My name is Conrad Gargani, and I am a freshman Electrical Engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. I’ve lived in the greater Pittsburgh area for 7 years now, and it’s been my favorite place in the world so far. I come from a family of engineers, both my parents and all three of my siblings are different types of engineers. This led to my childhood being heavily influenced towards a stem background, this influenced my identity and career path greatly.

Outside of engineering I have several other hobbies. One of the hobbies I partake in is painting miniatures for wargames such as Warhammer 40k or The Horus Heresy. This hobby has been a great outlet for my more creative passions, and its helps fulfill my need for attention to detail. My other big hobby is competitive TCGs, the main two I play are Magic the Gathering and Flesh and Blood. I’ve been playing these games since I was three years old and have now had moderate tournament success leading to a few grand of winnings over the past few years.

The only “real” job I’ve had was working as an intern game developer for a local games company. I worked on a small team to help produce games that were beneficial to young children with severe types of autism. the games focused on teaching them core skills such as navigation and pattern recognition. I was responsible for developing the original music and sound effects as well as helping code the games themselves.

I will be going to South Korea with the Plus3 program this summer. I chose this location because the Smart Systems program was very interesting to me as someone going into Electrical Engineering. I hope to learn from the company visits some of the ways new technologies are being developed and implemented in one of the most cutting-edge areas for smart tech. I am also excited to make connections with Pitt alumni in the country and learn from their experiences to help further shape my education goals. I am looking forward to getting to see the historic sites such as the royal palace and holy sites, since I love seeing different types of architecture and learning about a nation’s history.