Episode 7 Reflection

Justin Diaz

In this episode of this series, Hector explains his experience in Otay Ranch Highschool and how he experienced Mustang Robotics, and his career in 5G technology. He was from Mexico and had to adapt to the United States and its form of education. He studied long and hard and was able to accomplish what his classmates could without being born here or having studied in the USA for the majority of his life. He decided to join Mustang Robotics to belong in a place where they have a lot of people to be with and interact and nerd out. He found a passion for engineering and went to UCSD to study computer and electrical engineering. He was able to do a lot in this subject and part of his life and he pushed through to find who he is and his purpose until he decided to study in 5G and its benefits and disadvantages. Internships and applying for many things gave him an opportunity to learn more and grow as a person to become someone better.

Brian Helewa

Hector David Murguia Gastelum was different from the other alumni because he moved from Mexico to San Diego during his high school year in 2014. He found it hard since he came from Mexico, but when he heard from his friends about Robotics he became interested in it. He saw that he liked math so in the fields of engineering would be a good choice to focus on. Since he came from a school from Mexico, he had to go catch up in his education through Southwestern College where he then joined robotics in his senior year.

Andrew Lai

I was very interested in Hector’s advice to give regarding college, whether that be applying to college or how to flourish in a college environment. I agreed that coming across as human is a very important part of college applications. Hearing about Hector’s passion for robotics and how it led him down a career path truly inspired me as I feel very similar to how he felt at the time about robotics. Listening to what it is like at UCSD and how he managed to excel in his classes as well as interact with his professors, even work alongside them, was very valuable to me as a high school student. I now have a better insight into how I could gain opportunities for internships and such in a college environment that could benefit me with Linkedin. Hectors’s progression through college working in a field he is passionate about as well as acquiring internships with very respectable companies such as Tesla, Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Apple inspire me to try to do the same in the future and give me more confidence in my ability to do so as I now know someone who has.

Edward Lee

The Mustang Robotics club is a group where people develop close relationships. Even as of right now, I would occasionally talk to club members who have graduated last year and even the year before. It is basically a group of nerds. The general environment is comforting as I can feel as though I relate with the rest of the club members. I can definitely agree that I was also not really expecting that I would be building robots at my age. It's true that when my team won an excellence award, it made me feel like all of our hard work was worth it.

Robert Meza

In episode 7, after hearing about Hector’s story I felt understanding for him as he was looking for a social group and that was why he joined robotics. With this, he would develop good friendships with his teammates like Nico, the person who introduced him to Robotics. Hearing this, I found this relatable as robotics did develop my friendship with some of my friends even further as we would bond through the development of robotics, and I would find new friends also. As he would move on from high school, Hector would soon go to UCSD and would major in engineering, but this wouldn’t be his first option as he would want to go to schools like MIT. He would make his attempt in trying to enter these schools by trying to further his education and take higher-level classes like calculus. With me being someone who tries and takes higher-level classes making an attempt to get into good schools, knowing the possibility of being rejected seems a bit down but to him, he would manage and still succeed in his goal by going to UCSD.

Karlo Reyes

I found Hector’s symposium episode to be of great relevance. I enjoyed listening to his post-highschool story, as it revealed the reality of college application and the opportunities that await. When he spoke about getting denied at MIT, Stanford, and UCLA, I sympathized with the disappointment he felt. As someone who aspires to attend MIT or UC Berkeley, this made me realize that there is a high probability I won’t get accepted. But considering that his rejection led to something better, I shouldn’t be discouraged if that were to happen. In fact, I was amazed when he spoke about working on research projects since that is exactly what I want to do in the future. As such, I listened intently when he started speaking about how to become acquainted with professors in the pursuit of gaining research experience. Of all the things he said, I particularly liked his advice that “If there’s something you want, go and get it.” Because I am an introvert, I was completely astonished by this one sentence. I rarely reach out to experienced individuals for assistance or guidance due to fear that I would be a bother. But after listening to Hector’s suggestions, I understand now that I need to step out of my comfort zone and communicate with others for my own benefit. Having finished the episode, I now have the resolve to make myself known by professors in hopes that they can guide me towards my dream.

Faith Shin

This episode of the Symposium Series with Hector seemed to help me a lot with applying to a college of my preference. During the interview, I felt his passion about robotics and I admired how he was able to choose his career pathway through the club. I liked how advised us to be ourselves during the application process because the higher colleges want to accept someone that can add value to the community. It was also astonishing that he moved to the US from Mexico during 10th grade and was able to achieve so much. I thought it was also really cool that he was doing work with professors. I thought it was pretty funny when he started talking about boomerangs, but as he continued on, I was amazed by the ability to turn such object into a topic of a research question.

Sinjin Torgaeide

In episode 7 of the Symposium series, Hector David Murguia Gastelum’s achievements look well organized and very intriguing. The visuals were great as he describes his robotics experience. He elaborated, with great detail, the amazing atmosphere of the competitiveness of other students at robotics competitions, like having fun, last-minute fixes for the robot, waking up early in the morning, and everyone so focused on their teams. His exposure to robotics encouraged Gastelum to realize and pursue his career of electrical engineering. Additionally, all the hard work Gastelum describes he has done and given the result could prepare other students to attempt to work harder in order to enter schools like MIT. While explaining the work he has done, he also gives advice to many people applying for college, like telling the audience to present themselves as genuine people that would fit into their community. His explanation of his project of position location system on commercial devices was very interesting to listen to and a unique concept many most likely have not heard. The use of LinkedIn helped Gastelum and many other alumnus to attain job invitations which could help viewers in their future careers where their alumnus could open the doors to success. Overall, Gastelum’s background, robotics experience, his explanation on how robotics affected him, his advice about college for the audience, and his internships shaped the interview into a remarkable presentation of his life that could help change the audience’s future as they learn from this video.