KINGSTON, R.I. – May 26, 2026 – Sam Miller, of Colchester, Connecticut, graduated with his bachelor’s in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Rhode Island this May with an engineering entrepreneurship minor and a concentration in Naval science and technology.
Over the past few years, he gained hands-on experience through a series of engineering internships in the aerospace and defense industries, where he worked on everything from manufacturing process improvement to technical analysis of complex submarine systems. “I’m comfortable with CAD tools and have a background in additive manufacturing, which I’ve applied both professionally and through a small 3D design business I started on my own,” said Miller.
If he has any advice to pass on to the next class of graduates, it’s this; get involved. “The more you try the more you know your likes and dislikes. Going to a club meeting only costs you an hour or two, but you can make you lifelong friends and connections that shape your future goals and prospects,” said Miller.
URI’s college of engineering introduced him to a Naval-style career he didn’t initially foresee himself working in. While in the program, he traveled to Maryland to attend the Naval Academy Science and Engineering Conference (NASEC), went to Virginia to race Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV’s), attended the Defense Investment Forum in Newport and networked with everyone from investment bankers to CEOs to government officials. “I simply wouldn’t have had the resources or invitations to participate in those without the support of URI COE staff,” said Miller.
Miller was part of the URI Promoting Electric Propulsion Team as well as the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers student organization, Navy STEM Crew, and served as a student Researcher for the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology (NIUVT). He earned a Naval Engineering Achievement Award from the UCONN-URI Navy STEM Coalition for his work.
This past April, in his third year leading URI’s Promoting Electric Propulsion (PEP) team, they took first place in the Budget Warrior division at the 2026 national collegiate competition. Hosted by the American Society of Naval Engineers and the Office of Naval Research on the Elizabeth River in Portsmouth, Virginia, the event brought together over 350 engineers from 46 universities across the country. Their team was comprised of seven URI College of Engineering undergraduates, who designed and hand-built a vessel they named Stingray entirely from scratch. It consisted of a craft-stick-and-epoxy hull featuring a custom sponson-strake hybrid design and wave-piercing axe bow, engineered to carry a required 30-pound payload at speed on a strict $1,500 budget. “What I am most proud of is how our team rose to every obstacle thrown at us, including a mid-semester blizzard, an unexpected loss of our workspace mid-build, and plenty of other unexpected hurdles, and still delivered a first-place finish on race day,” said Miller. “In my opinion it is a testament to what URI engineering students are capable of when given the opportunity to build something real.”
He’s passionate about systems thinking and working on problems that have a meaningful impact so he’s looking forward to starting his full-time job as a systems engineer.