Travis Black, an alumnus from the Department of Electrical Engineering, recently spoke with students about his time at UNT and his current role as a product engineer at Texas Instruments.

As a product engineer, Black is responsible for quality assurance. He and his team work to ensure the product they’re developing meets industry standards and works as expected.

"What I love most about TI is the open nature of it," he said. "Networking is important and the company is big on opening doors for you. They give you the option to interface with a lot of engineers in a lot of different roles."

Black completed both his bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering in 2017 and 2018, respectively, through Grad Track, a program designed to help students earn their undergraduate and graduate degrees in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

"UNT was my college of choice. It’s where my grandfather and my mother went. My mother also still works at the university," he said. "So, for me, I knew where I wanted to go and what I wanted to pursue and I knew that it was engineering."

While at UNT, Black took advantage of UNT’s resume building workshops, which helped him land two summer internships with Texas Instruments, ultimately, leading to his full-time position with the organization.

"Interning with TI was great, because they give projects to their interns that will benefit the team. It helped me figure out what I wanted to do and what I wanted to specialize in," he said. "They also have an open-door policy where you can meet with anyone at TI to learn a bit more about what they do, and for me, that gave me a good understanding of the work culture."