As an electronics engineer for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Bobby Acacio ’20 is living out his professional dreams.
“It’s a really cool job and a lot of people get master’s degrees or Ph.D.s first, but I was very fortunate to get this with just a bachelor’s degree,” said Acacio, who received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida Polytechnic University in 2020. “Engineering degrees give you a good foundation so you can springboard to whatever industry might suit you.”
While he started the position remotely, Acacio recently moved to Washington, D.C. to work in person.
“I work with telecommunications systems, meaning things that involve radio frequencies to work properly,” Acacio said. “I conduct and analyze engineering studies and perform propagation analysis on antennas, satellites, and airborne systems to validate the different co-channel interferences.”
As part of his undergraduate experience, Acacio was a Presidential Ambassador, orientation leader, president of the University’s chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the chapter’s Radio Frequency (RF) Committee.
“While I was at Florida Poly, I did a whole bunch of things, and that kind of experience led me to get hired at the FCC,” he said. “I had some experience with electromagnetics, but a lot of the application I was able to get through my participation with IEEE.”
Earlier this year, Acacio was able to draw on another experience he had while a student at Florida Poly. In 2018, he received the prestigious Killam Fellowship through the University’s partnership with Fulbright Canada. Through the fellowship, he spent a semester studying at the University of Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia.
Acacio recently participated in a Fulbright panel to discuss his experience and answer questions from prospective Fulbright students.
“Getting that exposure of going to a different country to a much larger school was a really cool experience and it made me appreciate Florida Poly a lot more because of how small the classes were and how flexible the clubs were,” he said. “Florida Poly is an incredible school and I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without the opportunities they afforded me.”
Contact:
Lydia Guzmán
Director of Communications
863-874-8557
