Faculty assistant in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is recognized with Exemplary Employee of the Year Award

 

Lusia Veksler, a faculty assistant in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has received an Exemplary Employee of the Year award. Veksler is being recognized for her service to the department’s faculty, graduate students and operations. 

Veksler founded and leads a Communication in English program for graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering, who are using English as a second language. Her aim has been to encourage greater engagement by students new to the community, who find communicating with other students to be a challenge. Faculty said they found her efforts to be beneficial as these graduate students become more outgoing, assertive, and positive. 

Veksler also provided graduate student assistance and advice for a faculty member’s large research group of about a dozen graduate students when that faculty member ended up unexpectedly in the emergency room. This helped to avoid significant struggles for the entire group.

She supported a PhD student in an mental health crisis emergency by personally speaking with her on the phone no fewer than 10 times and no fewer than five times in person in a two-week period. She also escorted the student to Counseling and Psychological Services (UCSD CAPS) to seek counseling and avoid self-harm. The student has since recovered and returned to graduate studies.

On the operations side, Veksler led an initiative to obtain software for pre-submission plagiarism detection in research-related publications to avoid adverse impact on UC San Diego and our faculty. Over a six-month period, she negotiated on behalf of a group of faculty that grew to include research groups across the Jacobs School of Engineering to obtain a per-user license for iThenticate for $10/year, significantly reduced from an incredibly expensive $100/use fee that some faculty were paying. The software streamlines assessment of plagiarism to a few second effort via an online interface.

Veksler also recorded several brief video training programs for faculty and students to cope with the changeover to SAP Concur travel and expense service, tailoring them to the attention and time-crunched people in these groups. 

She has no doubt saved the university substantial costs and helped the faculty and students under her care adhere to university practices, procedures and policies, researchers said.

Veksler also participates in the department’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (EDI) Committee as a staff member of her own accord. She is a vocal member of this committee and an invaluable advocate for traditionally underrepresented groups in the department, faculty said.

Mechanical engineer recognized by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

Jorge Cortes, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has been inducted as a 2020 Fellow by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mechanics.
Cortes is being recognized for contributions to the control and optimization of network systems.

The fellows were nominated for their exemplary research as well as outstanding service to the community. Through their contributions, SIAM Fellows help advance the fields of applied mathematics and computational science.

Cortés' research interests are on distributed coordination algorithms, autonomous robotic networks, adversarial networked systems, mathematical control theory, geometric mechanics and geometric integration. The recent emergence of low-cost, highly-autonomous vehicles with control, communication, sensing, and computing capabilities has paved the way for the deployment of robotic sensor networks in a wide range of applications. Controlled motion coordination of these networks will have far-reaching implications in the monitoring of natural phenomena and the enhancement of human capabilities in hazardous and unknown environments. Motivated by these scenarios, Professor Cortes' research program is developing systematic methodologies to control autonomous, reliable, and adaptive mobile networks capable of operating in unknown and dynamic environments.

Ruth J. Williams, from the UC San Diego Department of Mathematics, is also being recognized for contributions to the study of stochastic processes and their applications.

Full SIAM release here: https://sinews.siam.org/Details-Page/siam-announces-class-of-2020-fellows

Turning Engineers into Change Makers

Drive innovation from concept to commercialization – that’s the goal of one of the first initiatives – a four-course management training program for engineering students - of the new Institute of the Global Entrepreneur at the University of California San Diego. We sat down with a few of the students in program to get their thoughts on how they see it helping them translate their technology to the marketplace.

Nick Forsch, Bioengineering, Ph.D. Grad Year ‘19

“I caught the startup bug when I participated in a biomedical design competition - I love the innovation that comes out of small groups of people working towards a common goal with limited resources,” said Nick Forsch, a bioengineering PhD student at UC San Diego. “The nature of startups forces product design to focus on the essential components for meeting the needs of the target market.”

Upon arriving at UC San Diego after his undergraduate education at Washington University in St. Louis, Forsch joined bioengineering professor Andrew McCulloch’s cardiac mechanics lab. McCulloch’s research focuses on understanding the development of heart failure using models of cardiac electromechanics. When he’s not in class or the lab, Forsch is on of the vice presidents of the Bioengineering Graduate Society and enjoys playing soccer.

