Six of seven children in the Fasolino family graduated from UT Dallas. From left to right: Christine BA’86; Michael BS’03; Mark BS’18, MS’19; father John and mother Stephanie; Stephen BS’09, James BS’20, MS’21 and Renee BA’05.
“My dad always had us out in the garage helping him; he can fix pretty much anything, electrical or mechanical,” said Mark Fasolino BS’18, MS’19 who is now a radio frequency (RF) and microwave engineer at Raytheon Technologies. “We’d be helping him and engineering principles and techniques would naturally emerge.”
Six of the seven Fasolino children went on to earn degrees from The University of Texas at Dallas, and four of five brothers graduated from the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. Motivated by their passions for faith, family and engineering, the Jonsson School alumni are professional engineers, with three of them currently working at Raytheon.
PROFESSOR CONNECTIONS
Among the common connections is a favorite professor. Dr. Randall Lehmann, professor of instruction in electrical and computer engineering (ECE), taught three of the brothers as undergraduate and graduate students. Known by them as a tough grader who enhanced their technical competence through rigorous classwork, Lehmann also inspired them with lessons not found in textbooks.
“He is the reason I pursued RF engineering in the workplace,” said Mark, referring to radio frequency engineering. “Dr. Lehmann’s undergraduate RF circuits course opened my eyes to the field and caused me to work toward a master’s degree in the subject.
“I always heard good things about Dr. Lehmann, but after seeing him in action, I know he is one of the best professors I had in all of my years of school. He is inspiring.”
Stephen BS’09, now a senior failure analysis engineer at Raytheon, appreciated the intangibles Lehmann incorporated into his lectures and his diligence in presenting complex material.
“He always had a character lesson of the week, that if you want to be a good worker, this is the character you’ll need to have,” Stephen said about the Lehmann lectures. “You were his student, he cared about you and that came across in how much you learned.”
Dr. Randall Lehmann, professor of instruction in electrical and computer engineering (ECE), was a favorite teacher of the Fasolino brothers who incorporates character lessons into his instruction on electromagnetic wave propagation and related topics.
Dr. Rashaunda Henderson, ECE professor and interim co-head of the ECE Department and Fellow, Eugene McDermott Professor at UT Dallas, taught brothers Mark and James BS’20, MS’21. During James’ graduation last December, she reunited with the brothers and other family members.
Henderson, also founder of the High Frequency Circuits and Systems Laboratory at UT Dallas, said it is a short distance between the classroom and the workplace. Additionally, one hallmark of the university is that faculty are accessible to students and intentionally build relationships.
“What they learned on our campus is directly applicable to what they do in their jobs,” she said. “We believe in being available to our students.”
Four of five Fasolino brothers earned electrical engineering degrees from the Jonsson School, and three of them now work at Raytheon. From left to right, Kevin, a brain-based chiropractor; Mark, now a radio frequency and microwave engineer at the defense company; James, now a graduate intern at the defense company; Stephen, a senior failure analysis engineer; and Michael, a senior software engineer at Raytheon from 2005-17 and now a senior safety engineer at a different company.
CAREER CONNECTIONS
“I have one of the coolest jobs, compared to my brothers,” Stephen said. “I work in the Failure Analysis Lab. At times, it can be a combination of CSI, or crime scene investigation, and an emergency room for electronics. There are always new problems that walk in the door, and I get to tear stuff apart and find the root cause of failures.
“It’s fun figuring out why things broke. I’ve been doing that since I was 10 in the garage, fixing my mom’s vacuum cleaner.”
Stephen’s natural curiosity and desire to understand how things work doesn’t stop at the end of a workday. After hours, he shares his hands-on skills through a YouTube channel called “Stephen of All Trades.”
“People would call me up, and say my X, Y, Z is broken, and I’d talk them through it,” he said. “You’d be very surprised how many times a week something breaks in the house, and I get to use my knowledge from work and school to fix something. It’s a blast to be able to do that.”
His penchant for problem-solving includes filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with five patents awarded and several pending.
“I really enjoy innovating,” Stephen said.
Stephen’s younger brother Mark encouraged the creation of the YouTube channel, even buying his brother a camera known for action filming and surviving water and rugged encounters for Christmas.
Yet, Mark could not resist taking a competitive jab at his older siblings.
