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Poima Maluia Project Manager Poima Maluia is the Project Manager for the Engineer Service Learning team, Merced’s Children Museum. She is currently majoring in Psychology and minoring in Anthropology and plans on graduating in the Spring of 2019. Maluia choose this team because she has plans on working with children in the future. By the upcoming summer Maluia hopes to be a volunteer in the Peace Corps working with or for the youth. Once returning from the Peace Corps, or directly after graduation, Maluia wants to attend graduate school. One of her most recent accomplishments is successfully completing the very intense Mission Peak hike in Fremont. |
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Fernando Ramirez Jr. Assistant Project Manager Fernando Ramirez Jr. is a fifth-year Bioengineering major and the Assistant Project Manager for the Merced Children’s Museum Engineering Service Learning project. Ramirez is working on creating an exhibit that will provide local children with a fun and interactive introduction into the STEM field. Ramirez joined the Merced Children’s Museum team because he saw it as a great way to serve his local community. Through this project, Ramirez hopes that he can gain a hands-on experience on what it is to work on a project team, so that it may help him later in his goals to enter the field of neuronal protein research. |
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Fernanda Robles Intellectual Property Officer Fernanda Robles is a first-year Computer Science and Engineering student and the Intellectual Property Officer of the Merced Children’s Museum Engineering Service Learning team. Being part of this project will help her achieve her goal of exposing young eyes to consider being a part of the fields in STEM. Her cybersecurity team, where she learned to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and coding classes have sparked her interest in teaching children how to code and becoming a computer hardware engineer. With these skills, she plans on getting a job in the FBI or CIA to be able to provide help to those in need. |
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Jeffrey Quach Communications Officer Jeffrey Quach is the Communications Officer for the Merced’s Children Museum Engineering Service Learning team. He is a junior standing at University of California, Merced and is currently pursuing a major in computer science and engineering. Partaking in this project helps him have a clear understanding of a working environment and how to apply the proper skills acquired throughout this project. He strives to improve himself professionally in the aspect of teamwork and real-life applications for programming. He hopes to become an expert on software development to encourage youths to enjoy education and make lives easier with the convenience of technology. |
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Luis Mendoza Silva Procurement and Finance Officer Luis Mendoza is a fourth-year Mechanical Engineer student and the Procurement and Finance Officer of the Merced Children Museum (MCM), Engineering Service Learning team. Silva has experience in budgeting and organizing small groups and events. Luis also has experience in teaching kids and plans to use his expertise in the MCM Team to help incorporate both fun and learning. Silva's goal is to create more projects that will help communities all around California. He hopes that working with MCM will help him gain valuables skills that he would later use in future projects. |
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Annie Ly Team Leader Annie Ly is a second year who majors in BioMedical Engineering. Ly is the Team Leader of the Merced Children Museum Engineering Service Learning project because she loves helping people. Ly has experience in making an underwater robotically operated vehicles and is interested in medical issues corresponding to her interests in the health and engineering fields. Ly hopes she would be able to help others who may need prosthetics. With her experience in the Merced Children Museum project, Ly hopes that by knowing how to help children, she may one day help kids on a prosthetics level. |
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Edwin Vilches Team Leader Edwin Vilches is a second-year majoring in Bioengineering and is the team leader of the Merced’s Children Museum, Engineering Service Learning team. By being involved in the team, Vilches hopes to learn how to develop a working project in hopes of creating his own project in the future. Academically, Vilches is interested in how to create the groundwork for a project before the building of an idea. Vilches wants to use his passion to learn the development of a working project to involve others in the team to appreciate the importance of documentation. Vilches also wishes that this passion would inspire children to write in the science field. |
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Isabella Barbera Team Member Isabella Barbera is a third-year Earth Systems Science major and a team member of the Merced Children’s Museum, Aerospace Exhibit Lab, Engineering Service Learning team. Barbera is working to create an educational aerospace exhibit for the young children of Merced to grab an interest in the STEM field. Being a part of this project gives Barbera a meaningful opportunity to intrigue young children’s minds and open them up to the possibilities of the future. Barbera has a strong passion for the conservation of wildlife and hopes to make a change in the policies that are in place today. |
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Evelin Barragan Team Member Evelin Barragan is a first-year undeclared student under the School of Engineering. Barragan is a team member of the Merced’s Children’s Museum Engineering Service Learning project, where she is working to create an exhibit that will awake an interest in the STEM field in kids. As a student that didn’t learn about the STEM fields until she was in high school, Barragan joined the Merced’s Children’s Museum because sees this as a great opportunity to make a difference in other’s lives. Barragan thinks this is a great way to find out what type of engineering she wants to do. |
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Bianca Garibay Team Member Bianca Garibay is a fourth-year Applied Mathematical Sciences major with an emphasis in Economics. Garibay is a member of the Merced Children’s Museum Engineering Service Learning team. Being part of this project gives Garibay a meaningful opportunity to provide back to the community of Merced. Through this project, Garibay plans to further her communication and time management skills, as well as to acquire knowledge and hands-on experience that will be essential for her future profession. One day, Garibay hopes to become a contributing member to the community so that she can continue to motivate children to gain interest in STEM-related fields and understand the value of education. |
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Daniel Leong Team Member Daniel Leong is a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student that became passionate in engineering after participating on a robotics team in high school and completing an internship at a national mechanical contractor. As a team member of the Merced Children’s Museum Engineering Service Learning team, Leong joined the team because he is interested in helping to bring STEM awareness to the city’s youth through an exhibit displaying the benefits of solar technology. Leong hopes to use this experience to strengthen his teamwork and project planning skills and apply them in a robotics or mechanical contracting field. |
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Veronica Ramirez Team Member Veronica Ramirez is a third-year Earth System Science student and a team member of the Merced Children's Museum Engineering Service Learning team. Being part of this project provides her with an insightful view to providing an outlet for children’s curiosity based on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Academically, Veronica is interested in providing STEM-based education to every student in elementary education. Veronica interned at LifeLine Community Development Corporation, a non-profit that empowers impoverished neighbors to thrive. She plans to become a state legislator for California to pass laws that protect the minority community. |
