MEDIA, Pa. — Vincent DiCastelnuovo earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from Penn State in 2016, and the former student at the Brandywine campus has quickly discovered success in the field.
Penn State developed the engineering degree with the multidisciplinary engineering design option in response to the evolving needs of companies. The first two years of the program focus on foundational engineering coursework and are completed at Penn State Brandywine or Penn State Abington. The next two years of advanced engineering coursework are completed at the engineering facilities at Penn State Great Valley, where students study engineering design with an emphasis on robotics applications.
DiCastelnuovo is a member of the first class of Brandywine students to earn a bachelor's degree in engineering, as the campus recently added the program.
“The classes and faculty were extremely helpful in preparing for my career,” he said. “The instructors have many years of experience, so the way they teach their classes has an industry-like feel.”
The summer after his junior year, DiCastelnuovo was offered an internship at Philadelphia-based Pennoni Associates Inc. The internship led him to a good working relationship with a Pennoni executive, and two months before graduating from Penn State, DiCastelnuovo applied for — and received — a full-time job with the company.
Today, DiCastelnuovo is a municipal engineer for Pennoni’s office in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. He looks back to his time at Brandywine as a formative point in his engineering career.
“At Brandywine, I learned that the most valuable resource is the people around you,” he said. “I looked to my classmates when I got stuck. Now, as an engineer, I look to my co-workers. There were also times at PSU that I was well out of my comfort zone, which may seem like a bad thing. But it provided me with experience working under pressure, which translates well to the workplace.”
DiCastelnuovo also has found Brandywine’s multidisciplinary approach to engineering to be an asset for him in his daily work routine.
“In my current role with Pennoni, I am a generalist of sorts,” he said. “I work on multidisciplinary projects. Having the well-rounded toolbox I developed at PSU has been very helpful in the professional engineering field.”