about me
general information
Hello everyone. My name is Mason Nixon and I am currently working in the space industry in Huntsville, AL. I recently graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a master's degree in Electrical Engineering. My primary focus is control systems with emphasis in robotics. My secondary area of interest is in electromagnetics particularly related to satellite communications and radar. My minor field of study is Computer Science. I graduated from Georgia Tech in May 2013.
I received my undergraduate of Auburn University with a bachelor's in Electrical and a second bachelor's in Wireless Engineering. I graduated on May 9th, 2011 summa cum laude ranked first (out of 48) in my class in Electrical Engineering and Wireless Engineering by cumulative GPA. I graduated high school at 17 with a 4.0 GPA. I grew up in a city called Wetumpka, about 20 miles outside of Montgomery in Alabama.
The following is a list of pivotal points in my life regarding education. I list these points in my life starting with the oldest and working to the most recent. I left my work experience out of this chronicle since it is thoroughly addressed in my resume.
aum engineering club
I am the former President and co-founder of the AUM Engineering Club. The Engineering Club's main purpose was the advancement of campus-wide use of alternative fuels such as bio-diesel and ethanol. We also pursued an active recycling program on campus and other various projects which are layed out in more detail on their website. The website was spawned from my own interest in late 2007. The club itself was created as a result of taking an Introduction to Engineering Course as taught by doctor's Enoch Lee and Luis Cueva-Parra at Auburn Montgomery. My classmate, Paul Temple, and I decided after a visit to Auburn main campus that AUM was lacking on a recycling program. We decided that an organization could be formed to begin improvement projects for AUM.
Realizing the potential of such an organization, I personally began researching the use of the alternative fuel, ethanol. I realized that the resources that were available to us as an organization (even though at the time our numbers were close to about 15 to 20 members) would be just what we needed to begin such a campaign. Paul aided me in presenting this proposal to the Student Activitues Fee Committee which took it quite well and offerred their support for about $1500. From there, Dr. Lee introduced us to Dr. Yaw-Chin Ho who is in charge of funding for technology based research at AUM. Paul had come up with a proposal for buying a bio-diesel conversion kit and I had my ethanol project. Dr. Ho explained that our Alternative Fuels project, as it was dubbed, was something very unique. He said in all the time that he had been at AUM, he had never encountered students with such motivation as we had shown for our projects. This, coming from a man who had retired from AUM and had chosen to remain working there was quite inspiring to me and only motivated me more. At this point, we were scheduled to meet with the Dean of the School of Sciences at AUM, Dr. Bayo Lawal. Dr. Lawal began by scolding us jokingly, asking why we had not come to him first. He was very impressed with the entire plan we had and the "going green" mentality. Dr. Lawal very generously decided to further fund us for $1000. Dr. Ho introduced us to the Vice Chancellor of Academic and Student Affairs, Dr. Janet Warren. Dr. Warren was also very pleased with mine and Paul's research and ideals. She decided to fully fund our projects (an amount in excess of $8000).
After obtaining this huge resource, unfortunately Paul had to move on to Auburn main campus, as AUM did not have an Engineering program, only a Pre-Engineering one designed for a transfer to Auburn. With my days numbered, I tried very hard to align all club affairs so as to make things easier for my posterity. The bio-diesel kit Paul had ordered came in mere weeks before I was to move, but we still made the necesssary motions in order to get it into operation. After that Summer 2008 semester, I too had to resign my position, but I left the club in the hands of one of our other memebers, Markus Kreitzer.
AUM Annual Engineering Team Project Competition
While in Dr. Lee and Dr. Cueva-Parra's class we were instructed to build an antenna for use with a router in order to increase the speed and distance of an access point. More information can be found on Dr. Lee's page or also, here.
smart scholarship for service
Section in progress
auburn student projects and research committee
Section in progress