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Vernal Pool Reserve Biographies for Fall 2018

   

Daniel Pugh

Project Manager

Daniel Pugh is a sixth-year Mechanical Engineering student and the Project Manager of the Vernal Pools Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. Pugh is professionally interested in becoming an engineer working in the field of CAD. His involvement in this project will enable him with the necessary skills for real-life applications in the field of his study. Academically, Pugh is interested in design projects and electrical diagrams. Pugh hopes to work for Pacific Gas and Electric company. He plans on using this skill set to overall become more efficient in CAD work as well as prototype design.

Eric Hoang

Assistant Project Manager

Eric Hoang is a Mechanical Engineering student minoring in Business Management and Economics at UC Merced. He is the Assistant Project Manager to the Vernal Pool Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. As an undergraduate student, Eric is currently working as a freelance graphic designer, where he designs flyers and media advertisement for organizations on campus. In addition, Eric is currently holding 2 positions in his organization, Kappa Sigma, where he oversees his fraternity’s social media and creates awards to recognize his brother’s actions and contributions toward the fraternity. In the future, Eric aspires to be a product packaging engineer where he can utilize both his major and minor in the field.

Santiago Cisneros Castillo

Intellectual Property Officer

Santiago Cisneros Castillo is a third-year Environmental Engineering major and the Intellectual Property Officer for the Vernal Pools Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. Currently, he is interested in environmental issues such as water contamination and poor air quality that plague many countries. Being a part of the Vernal Pools Reserve team gives him a better understanding of cooperation, leadership, and communication. Academically, Santiago intends to graduate from UC Merced and take his career to where it can benefit the environment and people alike. Also in the future, he intends to get his Ph.D.

Javier Chaname

Communications Officer

Javier Chaname is a fourth-year Environmental Engineering student and the Communications Officer of the Vernal Pool Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. Chaname is interested in sustainable energy technologies and has published a research paper giving a comprehensive overview of solar energy. In addition, he has been working as a research assistant in the Kurtz lab at UC Merced studying the performance of different cell technologies. Chaname hopes to continue researching sustainable energy technologies and one day lead a research team of his own. He chose the Vernal Pools Reserve team to get experience on how to sustainably integrate society into the natural environment.

Leanna Vu

Procurement and Finance Officer

Leanna Vu is a fourth-year student majoring in Management and Business Economics and the Procurement and Finance Officer of the Vernal Pool Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. In this project, Vu hopes to learn more about the environment in her community to help educate the Merced Community with fun activities for children. Vu has been working with Professor  Mark Harris to create a financial literacy project which will allow her to educate the youth. Working with the Vernal Pool team and Professor Harris, she hopes to educate adolescents on the significance of education. With the skills that she has learned and developed, she will become a public accountant.

Jesus Salas Hernandez

Team Leader

Jesus Salas Hernandez is a second-year student pursuing his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering. As the team leader for the Vernal Pool Reserve Engineering Service Learning team, Salas works to ensure that the UC Merced-Yosemite Lake trail path has minimal environmental impacts on the vernal pools' ecosystem and poses no threats to endangered wildlife. Salas chose to join the Vernal Pool Reserve team in order to gain experience with the project design process and get a better understanding of what careers might be open to an environmental engineer. Salas plans on using the skills gained from the project to advance professionally and work on similar projects.

Sagar Kumar

Team Leader

Sagar Kumar is a third-year Computer Science and Engineering student at the University of California, Merced and the team leader of the Vernal Pool Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. Being part of this project provides him a meaningful opportunity to understand how the Vernal Pool Reserves and work with respect to improvement on the connection between UC Merced and the greater community to these natural habitats. Academically, Sagar is interested in computer science and wishes to pursue a career in computer science, specifically in his interests to regards to machine learning and data science.

Porntam Suksomlert

Team leader

Porntam Suksomlert is a third-year Computer Science and Engineering major and team leader for the Vernal Pools Reserve (VPR) Engineering Service Learning team. He joined VPR because of his interest in engineering, designing, and environmental subject. Throughout his lifetime, he has lived in big cities like Bangkok (Thailand), and Los Angeles (CA, USA) before moving to a smaller, more peaceful place - Merced. Since the big cities take away peaceful places, he decided to join VPR with hope in short-term and long-term goals that he can use his engineering knowledge, designing skill, and love of nature to help this environment in the future.

Ashia Tymous

Team Member 

Ashia Tymous is a third-year Computer Science and Engineering student and is a team member of the Vernal Pool Reserve Engineering Service Learning team. Being a part of this project provides her with a great opportunity to educate the community of Merced of the importance of environmental conservation. Academically, Ashia is interested in Web App Interface Design and hopes to use her artistic talents to help her work both artistically and computationally. She chose this Engineering Service Learning Project because it gives her a new challenge in a different field.