Code & Community — Learning to Rise at Lyle

Amidst the bustle of the Deason Innovation Gym, against the hum of the printers and machines, Michael Llanes — a third-year computer science undergraduate at SMU Lyle — feels completely at home.

But Llanes’s path to computer science and SMU Lyle began in a place far quieter, peeking over his father’s shoulder during his web-development class — held online, due to the pandemic. While looking for just about anything to occupy his time, Llanes began to follow along.

Before long, he felt the language click, and his role as a silent observer unlocked a lifelong passion.

“It all started making sense to me,” Llanes recalled. “Watching my dad really sparked my interest in programming, web development, just computer science in general.”

Having been lucky enough to find his path early on, Llanes transitioned from high school to college with the intention of finding a university that matched his ambition while giving him the tools to grow. When he visited SMU Lyle, the beauty and opportunity of the campus stood out first, but what stayed with him was how easily he could picture himself belonging.

“Stepping on campus, I was just immediately able to see myself fitting into the community at Lyle,” Llanes described. “I think that, more than anything else, influenced my decision.”

His first weeks on campus, this feeling of camaraderie and community, noticed at first sight, only grew. Llanes felt welcomed, not just in the way campus tours promised, but in the everyday moments, from waves on the way to class to seats saved in the lecture halls.

“Everywhere I go, I see people that I know, and I think that’s so awesome,” Llanes elaborated.

His first friends — floormates in his freshman dorm — helped him find his people, connecting him with others who shared his passion. Many of Llanes’s campus connections formed naturally, like Theta Tau, the professional engineering fraternity, while others, like the community he found in Mustang Mavericks, SMU’s country stunt and dance team, emerged in more unexpected ways.

“I came to campus thinking, ‘absolutely not, I will never rush a fraternity,’” Llanes recalled, laughing. “And then my roommate comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, there’s a professional frat, you should rush it,’ and the rest is history.”

Rush it he did, and that once unexpected connection opened up a new world — a cross-disciplinary network of friends, mentors, and collaborators. Theta Tau became his first anchor at SMU Lyle, but certainly not his last.

And though he didn’t consider himself much of a dancer before joining, the Mavericks quickly became one of his strongest outlets. What started as watching a practice at a friend’s invitation quickly turned into learning stunts and finding camaraderie outside of the classroom.

“Mustang Mavericks — it’s so much fun,” Llanes explained. “I remember walking there, thinking, ‘I’ve done a jig before, maybe I’ll fit in.’”

“Now, it’s truly become my happy place,” Llanes elaborated. “For a few hours, I get to step out of a very technical and very engineering-centered world into something completely different. On the mat, I find my home away from home, and I never would’ve expected it.”

With new friends and classmates giving way to new experiences, engineering quickly became a group sport, with a community to support Llanes in and outside of the classroom. The Deason Innovation Gym (DIG), a hub for late nights of studying and socializing — working on class projects, shooting ideas off one another, or just hanging out — became a constant for Llanes, and a refuge.

“I spent so much time at the DIG that they pulled me aside and asked, ‘Hey, do you want to be paid to be here?’” Llanes recalled, laughing. “I said absolutely.”

Working at the DIG, Llanes believes, has made him a stronger student and engineer. He credits much of that growth to the DIG’s culture of mentorship, and especially, the friendship he’s built with director Dr. Seth Orsborn. With Dr. Orsborn’s constant encouragement, Llanes’s workplace soon became his wheelhouse — a place to test ideas and learn how engineering actually feels in practice, not just in the classroom.

“I feel like he’s lived a thousand lives,” Llanes explained. “Dr. Orsborn has all of this industry experience, and he does everything in his power to give us opportunities that he either had or wasn’t able to have.”

It was this sense of newfound responsibility, and the courage to take his curiosity beyond the scope of the classroom, that helped Llanes land an internship with Tenaska Power Services the spring of his sophomore year. Working as a data engineer, exploring analysis and predictive modeling, Tenaska was a pressure test in applying class concepts with real stakes. Llanes thrived.

“If you mess up and screw with the database,” Llanes explained, “the database for the whole company is offline. It was real responsibility, and I learned so much.”

His internship experiences sharpened his precision and his confidence. It also opened Llanes’s eyes to the way that data engineering and energy systems intersect, and with that, a whole new world opened up to him.

Now, with mentorship and real-world experiences guiding his steps, Llanes is most passionate about getting others excited for engineering, building up the community that first welcomed him. Despite a busy semester last spring, he teamed up with Dr. Orsborn and SMU Lyle engineers to compete in Vandermont’s Make48 competition, a two-day innovation challenge where teams design and prototype a market-ready product.

As a team lead, Llanes led the youngest group in the competition — just fourth and sixth-grade students excited about STEM — to victory, developing a solar-powered cooler that won a regional title in Dallas and secured a spot at the national competition in Indianapolis. For him, the opportunity to engage students in engineering, helping them learn what they were capable of when technical skill meets imagination, was among the most rewarding experiences of his college career.

And with many projects and extracurriculars under his belt, the experience that centers Llanes’s academic experience is not his long list of activities, but the connection he has found in each of them. At SMU Lyle, he feels known — recognized as a part of something larger than himself, with the power to make a difference, for classmates, teammates, and engineering hopefuls just beginning their journeys.

“At Lyle, I don’t feel like I’m some statistic,” Llanes shared. “I really feel like I am making an impact.”

Now, looking ahead to his fourth year at SMU, Llanes is excited to explore interests in software engineering, data engineering, and energy technology, letting his experiences at Lyle and Teneska pave the way to a bright future. With Lyle, he’s found the perfect environment to develop his interdisciplinary talents.

“One of the things I love most about Lyle is that, at the end of the day, I’m able to have my cake and eat it too,” Llanes explained. “I can develop these skills and let my experiences guide me.”

And through it all, Llanes credits his successes to the unwavering support of his classmates and community, and the innovative, student-powered culture that has shaped his time at SMU Lyle — where success for one is success for all.

“I couldn’t do any of this without everyone behind me, the community we have,” Llanes described. “Here, a win for you is a win for me is a win for Lyle.”

About the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering

SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering thrives on innovation that transcends traditional boundaries. We strongly believe in the power of externally funded, industry-supported research to drive progress and provide exceptional students with valuable industry insights. Our mission is to lead the way in digital transformation within engineering education, all while ensuring that every student graduates as a confident leader. Founded in 1925, SMU Lyle is one of the oldest engineering schools in the Southwest, offering undergraduate and graduate programs, including master’s and doctoral degrees.

About SMU

SMU is a nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty, and nearly 12,000 students in eight degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, community, and the world.