Jacobs School Student Travel Fund Recipients 2015-2016

 

 

James Hartanto
@ 2016 American Chemical Society Annual Conference

“My time at the conference was an invaluable experience, as I was able to learn and talk to people who had various ideas and research in a multitude of topics within the chemical research area. It also was a good experience for me to present a small project that I had been working on in the Jokerst lab in the nano-engineering department. This strengthened my ability to present to a public audience and a large conference.”

Judy Ho
@ Theta Tau 2016 Spring Western Regionals

“During the event, I was able to meet other members of the same org. We discussed ways to improve the org on our own campus and possible new ideas to implement. There was also a guest speaker who had a lot of insight on small talk and networking. Overall I felt that I gained a lot attending this event.

Auston Wang
@ Workshop for Student Chapter Leaders

“As a sophomore involved in SCSE and Steel Bridge, I did not expect to become more involved in Student Chapter. This trip gave me the opportunity to enhance my professional skills by engaging with actual employers. This gave me the opportunity to network for the first time, and I was able to gain insight on how to apply for jobs and encourage others to become more involved in Student Chapter.”

Deenah Sanchez
@ SpaceVision 2015

“The SpaceVision conference was a very memorable event. SEDS UCSD won the "Best Chapter of the Year" award, and we were able to network with other SEDS members from all over the country. The key note speakers were incredibly interesting to listen to.”

Kristin Agcaoili
@ Celebration of Women in Computing, SoCal 2016

“It definitely enhanced my experience as a student at UCSD because it taught me about the gap women have in engineering fields and how prominent it was in classes. Because of this knowledge, I am now more aware of it, especially in regards to the one of my extracurricular engineering activities. I am now taking the steps to encourage women to take part in engineering extra-curriculars and hoping that my club can be more welcoming and open to other groups. It also introduced me to local startups that work with innovative technologies such as Virtual Reality.”

Mitchell Topete
@ SHPE National Conference 2015

“I was able to get a large amount of valuable interview experience relative to my discipline which will help me obtain a job after graduation. Other than the career fair, the first few days were also very exciting because SHPE hosts an event called "Extreme Engineering" where a handful of teams are pitted against each other in a competition to design the best idea that that judges can come up with. It is a 24-hour event and you can experience the entire engineering process including marketing and product design as well. In terms of life experience, I was able to explore the city of Baltimore and learn all about the city and its features. Attending this conference has improved both my professional experience and my personal experience as well.”

Megan Ong
@ Clinton Global Initiative University

“CGI U was one of the most rewarding and eye opening experience I've had in college thus far. Throughout CGI U, I had the opportunity to meet people representing innovative projects, network with leaders in major companies, and gain new ideas for my commitment to action. Thanks to this experience I have rediscovered my passion of humanitarian work and have a clearer picture as to what I want to pursue in the future.”

Isaac Rozen
@ SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Design Competition

“For me, travelling to the competition with the other team members was a pretty unique experience. I haven't actually been to an off-campus competition in years, especially one out-of-state. Also, I haven't flown in a couple of years, so it was nice to try that out again. As for the competition itself, it was really enjoyable meeting all the other teams at the event and seeing where we stacked up compared to them, and it was cool how my views of these other universities changed because of the other students I met from those places. It was also a cool experience to present our pod to the other teams, visitors, as well as the engineering judges at the events. All in all, it was nice experiencing a more industry-focused engineering event versus what I'm normally used to in research-related events.”

Gregory Marchese
@ 2015 American Dental Association Annual Meeting

“I had an incredible time at this event. As part of my schedule of events, I was given exclusive meetings with Congressman Juan Vargas, of the 51st congressional district, and the Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy. This allowed me to discuss current matters in healthcare reform, the humanitarian missions that the UCSD Pre-Dental Society takes part in yearly (including providing critical medical, dental, nursing and large-scale engineering support). I was also able to network nightly with dental school admissions and leadership staff, since I am looking to go to dental school upon graduation with my bioengineering degree. Finally, I was able to network and converse with U.S. Navy recruiters for the dental corp., and many vendors and representatives for the numerous companies and organizations that I will be working with later in life.”

Michelle Wu
@ SIGGRAPH Asia 2015

“I was able to enhance my professional experience in that I could network with employees from Pixar, Apple, Bandai Namco, Disney, etc. In the educational aspect, I learned about the latest rendering and graphics technology and techniques being used in both Pixar's and Walt Disney Animation Studios' software for films recently released (Inside Out, Big Hero 6) as well as upcoming films (Sanjay's Super Team, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory). I also networked with fellow volunteers and learned of different job fields such as Technical Director, Lighting/Rigging, etc. In terms of research experience, I was able to listen to other graduate students present their research papers in the field of computer graphics, including optimizing algorithms and/or creating new algorithms (for example, one team of students worked on an algorithm to generate a painting-like image from a real-life picture). I also gained international experience by speaking Japanese to Japanese attendees during the conference, as well as meeting other volunteers who were from all over the world.”