Outreach

“Diverse teams feel less comfortable, and that’s why they perform better”. Learning to communicate across barriers and draw upon lessons from different experiences provides the appropriate amount of grit on a daily basis to constantly grow and adapt. All forms of outreach, community, and diversity enable us to learn from each other and improve together.

Further details can be found in CV: [pdf]

RoboGrads @ UC San Diego

I co-founded RoboGrads at UC San Diego, the robotics graduate student organization, which has led to numerous initiatives, such as a seminar series for both internal research, external research, and industry; and outreach programs with local undergraduate and K-12 students and presentations to international undergraduates about our lab’s research. RoboGrads has helped foster the growth of our interdisciplinary robotics community at UC San Diego and organized events in conjunction with the greater San Diego ecosystem, such as networking events at Qualcomm and presentations for the San Diego Robotics Club.

Community Events

"You don't know what you don't know". Early exposure, guidance, and representation can make a big difference in helping someone realize what is possible, and thus positive impact through community involvement is key to giving back. Below are a few of the community events I've spoken and demoed at:

UC San Diego Lab Tours Program

The UCSD Lab Tours is a program that allows labs to internally inform, engage, and involve undergraduate students and graduate students in the broader scientific community on campus.

Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Family Academic Programs Science and Technology Series

This day-long event introduced CTY Students and their families to research underway at UC San Diego related to the topic of biologically-inspired robots.

UrbanLife Robotics Program

Urban Life is a Christian organization that provides numerous programs for at-risk youth in San Diego; one of these programs centers around students interested in engineering and robotics. We hosted these students for a tour of our lab and demonstrations about our work in robotics. For more information on the Urban Life program, please visit:

https://www.urbanlifesd.org/

San Diego Maker Faire

The Maker Faire is a gathering of people fascinated with learning about new technology, and a place where people showcase their hobbies, experiments, and other projects. We were excited to host a booth and demonstrate some of our research at the 2016 Maker Faire.

http://sandiego.makerfaire.com