Following a nontraditional undergraduate path, Kyle McGinley has made it a priority to discover his passions within engineering. Now, after receiving the 2025 Butz Scholarship, he has even more opportunities to pursue his interests.
The Butz Scholarship, established by the late Professor Emeritus Brian Butz and his wife, Susan, is awarded yearly to an undergraduate electrical and computer engineering student with demonstrated financial need with preference given to a student with interest in either software development, AI development systems, health education software or a similar field.
McGinley began his undergraduate journey at the College of Engineering and eventually elected to take some time off school. After a needed break and the goal of returning to Temple, he began taking courses at a local community college and working part-time while exploring potential majors.
After taking a variety of classes, he determined that his initial choice several years ago was the correct one; he would return to the College of Engineering as an electrical and computer engineering student.
Returning to Temple more mature and better prepared allowed McGinley to throw himself into his studies and dedicate his time to discovering what fields within electrical and computer engineering he wanted to pursue.
After taking a course with Li Bai, PhD, associate dean of research, graduate studies, and faculty affairs, last fall, he became fascinated with robotics and coding. This led to a position in Bai’s Computer Fusion Lab as an undergraduate research assistant where he worked on robotics and artificial intelligence projects. Most of his research tasks were on a collaborative project with Temple’s School of Social Work at the Barnett College of Public Health on a robotic companion to support individuals with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers. In addition to hands-on lab work, he also joined Temple’s IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), collaborating with peers and taking on leadership roles.
While McGinley has always been interested in hands-on work, his coursework and experiences in the lab have further motivated him to pursue a career in robotic applications, but he hasn’t ruled out the idea of graduate school as well.
The Butz Scholarship allows McGinley to prioritize his passions when planning for his career. “It’s rewarding knowing someone has their belief in me to go back and finish my degree,” he shared. “It helps me feel like I don’t have so much pressure in just getting a job just for the money. I can explore what interests I really have and really what I want to go after.”