Read more about Nick

Originally from Huntington Beach, California, Karcher Morris came to UC San Diego to complete an undergraduate degree, and eventually a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. When he’s not in class or doing research in Professor Frank Talke’s mechanics lab, Morris can be found in the EnVision Arts and Engineering Maker Studio where he TAs a number of experiential learning courses, or learning about business.

Karcher Morris, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. Grad Year ‘18

“About a year and a half into my Masters, I decided to switch into a Ph.D. program because I had a great lab and a great PI,” said Morris. “At that point, I wondered about an MBA program. With undergraduate degrees in both aerospace engineering and management science, I was always looking for that well-rounded experience.”

According to Morris, it was one or the other when it came to graduate school. “I could either further my technical skillset or switch to business.”

Morris is part of the first course in the new program.

“This class has given me a new perspective because I’m working with a diverse group of motivated engineers.”

Read more about Karcher

Somayeh Imani found her niche in circuit design of wearable sensors – and it opened her eyes to the world of startups.

Group photo of Patrick Mercier's Energy-Efficient Microsystem lab. Imani is second from the left in the back row.

“There is so much opportunity in the field of wearables to commercialize technology,” said Imani, who is a graduate student in the Energy-Efficient Microsystem lab of Patrick Mercier, the Co-Director of the Center for Wearable Sensors at the University of California San Diego. “But commercialization is hard – you need a business plan and marketing skills –things that engineers don’t usually learn much about during their degree.”

Imani is part of the new pilot course – the first of four in the Technology Management and Entrepreneurism Fellowship Program – that aims to turn engineers into change makers through exposing them to the lab to market commercialization process. Participants earn a certificate at the end of four quarters.

Read more about Somayeh

  

Product that Jacobs School seniors helped design set to hit store shelves

San Diego entrepreneur Karen Kart, in the facility where her tantrum-proof plate is being manufactured.

A tantrum-proof plate for toddlers that Jacobs School students helped design and develop is now being manufactured and is set to hit store shelves in April. The plate, named Adi, is the brainchild of San Diego attorney and entrepreneur Karen Kart. 

Kart reached out to Teaching Professor Nate Delson first in 2009 and then again in 2012. Delson assigned teams of seniors to work with Kart both times. The four students who worked with her in 2009 now have their name on a patent for the plate’s suction base and quick-release tab technology. 

The 2012 team worked on a retail-ready prototype. Students tried various versions of a lid design before landing on one that would stay put. In all, Adi went through 11 rounds of 3D-printed prototypes.

In addition to staying put while a toddler throws a tantrum, the Adi plate is also equipped with a quick-release tab that’s toddler-proof but easy to use for any adult.  The plate has three different food compartments and a snap-on lid for adventures. The Adi plate is BPA-free, phthalate-free and PVC-free; made from safe materials that have been FDA-approved for use by young children; and will be manufactured in the United States.

For more info on the Adi page: http://www.prodigikids.com/

Two Jacobs School alumni featured in Forbes' 30 Under 30 for 2016

We are incredibly proud of Sarah Guthals and Daniel Lee, two Jacobs School alumni who are featured in this year's 30 Under 30 selection by Forbes Magazine.

ThoughtSTEM cofounder Sarah Guthals

Guthals is a co-founder of ThougthSTEM, a company that focuses on teaching kids how to program, in San Diego and beyond, as well as online. The company has created LearnToMod, a software package that allows students to learn how to code inside of Minecraft. ThoughtSTEM currently offers a free Coursera course to teach educators how to use LearnToMod in their classrooms as a learning tool. The company has also developed CodeSpells, a first-person player video game to teach coding.

Guthals leads ThoughtSTEM's initiatives that connect with schools and teachers, online and in real life. She often chats with educators online to help them customize their programming lessons. She presented a many educational and programming conferences, including Minecon, a Minecraft-centric event that draws crowds every year.

With fellow ThoughtSTEM co-founders and UC San Diego alumni Stephen Forster (computer science) and Lindsey Handley (biochemistry), she co-authored "Minecraft Modding for Kids," in the For Dummies series. Guthals earned her bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. in computer science at UC San Diego.

Daniel Lee with one of the Hush smart earplugs prototypes.

Daniel Lee, nicknamed "Ewok," co-founded Hush Technology, a company that makes smart earplugs with fellow UC San Diego student and alumni Daniel Synn and Daniel Chesong Lee (hence the need for nicknames to distinguish between the three Daniels).

