I’m a PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering working at the interface of materials and optics. For my PhD, I built a 3D printer and worked on understanding and developing new materials for 3D printing. Most of my work applies to tissue engineering and the regeneration of bone and cartilage. I got a B.S. in Physics from Florida International University in Miami, and am originally from Maracay, Venezuela. I am passionate about increasing diversity in STEM through mentorship and outreach.
✨ADVICE
Some advice I’d give to people looking into becoming engineers is don’t be discouraged by failure. Learning to fail, and failing quickly has been one of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn. I never dealt with failure well, and struggled with spending too much time overthinking why I had failed. Now, as a PhD student I know that experiments fail most of the time, no matter how well planned, because we’re working on something no one has ever done before. The key, however, is learning what you can and moving on quickly. It can be tempting to dwell, to give up, or to say “I’m just not good enough,” but instead, I encourage you to learn from failure, find a new solution, and keep going because nothing great was accomplished on the first try.