Alumni Profile - Kevin Cunningham

Alumni Profile - Kevin (KC) Cunningham 

Hometown: St. Louis
Degree Obtained from KU: Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, 1984
Current Occupation/Company: Associate Tech Fellow/Bell Flight
Current City: Dallas/Ft. Worth Area

What are your daily responsibilities in your job? As a tech lead, I work with all the other engineers as we develop and design the mission systems suite of avionics for the Army’s newest assault tiltrotor. In the past, working with Boeing, Lockheed, and now Bell Flight, my daily tasks have included lab testing, ground testing and even flight testing the systems I’ve helped to design and integrate. 

What are the biggest challenges of your job? That would be making sure we have accurately understood and designed to the requirements of our customer, the U.S. Army.

What aspects of KU Engineering do you feel best prepared you for your current role? KU’s electrical engineering program certainly prepared me for industry. The learning did not stop once I graduated, but KU gave me the foundation I needed to get into the defense industry and to continue to move up the ladder.

What do you wish you would’ve known while at KU/what advice do you have for current students? It’s not a race. Taking too many hours can really stress you out. I wish I would have taken maybe one less class per semester. I think I would have done better and would have been less stressed out.

Any favorite memories of KU Engineering – or the city of Lawrence? As a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and SCoRMEBE, some of my favorite memories are from the various activities I participated in with them. Oh, and intermural sports, softball and football!