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Jesus Perez Project Manager Jesus Perez is a sixth-year student pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Having grown up in the Merced Area, he joined the Engineering Service Learning team, Mobile Maker Lab, to give back his community. Perez, currently a lab assistant at the School of Engineering, will be using his experience from past projects to contribute to the Mobile Maker Lab project. He wants to gain a better understanding of how to start and implement a project into a community. After graduation, Perez plans to pursue a career in the robotics industry to make jobs safer for workers and clients. |
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Leslie Bautista Assistant Project Manager Leslie Bautista is a second-year Computer Science and Engineering student and the Assistant Project Manager of the Mobile Maker Lab project. She took the opportunity to join the Mobile Maker Lab to express her interest in teaching and more particularly, engaging K-12 students in STEM learning. She constantly seeks to provide students a better way of understanding the STEM academia. She currently works as an assessment intern for the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning Center at UC Merced by collecting qualitative and quantitative data from her peers and faculty about class learning. After graduating, Leslie plans to receive a master’s in the computational and mathematical engineering field. |
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Jose Serrato Intellectual Property Officer Jose Serrato is a second-year Mechanical Engineering student and the Intellectual Property Officer of the Mobile Maker Lab Engineering Service Learning team. Being part of this project provides him a meaningful opportunity to help increase STEM involvement and career pathways in the heart of California. Academically, Serrato is interested in Flight Engineering and aviation-related systems. Serrato hopes to become a leading expert in the field of aviation. He also hopes to use the knowledge gained from being part of Engineering Service Learning to make a change in other communities and his career. |
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Zada Nguyen Communication Officer Zada Nguyen is a third-year Chemistry major with an emphasis in Materials Science and the Communication Officer of the Mobile Maker Lab Engineering Service Learning team. Being part of this team has allowed her to expose STEM to the younger audience and hopefully have more of the future generations be more engaged in the field. Academically, Nguyen has been working in Dr.Chin’s research lab at UC Merced. Nguyen hopes to use her skills in STEM to pursue a career in pharmaceutical chemistry, where she can work in a lab setting and help improve the world of medicine. |
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Marielle Lesigues Procurement and Finance Officer Marielle Lesigues is the Procurement and Finance Officer of the Mobile Maker Lab’s Engineering Service Learning team. She is a fourth-year student studying Computer Science and Engineering. Currently, she is a board intern at the Society of Women Engineers located at the University of California, Merced. Marielle chose the Mobile Maker Lab because she wants to encourage more women in the STEM field, especially when it comes to the Computer Science field. After finishing college, Marielle hopes to work in the law enforcement because she wants to use her learned skills to help better San Francisco’s community. |
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Johanna Araiza Team Leader Johanna Araiza is a fourth-year Bioengineer major and the Team Leader of Mobile Maker Lab Engineering Service Learning team. While attending UC Merced, Araiza has worked on a joint research project with Arduino dealing with temperature regulation within bee-hives and their significant decrease in pollination. Mobile Maker Lab is ideal for Araiza because she has partaken in Merit Partners previously, and helped the project come to an end. The Mobile Maker Lab will help expand the knowledge needed to improve the valley’s community within elementary students being introduced into STEM. After graduation, Araiza plans to pursue a career working with biotechnology for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. |
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Luis Cruz Team Member Luis Cruz is a fourth-year student pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Cruz is a member of the Mobile Maker Lab Engineering Service Learning project, where he is working to create and build a mobile maker lab for the Merced County Office of Education to help teachers in rural areas. Cruz as a first-hand beneficiary of a similar project is very passionate about providing others with the same resource and incentives provided to him. Through this experience, Cruz hopes to bridge the gap between academia and industry as he prepares for his future in Engineering. |
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Kevin Ta Team Member Kevin Ta is a fourth-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering. Ta has interests in cybersecurity and game, mobile, and app development. He also likes to program personal projects in his favorite language, Python. He is part of the Quantitative Project, a club that foster growth in the fields of technology through the understanding of big data analytics. Ta hopes his teamwork and technical skills can be of great benefit as a team member to the Mobile Maker Lab, an Engineering Service Learning project focused on encouraging third graders to enter the STEM field by bringing a tech lab straight to them. |
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Moris Ventura Team Member Moris Ventura Melendez is a first-year Mechanical Engineering student with a minor in Computer Science and a member of the Engineering Service Learning team, Mobile Maker Lab. Ventura chose to join because he wants to help the community that has done so much for him, especially for offering him the education his parents never received. At the age of 17, Ventura became a certified AutoCAD and SolidWorks user showing just how far his interest in engineering has gone. Now, at Merced, he strives to be a top-level engineering student among his peers and he one day hopes to own his own engineering company. |
