Episode 4 Reflection

Justin Diaz

In the 4th episode of this series, I discovered a lot about how Mustang Robotics opens your pathways. As he did a lot of accomplishments in mustang robotics like going to worlds and more. He also decided to go into SDSU and he got a lot of things or opportunities thanks to mustang robotics. He chased the career path of construction engineering and he decided to continue to go off from that. That job of the career was one that would benefit him more as he can get a lot more money from doing this and he also gained many skills from it to use in normal life. HE had a little bit of a tough time in the beginning but that learning curve paid off and he was able to do better. TIme managing everything was key to his success and to figure how to conduct everything to do correctly the construction and to succeed. And in the end, he was able to succeed from all the hardships from the beginning and was able to do better than expected.

Andrew Lai

I was amazed and intrigued with the career pathway Kenneth Gervacio and I find it amazing how Mustang Alumni such as Kenneth are able to work on such high-level projects at such an early point in their careers. I was also happy to hear his advice with the college and SDSU. I often hear about the importance of joining clubs and taking internships from college students and Kenneth was no exception. He told me about his experiences at SDSU and how his programs and clubs allowed him to be successful and how he got an internship in the safety sector for worksites. I agreed with his views on the importance of college as the best thing a student could take away is the knowledge that can be applied in the future, especially with a career. I was interested in how he found himself in college and managed to end up working for PCL Construction Services at LAX airport which just fascinated me.

Edward Lee

I was interested in engineering in general, but robotics have also helped me develop a stronger passion for robotics and mechanical engineering. I feel as though robotics have helped me develop my confidence and helped me learn the skills necessary for being a part of a team. It's definitely interesting how robotics can be linked to other types of engineering. I resonate with how building is a crucial part of my own identity.

Woojin Lee

This episode had Kenneth, who graduated SDSU with a degree in construction engineering. The very interesting thing about Kenneth was his career path as he was an engineer in robotics but became a construction engineer and I always instinctively correlated engineering in robotics with mechanical engineering. However, the more I thought about it, it kind of made sense as if you knew what worked, you knew what didn’t work and what could cause troubles and injuries. I also forgot that robotics has protective equipment, which is a very basic and small thing, but could be used to get people familiar with safety equipment involved with construction. Along with this, I got to see how successful construction engineering could be as Kenneth was working on the LAX terminal, which costs around 1.6 billion dollars. This definitely helped me realize that there are more successful career opportunities that robotics can help achieve than the standard ones I could think of in my head. Another thing about Kenneth that was interesting was going to SDSU as the other episodes that I have been able to watch were all about UCSD, and seeing how they compare and contrast definitely helped me realize that each college has an environment and social atmosphere that is wildly different from one another. Kenneth also talked about the importance of balancing, which was something that I have heard in past episodes and further emphasized the point to me that college is about learning to take care of yourself while doing these different assignments and working on different things. A very interesting thing about Kenneth in college was that he had actually failed a few classes, which is very different from what I was used to as throughout my school life, your grades were the main focus and you had to always have good grades, while from what Kenneth told us, it seemed like grades weren’t as important in college. In conclusion, Kenneth was a very different from what I have seen so far and definitely helped me see other possible career opportunities.

Robert Meza

Since my start in robotics, it would help me to find my interest in robotics and engineering. With this interest, it would also help me find my interest in astronomy with satellites and rovers. Besides this, I was amazed that someone coming from our “family” would reach and begin managing big projects for big and important buildings like LAX. Understanding that he would work on big projects as a manager, he would need many important skills like teamwork and communication which can be taught from Mustang Robotics. This is understandable because I would also learn to improve my communication and teamwork skills because robotics requires it.

Faith Shin

The following episode of the symposium series with Kenneth allowed me to find insight in an area that I would have never sought to find out on my own. In the interview, it was said that he worked in an area of construction and participated in an internship based on safety where he worked as an admin and tried to find a learning style that he could use to connect it to the workers. I thought that this was very interesting as I did not know that this was an area you can get into through college as I thought college was not needed for this general field. This allowed me to correct a thought that previously was believed to be a fact for a long time. I also learned that there was a concept called Earthwork and that it was also very rigorous. Continuing on, I was intrigued by his internships with various airports: SAN, LAX and agreed with his opinion that learning is very interesting if we can learn something that could guide us in our future. Finally, I found it very hilarious that he joined a lot of cultural clubs but became the president of the Vietnamese cultural club although he was full Filipino.

On episode 4 of the symposium series, I believe that this part of the podcast was done pretty well. The introduction does a good job in welcoming new viewers and revealing the alumni. Additionally, I believe the context given for Gervacio was well like how he went to SDSU and has a job in construction. The visuals presented throughout the episode showed and reflected each part of the interview well, like robotics pictures, his college career, and his job. The visuals also gave a positive mood as the people were smiling, and, by showing pictures of Gervacio’s work, it may inspire people in the podcast to pursue something similar. The questions asked by Mr. Pearson seemed focused on the topic and did not drift away from it, so viewers would be more interested in this person’s experience. In relation to that, it was very important to bring someone as credible as Gervacio to the interview because the audience, mainly the students from middle and high school, can learn from him and make decisions based on his experience. Some suggestions I have for the podcast is to add music in the background, like calming music. However, music to the podcast may create several problems like making sure we can use the music and can be distracting, but it could engage the audience. Lastly, if you have not already, I suggest preparing the guest speakers in the questions being asked by Mr. Pearson, so they can answer more fluidly and, possibly, enhance their vocabulary. Overall, I believe this was another great episode of the series with the great introduction, images, content, and an amazing alumni.

Shannon Yeow

Kenneth first joined robotics knowing that he wanted to become an engineer in the future. He went to World’s in Anaheim and it was the first organized team event that he had to travel to get to. As someone who has also been to world’s, the idea that everyone has the same goal there really struck me. During his senior year, he knew that he had wanted to go to SDSU and entered as an electrical engineering major. Though he stumbled during college, in the end he successfully graduated. Kenneth was able to receive an internship through an ex-classmate and its really amazing how your friends that you form in college are your connections to the different industries and opportunities. Besides his internships, he also joined cultural clubs where he became the president of a Vietnamese Association. It was clear that in college, Kenneth didn’t do everything for the sake of appearing qualified for jobs, but he joined clubs that he wanted to. Kenneth’s internship turns into a real job at LAX Airport which is a 1.6 billion dollar project and PCL Construction Services. I find it amazing that from the beginning that he joined robotics, he had confidence in his interests in engineering and many years later, his career path in construction has led him to travel to places like Rome, England, and Japan.

Euphony Zhou

In the 4th stream, Kenneth Gervacio talks about his experiences with VEX robotics as a program where he specifically goes over his experience at Worlds and how it has impacted his college life. Throughout the stream, his advice on college and the challenges on taking difficult courses was really impactful. As he additionally talks about the different clubs and opportunities at SDSU such construction and cultural, a construction paid internship, it really opened me up to more experiences at SDSU.