The team raised more than $450,000 for their product on Kickstarter. The three Daniels then turned to making the product a reality. As of December 2015, the company completed a 400 unit preliminary mass production run. Hush plans to deliver its units in January 2016.

Lee, who graduated in 2014 with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering, came up with the idea for the smart earplugs during an entrepreneurship class taught by Teaching Professor Nathan Delson. Lee and the other two Daniels took part in Phases 1 and 2 of the NSF I-Corps program offered at the von Liebig Center here at the Jacobs School.

Robot developed by UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee available to preorder

MiPosaur, a robot born of the collaboration between toymaker WowWee and the UCSD Robotics research group, is now available to pre-order on Amazon.com.
MiPosaur is a self-balancing robotic dinosaur and responds to hand gestures as well as commands made via a smart phone app. I can follow a ball, dance and, of course, roar.
See MiPosaur in actoin here:

Squishy robot that jumps is in the media spotlight

It's been compared to a frog, called "extremely cute" and "a bouncing bot." A robot designed by engineers at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, became a media darling this week. The robot is the first of its kind with a 3D-printed body that transitions from hard at the core to soft on the outside. It also is capable of more than 30 untethered jumps.
Below are some of the videos it starred in this week: And many more...

Mechanical engineering professor gets book tribute for 50th birthday

Miroslav Krstic, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and associate vice chancellor for research at UC San Diego, received an impressive gift on his 50^th birthday.

Forty-six of his colleagues in the control theory and systems field – including all the most prominent scholars and scientists in his area of specialty – dedicated a new 400-page special-issue volume in his honor.

“This book is dedicated to Professor Miroslav Krstic on his 50^thbirthday,” says the book’s dedication, “to help honor him for his many important contributions to control theory and its applications. Through his many excellent presentations and publications, including 10 books, and his helpful discussions, Miroslav has inspired each of us to work on challenging control problems.”

Krstic said the birthday gift, hatched and completed in complete secrecy, was a real surprise. “In my field, an honor like this is reserved for a few top people – there was previously only one in the UC system – on the occasion of their 60^th or 70^th birthdays, and it is typically a special issue of a journal, not a book. So it is both deeply humbling and a real honor.”

The book, “Recent Results on Nonlinear Delay Control Systems,” will be published by Springer, a publisher of innovative academic and professional books, reference works, and journals.

The 10 Laws of Robotics--according to one of our alums

Nick Morozovsky with SkySweeper, one of the robots he developed and 3D printed while a Ph.D. student in the UCSD Robotics lab.

When Nick Morozovsky, a Ph.D. student in robotics here at the Jacobs School, was writing his dissertation, he realized his experiences had led him to compile a list of laws that roboticists would need to abide by to survive in grad school, and beyond. 
Morozovsky is speaking from experience. During his time working in the UCSD Coordinated Roboticcs lab, he developed and built several robots, including Switchblade, a rover that could balance on its threads, and SkySweeper, which could glide along cables and was 3D printed. He also worked on MiP, the first-ever self-balancing robot, which was developed by UCSD Robotics and toymaker WowWee. 

For more advice from Morozovsky, you can attend an upcoming meetup of San Diego's Robotics Club at 6 p.m. March 17:

http://www.meetup.com/San-Diego-Robotics-Club/events/220104955/
You can also follow him on Twitter at @DrNickMo: https://twitter.com/DrNickMo

Nick’s Rules of Robotics

1. Never disassemble a working robot.

2. If it works the first time, you’re testing it wrong.

3. When in doubt, lubricate.

4. Never underestimate the estimation problem.

5. If specs for a part are listed differently in two places, they’re both wrong.

6. Glue, tape, and zip-ties are not engineering solutions (though they might work in a pinch).

7. Do not leave lithium polymer batteries charging unattended.

8. Always have a complete CAD model, including screws and fasteners, before constructing your robot.

9. Avoid using slip rings if at all possible.

10.  Always check polarity before plugging a component into a power source.

Help UC San Diego engineers make swappable electricle vehicle batteries a reality

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, want to revolutionize the electric car industry--and they need your help. They have built a car with swappable, rechargeable battery modules, which allow drivers to change car batteries just like you change the batteries in your photo camera or flashlight.

