MK: There is not a specific memory I can point to, but rather the people that made my experience at MSOE so memorable. The people I played soccer with when I was 18 years old helped shape me into the person I am today, and I am lucky enough to still be friends with a bunch of them. Especially being out in California when most are still around the Midwest, they are what I miss the most.

RB: Many of my favorite memories were just goofing around with the soccer guys or getting through some of the really hard labs. One memory that stands out is when the soccer team visited California to play a few games. I had no idea that someday I would move there, so when I visit those same places nowadays, I think back to that time. I miss the camaraderie of being around the soccer guys. You never understand how hard it is to make good friends as an adult until you are one!
 

What is one piece of advice you would give a current MSOE student in the same position you were in once?

SC: Enjoy it. It may seem tough, it may seem like it is not worth it, and you may be counting down the days until it is over, and you can start making money. Enjoy the time—it will be over before you know it, and you will always look back on how good you had it. Minimal bills, minimal responsibilities, no families, no distance. Just be present and enjoy it. Go to Summerfest. Get your mind off the schoolwork for a while and enjoy that time you have while you are there.

MK: I could sit here all day and list a bunch of advice I have received over the years...but for now, I will leave it to these few for the current MSOE students:

• Be curious and stay curious (all the best engineers I work with ALWAYS want to learn) 
• Leverage technology but do not rely on it
• Take the FE seriously and pass the exam while you are still in school.
• Take the PE as soon as you can (the motivation to study is really difficult after working a full day/week)
• Pay attention in the non-technical classes (knowing how to speak publicly or give a good presentation is a skill you will need throughout your professional career)

RB: Hang in there, reach out for support when you need to, take breaks, stay active, be good to people! You do not have to figure it all out today but try your best and leave it all out there. More than one, but I think each of those are important!
 

On the academic side, what was one class/professor/project that stands out the most looking back on it?

SC: Whenever someone asks me this question, the first one that sticks out to me was taking Professor Ward Komorowski's HVAC Controls class at night. I took the class in the fall of my senior year, during my final season of soccer. I was the captain of the soccer team, and this class was a requirement and only offered at nights in the fall. The class itself was the "ah-ha" moment for me, as controls really took every piece we had been learning in our various classes and tied them together to understand how building systems WORK. We learned a ton in that class, the professor made it fun, and the exams were extremely long and challenging. But we all learned, so it did not ever seem like a burden. The part that sticks with me to this day is that as important as the material and class were for my education, there were times when we had night games where I would have to miss a class. These were long classes twice a week where we learned a lot. We had exams on some nights that I had away games. I could have easily fallen behind and not learned what I needed to learn in that class. I did not want to miss a game either—it was my senior year, and I was a captain and leader of the team. Professor Komorowski could have treated me like any other student that was missing classes and made me attend--I could have had to miss games to make sure I could make the exams. After all, it was only Division III athletics, right? What is one game? He explained to me that his kids played soccer too, he understood how important it was to me, and we would make it work. He allowed me to take exams in an adjacent classroom while class was going on. He allowed me to come down to his work at Johnson Controls' downtown office earlier in the day and take an exam in the Security Office since I would be missing the exam that night. Not only did I learn a ton, but I was treated like a human that really wanted to succeed academically while also enjoying the end of my soccer career. I will forever be indebted for how I was treated, how much I learned, and how much I took away from that class.

MK: The one person that stands out the most is Blake Wentz (who became director of the CAECM Department while I was at MSOE). He was a wonderful person and mentor, he always made time for the students when we had questions, and he had a really great sense of humor. He made being a leader look easy! Even though it feels like a cliche answer, senior design was the most impactful class/project. It showed me how important the things I was learning (technical and non-technical) actually were and how I can apply this knowledge to a practical, real-world project.

RB: I find myself thinking back to "what would Dr. Meier do to get this debug going?" when I encounter problems where I just get stuck. He always did a great job of expressing that as an engineer, you are there to solve problems big and small — the subject will vary but the methods and mindset may not. There are so many good professors whose advice has helped me along at various points in my career. Just to mention a few — Dr. Bonniwell, Dr. Durant, Dr. Rothe, and many more!

When you come back to campus (if you have been back) what feels the same? What feels different?

SC: It still feels like the small college that I attended, but the new buildings, Viets Field, and the new construction are a nod to where it is going. Even as buildings go up and improvements are made, it still feels like the same school I attended 20 years ago, which is great. In terms of the soccer program, it is night and day from where it was when I started, and that's credit to Jimmy Banks and Rob Harrington. I think that is similar with most of the athletics teams. The Kern Center completed construction during my freshman year. To see the level of the programs, the facilities, and MSOE's commitment to the athletics programs is something that feels different in such a good way. The recruiting now is way different than it was when I attended. I just showed up for tryouts hoping to make the team. I remember girls knocking on doors in the dorms trying to find enough players to fill rosters on some of the teams. These coaches are now recruiting nationally for incredible athletic programs that are boosted by incredible academics. I do not think I would have done as well on the academic side as I did if I did not have the practices, games, offseason workouts, and Kern Center pickup games to get my mind off school for a while.

MK: Truth be told, I am not sure anything feels the same (except maybe the Kern Center). But I think that is a good thing—MSOE is continuing to grow, improve the student campus experience, and be at the forefront of introducing new and emerging technologies to the future engineers of the world. If things felt the same, I would think that MSOE is being left behind and not properly preparing their students for the world that lies ahead. But I am constantly impressed by what I see from the school, and I cannot wait to walk the campus again and see what else has changed!

RB: Same: The soccer field, the parking lots, the Grohmann Museum, the Kern Center, the weather.
Different: Dorms, new buildings, the AI building, so much cool new stuff!!
I have come back a few times as two of my three siblings also got computer engineering degrees. I graduated right before AI and computer science exploded, and now I work on making AI chips!

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