“I attained a master’s degree at UT Dallas for two reasons,” he said. “One, because I knew it would be helpful in the workplace, and two, because my older brothers who went there didn’t get their master’s degrees.”
There is general agreement among the brothers that James, now a graduate intern at Raytheon, probably earned the best grades and a special title.
“If you throw around the word ‘nerd,’ it’s usually referred to as a compliment, not an insult, at least at UTD,” James said.
A young Michael gives hands-on help to his father John, an electrical engineer.
James said he aspired to be a nerd: “There’s a lot of complicated stuff in engineering. It takes dedication, time and persistence to get all of the details right.”
At Raytheon, both Mark and James work in the RF radar design areas, building and testing electronics for military applications.
“I really enjoy my job,” Mark said. “I use daily much of what I learned in my graduate studies at UTD.”
James added: “It’s cool to design a product and be able to test the product you designed on the computer.”
Dr. Rashaunda Henderson, interim co-head of ECE, taught Mark and James and said that a hallmark of the program is faculty accessibility to students.
FASOLINO GRADUATES OF UT DALLAS
Michael Fasolino
Brother
BS in Electrical Engineering, 2003
Caleb Nelson
Brother-in-Law (Husband of Renee)
PhD in Electrical Engineering, 2010
MS in Electrical Engineering, 2007
BS in Electrical Engineering, 2006
Renee Nelson
Sister
BA in Interdisciplinary Studies/Certificate in Teaching, 2005
Christine Pillette
Sister
BA in Interdisciplinary Studies, 2006
Stephen Fasolino
Brother
BS in Electrical Engineering, 2009
Mark Fasolino
Brother
MS in Electrical Engineering, 2019
BS in Electrical Engineeing, 2018
James Fasolino
Brother
MS in Electrical Engineering, 2021
BA in Electrical Engineering, 2020
FAMILY CONNECTIONS
There is a point in time somewhere between fixing vacuums in the garage and working for a Fortune 100 company that each of the brothers worked at Fasolino Lawn Care, a business started by eldest brother Michael, who was a senior software engineer at Raytheon from 2005-17.
Fasolino Lawn Care was a rite of passage. The brothers, including Kevin, spent summers working the business, and each of them consecutively owned it until heading off to college.
“We all paid college off with that business,” Mark said. “If I weren’t an electrical engineer, I’d be growing the lawn care business.”
In addition to covering college tuition, the business taught essential lessons in managing money and taking care of customers. Their father John built a custom handle on a lawnmower for his then 10-year-old son Michael, then purposely stayed out of the way, allowing the brothers to run the business.
John remembers, “Michael was plodding along in the lawn care business, then Stephen came along and decided to up the game, getting chain saws and commercial tools. But Kevin was the businessman — he’d tell somebody how much he would charge them while the other guys just took whatever someone was willing to pay.”
Kevin studied another STEM discipline. His entrepreneurial acumen and attraction to biology and how the human body works led him to become a brain-based chiropractor.
One of their sisters, Christine BA’06 is involved with faith-based work, while the other sister, Renee BA’05 has used her University education to teach at a local public elementary school, in a private education system, in church children’s programming and at home with her own children.
Dr. Lehmann and Mark at commencement.
FAITH CONNECTIONS
It is a law of nature that electrons flow from negative to positive poles in a direct current. An immutable law of the Fasolino family is that their faith in God is the consistent energy in their circuit — from homeschooling at the kitchen table, to the workbench in the garage, to the pews of their local church.
“Faith in Jesus Christ is paramount to everything we do,” said John, an electrical engineer. “The Bible declares that Jesus is the creator and as such He is the giver of true knowledge, wisdom and knows how everything works — electrically, mechanically and socially.”
Stephen said he and his siblings got to watch their parents live out their faith.
“Everything we do is shaped by our faith,” Stephen said. “That comes out in the way we study, school, the way we work and our life at home.”
CHARACTER CONNECTIONS
Lehmann, the Jonsson School ECE professor who helped inspire the Fasolino brothers in electrical engineering, said that it was an honor teaching the brothers.
“I expect graduating engineers to have good technical competence, but I always look for students with good character,” said Lehmann, who joined UT Dallas in 2004, a year after Michael graduated. “Stephen, Mark and James demonstrate those character qualities, which I believe will ultimately be responsible for their overall long-term success in their careers and lives.”