They now want to take the car, a 2002 four-door Volkswagen Golf, on a cross-country trip--but they need funds. So they have launched a crowdfunding campaign on UC San Diego’s brand-new Crowdsurf website. So far, they have raised more than $6,000 toward their $14,000 goal. The funds would go toward building housings for the battery modules, so that they can survive the cross-country trip.

Engineers estimate they can go from San Diego to South Carolina in about 45 hours--at the legal speed limit--stopping only to swap out modules. They named the project Modular Battery Exchange and Active Management, or M-BEAM for short (http://www.modularexchange.com).

Donors to the crowdfunding campaign will get their name on the modules and on the car in different font sizes depending on their contribution level. 

Check out the video above for an overview of the campaign.

You can contribute here.

Sand castles, surfing and computation: what drives these two Jacobs School researchers

Our colleagues at This Week @ UC San Diego asked Geno Pawlak, a professor of mechanical engineering, and Bill Griswold, a professor of computer science, about curiosity, passion and transformation related to their field of research. The answers featured surfing, sand castles and achieving humanity's full potential. The two researchers were speaking at the Founders Symposium Nov. 13 here on campus. Read their answers below.

Eugene Pawlak, Ph.D., ’97, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Turbulence: Chicken Soup for the Coral-Reef Soul

What initially sparked your curiosity about this area of study?

I grew up along the coast in Panama and have lived near the ocean and have surfed most of my life - so I’ve experienced first-hand the dramatic changes in the ocean that can occur due to storms, swell, pollution, etc. The Pacific coast of Panama sees tidal changes of 20 feet so you can see remarkable changes over six hours. I was also a sand-castle builder as a kid (and still am!) and so I was fascinated by the changes that came about due to waves and tides at an early age.

Day-to-day, what fuels your passion for you research?

On a very basic level, I think I’m passionate about understanding how things work. At a broader level, I’ve become more interested in applying this understanding to environmental problems, for example, making use of our knowledge of physical systems in understanding responses of biological and chemical systems in reef environments.

What potential impact—or transformation—do you see coming from this research?

My research is fundamentally about understanding physical dynamics of environmental systems, focused on connections between the coast and the open ocean. From an engineering perspective, this research has implications for predicting storm surge, tsunami inundation, water quality and coastal erosion. I believe the potential for transformative impacts arises from working across disciplines.

William Griswold, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Pervasive Air Quality Monitoring via the Crowd

What initially sparked your curiosity about this area of study?

I learned that there were just a handful of air quality monitoring stations in San Diego, and that we really knew so little about how air quality in the region was affecting the average person. I realized that recent developments in mobile computing technology and sensing devices would enable much more accurate and detailed sensing.

Day-to-day, what fuels your passion for your research?

Three things:

1. I believe that with each advance in computing, we get a little closer to achieving our full potential. Computing technology holds the promise to enhance our humanity and our potential as human beings: our creativity, our intelligence, our reach and how we relate to each other.
2. Students and their hunger for learning. I want to make their dreams come true.
3. The opportunity to make this a better world for everyone.

What potential impact—or transformation—do you see coming from this research?

CitiSense (which leverages smartphones and the advent of cheap, compact sensors to enable real-time monitoring of air quality) is one example of how pervasive data collection and analysis can reveal the state of our world and how it affects our well-being on a daily basis. It's hard to perceive while we're in the middle of it, but a revolution is afoot.

This video of turbulence and flow is mesmerizing

We recently visited the laboratory of Geno Pawlak, a professor of mechanical engineering here at the Jacobs School. Pawlak's laboratory is home to a flume, essentially a water tunnel, used to study different types of flow. Pawlak gave us a demonstration of the flume. Check out the video and prepare to be hypnotized.
Pawlak's research focuses on the turbulent mixing processes that happen at the coast and in estuaries. 

Alum launches Kickstarter for new and improved GoPro mount

A Jacobs School alum has launched a Kickstarter for a GoPro mount for bikes, canoes, and more. Yohei Yamamuro graduated with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering in the mid-1990s before earning an MBA from USC.

An avid mountain biker, he came up with the idea for the mount, called Talon, while trying to position and hold a fluid dispensing nozzle. The Kickstarter project, which has 27 days to go, is currently at about $3,400 raised of its $20,000 goal.

