My name is Alec Bender, and I am a fifth year double major in materials science & engineering and electrical & computer engineering student at Carnegie Mellon University. I will also be completing my masters in electrical and computer engineering at CMU in Fall 2025. Growing up, I delved into 3D art and graphic design — sculpting glass-blown vases, crafting woodwork tables, and bringing websites to life; I enjoy creating art that seamlessly integrates into people's daily lives, providing both visual delight and practical utility. Over the years, I have applied my skills in a more functional space in engineering. Intrigued by the materials shaping my creations, I began my college career as a materials engineer but found I missed the design aspect of my work in art. After taking several electronic materials classes in semiconductor fabrication, I discovered the realm of hardware engineering as a way to employ my design skills. Like mechanical engineering, it curates something that eventually takes physical shape while parallel to the intricate coding of software engineering. Fundamentally, it is all about design — whether that be the physical SoC or the hardware thread that executes a specific program. My focus within hardware engineering centers on integrated systems through IC design, digital design, and computer architecture. My current classes, 18-341 Logic Design and Verification and 18-422 Digital Integrated Circuit Design, have provided me with intriguing topics and projects. Making a matrix multiplier and NoC router in Logic Design and Verification offered opportunities to employ my design skills in developing advanced hardware threads and adopting new SystemVerilog techniques. Making SRAM using circuit topologies and macro-blocks in Digital Integrated Circuit Design utilized the knowledge I have gained from CAD, HDL, Layout, and scripting language to construct and implement digital circuits seen in modern VLSI process technology. The prospect of constructing a modern microprocessor, as envisioned in Digital Integrated Circuit Design, fuels my excitement for future endeavors. With a dual background in materials engineering and computer engineering, my breadth of knowledge spans the entire bottom half of the computer engineering stack.Outside of academics, I compete for CMU's Varsity Rowing Team and coach rowing at Fox Chapel High School. I also enjoy hiking, football, and glassblowing