December 2024 Commencement Spotlight: Engineering Graduate Takes Drone Passion to Alaska
After four years at York College and many long-lasting experiences and achievements, Alex Suarez will be graduating this December and continuing his education and research into drone technology in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Wednesday, December 18, marks another special day on York College of Pennsylvania’s campus. More than 200 graduates will walk across the stage at the Grumbacher Sports and Fitness Center.
The ceremony starts at 10:15 a.m.
As York College prepares to celebrate commencement, we are filled with immense pride for the hard work and dedication demonstrated by this semester’s graduating students. This milestone represents not only their academic achievements, but also the personal growth and resilience they have shown throughout their college journey.
At York College, we believe that education is about more than earning a degree—it's about discovering potential, overcoming challenges, and embracing the future with confidence. York College administration, faculty, and staff look forward to honoring these graduates and the extraordinary efforts they have invested in shaping their futures, wherever that takes them.
From Kinsley Engineering Center to Alaska
Victor Alexander Suarez Jr. ’24, a senior Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering double major from Frederick, Maryland, who goes by Alex, will be graduating this December from York College after four years of pursuing his interests in drone technology.
From the beginning, he had a busy schedule. Before Alex, no one at York College had ever completed a double major in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, so he and his advisor worked hard to find an academic route that would work best for him.
“We went through a couple of revisions of the schedule,” Alex said, “putting together different classes…but [it] was a higher credit load, and that’s what we decided to go with. So instead of graduating in May, I’m now able to graduate this December.”
Since then, Alex has worked with multiple organizations and activities on campus while pursuing his degrees. He has been involved with much of York College’s Engineering Program, helped with the Drone Capstone project, participated in Newman Club, and was a member of STEM Scholars and the Engaged Scholars.
He was also able to put his love of drone flying into a competitive spirit, as he represented York College several times in the Collegiate Drone Racing Championship. Using what he learned about machines and drone technology at College, Alex was able to secure third place at the competition in April 2022, fourth place in 2023, and third place once again in 2024.
“I was able to use my classes to also help design my own racing drone, and use that at the event and then keep refining it,” Alex said. “...The professors were able to help me apply what we were learning to my understanding of how it was working on the drone and aircraft.”
Building Up Work Experience
Alex continued to hone his skills in his required co-op work experience for his majors. During his junior year, he worked at a robotics company with printed circuit board (PCB) design and autonomous robots while assisting in testing and evaluating them. At his second co-op, he worked at a start-up company.
“Being able to understand some of the stuff that I did there and in my Electrical Engineering Design class…[gave me] a better understanding of what the workforce is going to be like,” Alex said when discussing how his learning at York College enhanced his work experience. “I had to use what I learned in Electrical Engineering Design about doing a lot of work quickly because the place I was working at was a start-up, so it was a little faster-paced than my first co-op.”
Eventually, Alex found himself combining his drone knowledge and outside work experience and started selling the drone racing frame he designed for his competition. He collaborated with different professors to get feedback on how he could improve his frame, and once it was ready, Alex started his own small business and began selling the frames at the start of his senior year with help from York College’s Engaged Scholars and one of their microgrants.
Alex also participated in an independent study with Stephen “Drew” Wilkerson, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, to create a drone that could break the world record for the longest flight time for an electric multi-rotor.
“We started that process in designing it and doing research on what the most efficient configurations are [to see] if we can beat what the current world record was,” Alex said. “So we found a model of something in our theoretical models that could break the record, and we started to build it…We had a design base by the end of Fall 2023, so by Spring 2024 this year, we started building the aircraft. We were able to get sponsors, and we tried to do a first attempt at an event, but we didn’t have enough time to finish getting the aircraft ready for that, so it crashed. But since then, we’ve been rebuilding…so we can still try to fly it and try to do another attempt later.”
An Opportunity Across the Country
After graduation, Alex will be traveling to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he will pursue a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and become involved with drone research opportunities.
“They have one of the few drone test sites in the country that the school operates,” he said, “which allows them to test a bunch of experimental aircraft and equipment in the National Airspace System to try and improve safety and technological advancements with that, and it’s part of why I want to go there.”
It’s a major step in his life that will take him across the country to a whole new environment. Alex is more than ready to take on the challenge while learning how a change in scenery can affect his work with drones.
“It’s an environment that I haven’t really lived in or experienced before,” Alex said, “but I think it will be a good experience to learn…[and] understand the different effects of an environment like Alaska…[H]ow we apply engineering over here is very different when you’re talking about such a drastic change in temperature, especially in a place like Fairbanks, where it goes from negative 40 degrees in the winters to 80-90 degrees in the summer. So you have to factor in how the materials are gonna behave in both the warmth and cold climates.”
As for what his goals will be after graduate school, Alex hopes to earn his Ph.D. in Engineering so that, according to him, he can not only “build upon the company that [he] started to sell [his drone] frames, but to make a drone company that can sell consumer drones from a U.S. standpoint.”
“That’s part of where I want to end up, is making something that’s from the U.S., but can compete on a global scale and provide the U.S. with something in the drone industry that it’s currently lacking.”
When asked what advice he would give to future graduates and underclassmen at York College, Alex emphasized the importance of not being afraid to ask for help, especially from the professors.
“If there are questions that you have that you don’t know, or you’re trying to decide on something, the professors are almost always there to help,” he said. “I’ve used that quite a bit; I’m just popping into the office, asking [my professor] a quick question, and it doesn’t even have to be about their area of expertise. If you need to find someone who might have the answer better, they can help point you in the right direction for that as well.”