This is what Yamamuro told us about this experiences as an engineering student at UC San Diego:

In hindsight, MAE 156A&B prepared me tremendously for the “real” world. Since we had one project, a miniature outdoor blimp with a gyroscopic camera, the class divided itself into teams. We had design teams for the major components such as chassis, engine, camera systems, and blimp. I chose to be on the project management team—and it was quite a revelation where up to that point most academic activities focused on individual versus collaborative performance. Managing a team effort and all of its advantages and perils helped lay the foundation for who I am today, a technology commercialization and industrialization leader. I am a lifelong learner therefore I have had many favorite classes and professors including: Instructor Dave Tribolet for MAE 156A&B, Professor Vecchio for MAE 11, Professor Hegemeier for MAE 121A (Statics), Professor Pao Chau, Professor Nemat Nasser for Differential Equations, Professor Miller for Thermodynamics, and many, many more.

Expert in origami robots, soft robotics and programable matter to join Jacobs School faculty

Michael Tolley, who will become an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Jacobs School Nov. 1, is one of the co-authors on a paper about self-folding robots published in Science today. Tolley worked on the project while a postdoctoral researcher at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

"I am very excited to pursue similar unconventional approaches to the design and fabrication of robotic systems at UCSD," Tolley said in an email.

According to the paper:

The robot starts as a flat sheet with embedded electronics, and transforms autonomously into a functional machine. To accomplish this, we developed shape-memory composites that fold themselves along embedded hinges. We used these composites to recreate fundamental folded patterns, derived from computational origami, that can be extrapolated to a wide range of geometries and mechanisms. This origami-inspired robot can fold itself in 4 minutes and walk away without human intervention, demonstrating the potential both for complex self-folding machines and autonomous, self-controlled assembly.

 On his website, Tolley describes his contribution as "development of origami-inspired design and fabrication approaches for the fabrication of function electromechanical machines."

The paper has received ample media attention, including:

The Wall Street Journal

The New York Times

NBC News

IEEE Spectrum 

and

NPR

In addition to origami robots, Tolley is interested in soft robotics. He has developed untethered soft robots with integrated power and control systems. Check out this video:


Tolley also has worked on programmable matter, a substance that can follow directions to change its physical properties. According to his website: 

Imagine a system that assembles a pile of regular, mass-produced components into an iPod, computer, robot, or tool with embedded sensing and computation. Objects can be assembled or repaired on-the-fly, and deconstructed to be recycled into new objects when they are no longer needed. This technology would open up new possibilities for rapid prototyping, space exploration, sustainable technology, and evolutionary design.

 Cool videos illustrating the process below:

Pictures: Jacobs School Prof. Olivia Graeve inducted in the Tijuana Walk of Fame

Pictures: Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego Publications

Materials science Professor Olivia Graeve was honored with her very own star on the Tijuana Walk of Fame July 31. The ceremony took place at Tijuana City Hall and several UC San Diego guests were in attendance, including Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. Graeve was recognized for her research and her cross-border outreach efforts. More about her work here.

This Jacobs School Ph.D. student is now a toy maker

Just because you're about to get a Ph.D., it doesn't mean you have to stop playing with toys--or at least making them. That's the lesson we take away from the career trajectory of one of our graduate students here at the Jacobs School.
We caught up with Nick Morozovsky at the booth for the toy company Rokenbok at the Bay Area Maker Faire May 17 to 18. The Solana Beach-based company recently partnered with Kid*Spark, an organization that aims to make STEaM and Maker education more accessible and fun, and created an Open Source Library of building parts that can be 3D printed. That's where Morozovsky comes in. He set up the library for Rokenbok and created an interface that allows users to 3D-print customizable parts as well.
While a 3D-printer hummed nearby, Morozovsky explained how the library worked. Meanwhile, kids were building catapults made of Rokenbok pieces and playing with remote controlled vehicles.
The booth later won an editor's choice award from Make magazine. Morozovsky plans to graduate sometime this year. We'll see where his next adventure in toy land takes him.

Engineer, toy company president explore the frontiers of science and technology at event

MiP, a robotic toy that was developed as a collaboration between the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab and toymaker WowWee.

A big thanks to CONNECT, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship in the San Diego area, for featuring mechanical engineering professor Thomas Bewley and tech transfer officer Dave Gibbons during one of their Frontiers in Science and Technology events. Bewley and Gibbons were speaking with Peter Yanofsky, the president of WowWee USA. The trio worked together on MiP, a toy robot that moves around on two wheels thanks to balancing technology developed in Bewley's lab.

Bewley spoke about his lab's ongoing work in robotic vehicle design and about some of the unique design and commercialization challenges the team faced with MiP. Yanofsky spoke about the complex process of creative prototyping, refinement of a toy's playspec, design for manufacturing, production and distribution. Gibbons served as moderator for the event.

Excerpts from the program overview:
 

Mix a bunch of university robotics fanatics together with a nimble high-tech toy company willing to take creative risks, and what do you get? A dynamic new line of game-changing self-balancing robotic vehicles that become instant hits at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) and overnight media darlings, and which are poised to shift the needle in the public’s perception of robotics in our everyday lives.

“MiP, short for Mobile Inverted Pendulum, sways gently when standing or moving, and steps back to regain its balance when disturbed,” says Prof. Bewley, director of the Coordinated Robotics Lab at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “In a very real way, the dynamics of MiP mimics life.”

Of course, with organic moves like that, MiP can’t resist dancing to your music library, boxing with other MiPs, playing stacking games, or simply kicking around ping-pong balls. And, with its (included) carrying tray, built-in bluetooth, free apps, infrared sensors, and remarkable hackability features, the perennial “yes, but can it bring me a beer” question is one major step closer to being solved.

Watch Jacobs School student pitch toy with UC San Diego tech at New York Toy Fair

Ph.D. student Saam Ostovari can add a new skill to his resume: pitching toys to bloggers and reporters. Ostovari is getting pretty good at it too, judging by the Yahoo Tech video above, which was shot at the New York Toy Fair this month.
He was touting MiP, a robotic toy that is the brainchild of toymaker WowWee and the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab. Ostovari led the efforts in the lab to scale the lab's prototypes to toy size, among other tasks.
The toy fair wasn't Ostovari's first turn in the spotlight. He was at the WowWee booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where he talked himself hoarse.

More MiP media coverage from the toy fair:

CNN

MSN

ABC's Good Morning America

CNET

Bootcamp.com

Robot World

Jacobs School engineers now only one degree of separation from LL Cool J

MiP, a robot created by Jacobs School engineers and toymaker WowWee, got to rub shoulders with quite a few celebrities at the 56th GRAMMY awards, where the toy was featured at the event's gift lounge. The robot is looking very comfortable posing with event host LL Cool J (right) and with Lorde, winner of the Single of the Year and of the Best Pop Performance awards.

MiP website

Related: Real-life Toy Story

Rocket club helps Escondido students gear up for college

"Three, two, one!" Students from Mission Middle School in Escondido counted down as one of them pressed a button that ignited a rocket engine securely fastened to a table on Warren Mall. It was all part of an event set up by Palomar College's Gear Up program. The program designed to create a college-going culture in schools in North San Diego County.

More than 180 middle school students fanned across the UC San Diego campus Tuesday Jan. 14. One of the stops on their itinerary was a demonstration by the Triton Rocket Club, whose members are mostly engineering students. "Rocket science, blowing things up: students are doing this for a living," said Nico Montoya, an IDEA scholar and president of the Triton Rocket Club."It's an actual career." Montoya speaks from experience. He has interned at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and currently works on UAVs at Northrop Grumman.

On a very sunny morning, he showed students how to wire a rocket engine and explained the chemical reactions involved. A few lucky students got to use the remote that actually starts up the engine. Elizabeth Flor, 13, was one of them. She let out a jubilant "I did it!" after pressing the button and seeing flames shoot out of the engine's exhaust.

"It was exciting," she said. "I'd never done it. It's an intense feeling."

Elizabeth wants to become a lawyer and fight for women's rights. Her parents didn't go to college, but if all goes well, she will be the fifth sibling in her family to go on to higher education after she graduates high school.

Elizabeth visited the UCLA campus before coming to UC San Diego. But for a lot of her classmates, it was the first trip outside of Escondido, said Abby Algarin, Gear Up outreach coordinator at Mission Middle School. She worked with the Raza graduate student association on campus to make sure that students got to hear from graduate students and faculty with similar backgrounds.

Students visibly connected with the speakers who shared some of their experiences, said Suzan Varga, a Mission Middle School teacher and one of the chaperones on the trip.
"What I feel as a teacher is that there is a light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "It was powerful."