UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 34, Page 8
June 8, 1995
Returning adult student wins engineering honors

     Marie Conte, a returning adult student from Wilmington, was
called "a born engineer" by one of her UD professors.
     This statement must be true, as the 1975 Mt. Pleasant High School
graduate received a degree with distinction in electrical engineering,
graduated in the top five of her discipline, and plans to continue her
education in graduate school at the University of Illinois at
Urbana/Champaign, where she has been offered a teaching assistantship.
     It took Conte a while to decide on a career. When she graduated
from high school, she said that she did not know what she wanted to be
"when she grew up," and engineering in those days was not an option
for women. She tried her hand at several jobs and eventually ended up
supervising a chain of beauty salons in the New England area.
     Then she returned to Delaware, with the goal of going to college
and majoring in computer science.
     Like many returning adult students, she began taking courses
through the Division of Continuing Education while working at the same
time.
     As her education broadened, she discovered she did not want to
operate computers but to build them, she said.
     When she entered the College of Engineering in 1991, she knew she
was on the right course. As an undergraduate, she was involved in the
Engineering Scholars Program and Senior Thesis Program.
     She carried out research under the guidance of David Mills,
professor of electrical engineering, and her thesis is entitled
"Indoor Wireless Networks and Exploration of Some of the Engineering
Issues Involved."
     "Electrical engineering is challenging and fun," Conte says, "and
I enjoy it."
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure