Jonathan D. Rizzo '21

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Electrical Engineering Major 
Class of 2021

Current Employment and Academic History

In the Summer of 2016, I was hired as an Advanced Reliability Engineering Technician Level 3 at Fairchild Semiconductor (now ON Semiconductor). I work in the Advanced Reliability Lab performing lifetime testing on power MOSFET/IGBT modules and discrete power MOSFETs/IGBTs, which includes power cycling and high temperature reverse bias testing based on automotive reliability standards. One of the best aspects of my job is that I can design and improve test fixtures I use to perform testing. One example of this is that I was asked to design and prototype a 12-channel thermocouple amplifier. After I was satisfied with the 5-channel prototype circuit, I drew up a PCB and assembled, tested, and verified operation, and devised a calibration procedure. These thermocouple amplifier boards are used to monitor the case temperature of up to 12 devices under test in our diode power cycle test fixture.

After high school, I attended Lincoln Technical Institute in Allentown, PA for Electronic Engineering Technology from 2002-2003. Afterwards, I worked as an electronic equipment technician. I attended Luzerne County Community College from 2011-2015 for Electronics Engineering Technology while working full-time as an electronic equipment technician and transferred into the electrical engineering program at the University of Scranton. This fulfills a childhood dream of being an electrical engineer!

Why Scranton?

 I knew that the University of Scranton is the most rigorous and academically challenging out of all of the colleges in Northeast Pennsylvania. I wanted to be challenged and pushed to my limits. I also wanted to grow in my Catholic faith, and the University of Scranton has allowed me to do both. With my prior electronics education along with the curriculum at the University, I'll have a well rounded education that can allow me to model a transfer function of a semiconductor device and verify it in the lab on a curve tracer. Electronics is my love and passion, and the University of Scranton has allowed it to develop even more!

Electrical Engineering at The University of Scranton

With a solid foundation of mathematics and physics, the electrical engineering curriculum at the University of Scranton instills the basic fundamentals and explores more advance topics that allow students to grow. In my case, I was able to work full-time and attend classes part-time, all while building on my prior education and knowledge. Classes are small and the instructors are extremely helpful and encouraging. I owe so much to the instructors that challenged me and allowed me to grow into who I am today. Ever since I was four years old, I was taking things apart to figure out how they worked. My passionate curiosity is just as strong today as it was then. Because of this, there was no better choice than the University of Scranton.

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