{"id":4223,"date":"2020-11-04T17:45:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T01:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/?p=4223"},"modified":"2025-07-10T13:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:34:13","slug":"from-palomar-to-space-engineering-alum-shares-his-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/from-palomar-to-space-engineering-alum-shares-his-story\/","title":{"rendered":"From Palomar to Space, Engineering Alum Shares His Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

During his virtual presentation, former Palomar College STEM student Yuri Rodea provides glimpses of a career in advanced engineering and urges students to \u201cstick with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAN MARCOS \u2014 When the Mars 2020 Rover lands on the Red Planet next year, it will begin transmitting images captured with equipment that Yuri Rodea helped to build.<\/p>\n

A Test & Integration Engineer at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, Rodea led a virtual presentation hosted by Palomar\u2019s \u201cRising STEM Scholars Program\u201d on Thursday, Oct. 22, discussing his own path \u201cfrom Palomar to CSU to Space.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Rodea\u2019s first return visit to Palomar to inspire students to keep pursuing their dreams of a career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics). Indeed, he shared, \u201cEveryone I know from Palomar who stuck with it is now an engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Former Palomar Comet\u2019s Engineering Job Is Out of This World<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt all really started when I was at Palomar,\u201d he said during his Zoom presentation in October. \u201cWhile I was there, I was a STEM tutor, I was a lab assistant for most classes I took\u2014the best way to learn something is to have to explain it to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from Mexico City, Rodea said being a bilingual engineer has given him a \u201cleg up\u201d in the industry. He encouraged students to get a solid base in math and chemistry\u2014and to go beyond the basic academic requirements, if they\u2019re serious about pursuing a career in engineering or a related field.<\/p>\n

During his hour long presentation, Rodea explained \u201cwhat engineers actually do,\u201d sharing glimpses of his typical work day, and talked about projects he has contributed to as a technician and professional engineer. He finished by providing a comprehensive list of \u201csteps to success in STEM.\u201d<\/p>\n

The optical system Rodea helped produce for NASA is designated Mastcam-Z, and consists of a pair of cameras, each roughly the size and shape of a tennis ball canister<\/a>.\"\"<\/p>\n

Considered the eyes of the rover, Mastcam-Z is designed to facilitate experiments on the surface of Mars \u201cby looking at the whole landscape,\u201d according to NASA\u2019s detailed project website<\/a>. \u201cIt identifies rocks and \u2018soil\u2019 (regolith) that deserve a closer look by the rover’s other instruments. It also spots important rocks for Perseverance to sample by drilling rock core samples and caching (storing) them on the surface of Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his virtual presentation, former Palomar College STEM student Yuri Rodea provides glimpses of a career in advanced engineering and urges students to \u201cstick with it.\u201d SAN MARCOS \u2014 When the Mars…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":2243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[19,9,23,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carousel","category-features","category-home","category-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Palomar to Space, Engineering Alum Shares His Story - Palomar News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Palomar to Space, Engineering Alum Shares His Story - 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