Alumni Spotlight: Travis Norris

by Antonio Varela

Brother Travis Norris graduated WPI with a robotic engineering and professional writing major in 2018. He currently works as a software engineer at Cognex. He was the only member of the Iota class and he had a great time in Beta Theta Pi.

Looking back on his time as an active brother, one of his favorite memories was going to a Beta retreat as a new member. The chapter held his induction ceremony by campfire and it was a great experience. But many of his favorite memories are also the small gettogethersthat would happen throughout the years, from grabbing coffee at the Bean Counter to grabbing dinner after chapter meetings.

Recently, Travis has been doing a lot of work coaching a high school FIRST team, since it is the middle of the season. He is helping students online with their code and sometimes with their robot person.

One piece of advice Travis has to any undergraduate students at WPI is to make sure to find the balance between academics and social time. Looking back on his time at WPI, he wishes he would have taken more graduate classes or joined more honors societies, though he was able to get a good job without those things. Moreover, to Travis, college is also about growing as a person along with growing intellectually. “It will be ok if you don’t join every honors society that you can or get a master in four years. But make sure you are still pushing yourself academically.”

Travis is looking forward to the months to come. With his work as a robotics coach, he will be able to get the vaccine earlier. Travis and his girlfriend have also been looking for their own place to live. He is excited to meet up with his friends again, as things will hopefully become normal soon.