After successfully defending his dissertation in July, Alexander Steele will receive his doctorate at the Cullen College of Engineering Commencement this month. Steele, a disabled Marine, started at the University of Houston in 2018 with his advisor Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, Cullen Distinguished Professor and the director of the IUCRC BRAIN Center. He wrote the following personal essay about his life experiences and a photo taken of him presenting his research to Heidi Shyu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the U.S. Department of Defense.
A quick story about this photo:
16 years ago, I reached out to Geoffrey Ling while he was program director for DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics project. I was a recently disabled Marine with no idea how to become a researcher, and he was kind enough to return my call, which started me on my journey.
14 years ago, I tried to kill myself because I wasn't as okay as I tried to convince myself I was.
12 years ago, when I got back on my feet, Dr. Derek Tretheway at Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, Portland State University was kind enough to believe in me when I said I could do the work.
Five years ago Jose L Contreras-Vidal, Ph.D. decided to take a chance and help me start my PhD in his lab despite my rocky journey to date.
Four years ago Dimitry Sayenko became a friend, mentor, and constant source of support who always believed in my ideas.
Last year, I was selected as a DARPA Riser and finally got to say thank you to Dr. Ling. And just last week... well, that's me in the photo speaking with Under Secretary Shyu.
I've always been open about my mental health struggles, which I still deal with to this day. I'm sharing this story now not to celebrate it but to highlight that the reason I survived this long is because I've had countless people support me along the way.
Sometimes the difference between life and death is simply a helping hand.