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Get S.E.T. Biographies for Spring 2017

Josephine Mulherin

Project Manager

Mulherin is a second-year Physics student from Victorville, CA. Mulherin is now the Project Manager of the Engineering Service Learning team, Get S.E.T. She chose this team hoping she could get more people interested in the S.T.E.M. fields. She has previous experience in leadership, event planning, creating a congressional bill, and scientific posters. In high school, she was the Vice President of the Wrestling club and she was also in Mock Trial. In addition, she does volunteer work, reads, and watches videos to expand her knowledge in a vast amount of fields. Fun Fact: She’s loves cooking and learning new recipes. 

Mugdha Dhungana

Assistant Project Manager

Mugdha Dhungana is a third-year Computer Science & Engineering student. Dhungana is the Assistant Project Manager of the Engineering Service Learning team, Get S.E.T. She chose this team because, being born and raised in Nepal, she knows the importance of education in young children. She hopes to inspire as many students as possible and make them want to get into the STEM fields as their careers. She has worked with young students before to help them learn math, science, as well as Nepali culture and heritage. Dhungana loves to dance and read when she has some free time.

Oscar Martinez Melchor

Team Lead

Oscar Martinez Melchor is a second year Bioengineering student. Martinez is currently a team leader for team Get S.E.T.. He hopes to use his experience with tutoring grade school students to accomplish team Get S.E.T.’s mission in aiding public educator’s with teaching STEM topics. In his short time at UC Merced, other than thriving in his academics, Martinez has involved himself with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers as well as Omega Delta Phi, a service/social fraternity on campus. Martinez enjoys acrylic painting on his free time, one of his pieces won the 2nd place in the 2016 Bobcat Art Show.

Xialong Chen

Team Lead

Xiaolong Chen is the first-year Physics from the University of California, Merced. As an International student, Chen is from Shanghai, China. He is always interested in improving education quality in the community. He is a team member of the High School team. Chen is interested in Mathematics, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, and Physics. He enjoys reading, working, and studying. Chen is also part of Mobile Application Challenge. With his knowledge and skills, Chen is determined to make a change in the world and to push the human exploration.

Leo Vang

Team Lead

Leo Vang is a fourth-year student pursing a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Leo is a team member of the Get S.E.T. team, focusing on developing educational projects for the local elementary schools. He has strong backgrounds in automotive maintenance and project management and hopes to use his leadership and collaboration skills to pursue greater goals in the engineering field. By working on this team, Leo hopes to learn how to give back to his community later in the future. When not studying, he can usually be found working on his car. 

Olivia Robinson

Team Lead

Biography coming soon!

David Hernandez

Communications Officer

David Hernandez is a second-year Computer Science Engineering student. Hernandez is the communications officer of the Engineering Service Learning Team Get S.E.T.. He took advantage of this opportunity in hopes to enrich public education in his surrounding community with academic-based projects for educator’s aid. Hernandez thrives as a tour guide on campus and looks forward in using his excellent public speaking skills to reach out to the community’s public educators and grade school students. On his free time, Hernandez enjoys competing in ping pong competitions and friendly matches with his peers.

Jacob Tabatchnick

Intelectual Property Officer

Jacob Tabatchnick is a fourth-year student pursuing his Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering. He is a member of the G.E.T. S.E.T. team on the Velocity Track sub-team. Tabatchnick joined E.S.L to use his education and experience to give back to the local Merced community. Jacob eagerly hopes to learn under a mentor in E.S.L. so he might gain more professional and career skills. His goals for joining E.S.L. are improving his ability to be a decision maker and expand his ability to perform in a professional environment. In his spare time, Jacob enjoys practicing grappling arts as a martial skill and diving into new programming languages. 

Arcelia Flores

Procurement and Finance Office

Arcelia Flores is a fourth-year Management and Business Economics major. Flores is the Procurement and Finance Officer for Engineering Service Learning team, Get S.E.T. She is from Los Angeles, CA and enjoys getting involved with diverse organizations who reach out and support the Merced community. Flores joined the Get S.E.T team because she is passionate about promoting higher education to younger students through STEM related fields. During the spring semester of 2016, she interned for a bilingual education school in Spain. When she’s outside the classroom she enjoys hiking in Yosemite National Park and spending time with her family.

Veronica Briones

Veronica Briones is a second-year Computer Science and Engineering student at UC Merced. Briones is a team member of GET S.E.T., and she chose this team because it would allow her to work in a team as well as help her improve skills necessary to succeed in the engineering field. Her favorite subject is Calculus, but she also enjoys learning new languages. Apart from academic preferences, Briones enjoys creating digital art as a hobby and working with animals.

Matthew Quinn

Matthew Quinn is a second-year student at UC Merced majoring in Cognitive Science, he is team member on the Get S.E.T project.  Matthew is excited to get experience working in a professional setting and learning how to use his knowledge of cognitive science to develop instructive and innovative curriculum for the project. He hopes to gain valuable experiences from collaborating and organizing as a group. He is interested in being part of an organization to help the local community.  In his free time, Matthew enjoys leaning about history and reading old science fiction novels.

Mitzy Flores

Mitzy Flores is a fourth-year Cognitive Science student. Flores is a team member of GET S.E.T.. She chose this because she believes that the best way to change the world is through education. Furthermore, Flores is passionate about teaching science and presenting it in a way that is applicable, interesting, and fun. She is currently working alongside the Adventure Risk Challenge (ARC) program, helping underserved students from Merced County improve in literacy and leadership areas. Flores enjoys spending time in the outdoors and hiking Yosemite Valley.

Jose Martinez

Jose Juan Martinez Maciel is a first-year computer science major at UC Merced. He is from in Oakland, CA. He is a part of the high school team working on a velocity track. Jose is very interested education and tech. He is very particular excited in designing new projects to help other in any way he can to improve people’s lives. Jose wanted to join the get set team because he wanted to be part of improving the education system. Jose is very hard working and will see projects to the end.

Zhao "Russel" Ming Yu

Zhao Ming Yu, or Russell, is a second-year computer science major. Yu is a team member of Get S.E.T., an Engineering Service Learning team. Yu choose Get S.E.T. because it allowed him to have a positive effect on the community, influencing them to become interested in STEM fields. Academically, Yu is interested in software that improves people’s lives as well as ways to help serve his community. He plans to use his knowledge of computers to help the project achieve its goals. Outside of school, he enjoys podcasts, table-top games, and antiquities of the past.