Contact: Zack Plair

STARKVILLE, Miss.--Hagan Walker is living his California dream.

The Columbus native and senior electrical engineering major at Mississippi State University is spending his summer as an intern with Tesla Motors in Palo Alto. He is the first Magnolia State resident to land an internship with Tesla, and he said his experiences so far have broadened his horizons.

He hopes his time at Tesla-an American automotive and energy storage company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, electric vehicle powertrain components and battery products-will not only advance his career prospects after his expected graduation from MSU in December, but also will blaze a trail for other MSU students to make their way west for internships.

"I'm honored to be the first intern from the state of Mississippi to have an opportunity to work for such a world changing and cutting edge company," Walker said. "The work Tesla Motors does is unlike anything I've ever experienced before, and I hope my impact paves the way to allow many more students from MSU to find their way into Silicon Valley."

Walker, who began his Tesla internship in mid-May, served as the electrical team leader for the EcoCar 2 team with MSU's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems. That team competed with other universities on the national stage to increase the power and fuel economy of a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. That work led him to an internship with dSPACE in Michigan last summer, an opportunity which ultimately led him to Tesla recruiters.

At Tesla, Walker said he works on a team that focuses on vehicle functionality. That includes, he said, building much of the hardware the driver interacts with inside the car.

"I tell people it's like a big-kid EcoCar," he said. "Everything here is fast-paced. We learn a lot of information, and we learn it very quickly. My time at MSU has really helped prepare me for this environment."

Just landing an internship with Tesla is an honor in itself, said Klaus Hofmockel, Tesla's engineering manager for hardware development. He said he reviews about 50 intern resumes each year before hiring one or two interns.

Hofmockel called Walker a "bright, young engineer" who "doesn't disappoint." He mentioned that within a week of Walker's arrival, the MSU student had substantially assisted in developing an electronic control module for a Falcon Wing Door system.

"He has fit in well from the first week on," Hofmockel said. "Due to his open-minded and pragmatic approach, he fit in my team really well and my engineers really enjoy working with him. He was tasked with all kinds of engineering work from documentation, designing circuits, building debug harnesses to vehicle support/debugging. He had no problems whatsoever to quickly come up to speed on our development environment."

Originally a computer engineering major, Walker joined the EcoCar 2 team as a freshman and said he learned quickly that he wanted to pursue a career in the automotive field. He looks forward to seeing what his future holds after graduation, adding that he may pursue full-time employment with Tesla.

"Coming back and working for Tesla would be amazing," he said. "The company treats its employees well and has a great product. Tesla will be increasingly successful in the coming years, and it would be great to be a part of that."

Walker is among dozens of EcoCar alumni who are enjoying, or are on track to enjoy, rewarding engineering careers, according to Marshall Molen, the Ergon Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and lead adviser for both the EcoCar and EcoCar 2 teams. Some graduates, he said, have gone on to work for companies like General Motors, dSPACE, Siemens, Intel, AVL Powertrain Engineering and A123.

Before MSU started its EcoCar program in 2004, Molen added, its students weren't on companies' radars for automotive design jobs. Since then, however, he said MSU students are "highly sought after" for those jobs, and Walker is a prime example as to why.

"He takes the lead, he's very energetic and he's very creative," Molen said. "Because Hagan is a good, solid engineer, he'll be a great engineering manager. I wouldn't be surprised if one day he is an entrepreneur with a very respectable company."

Now in its third, four-year cycle, the EcoCar 3 team soon will begin work increasing the power and fuel economy of a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro. For more information on EcoCar 3, visit https://www.cavs.msstate.edu/projects/ecocar/.

MSU is Mississippi's flagship research university, available online at www.msstate.edu, facebook.com/msstate, instagram.com/msstate and twitter.com/msstate.