{"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":"<p class=\"open-para\">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<p>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<p>A Test &amp; 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<p>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 &amp; Mathematics). Indeed, he shared, \u201cEveryone I know from Palomar who stuck with it is now an engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/former-palomar-comets-engineering-job-is-out-of-this-world\/\"><em>Related: Former Palomar Comet\u2019s Engineering Job Is Out of This World<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\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<p>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<p>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<p>The optical system Rodea helped produce for NASA is designated Mastcam-Z, and consists of a pair of cameras, each <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetary.org\/space-images\/mastcam-z-calibration\">roughly the size and shape of a tennis ball canister<\/a>.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4224\" src=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/50\/2020\/11\/mastcam-web-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\/mars2020\/spacecraft\/instruments\/mastcam-z\/\">NASA\u2019s detailed project website<\/a>. \u201cIt identifies rocks and \u2018soil\u2019 (regolith) that deserve a closer look by the rover&#8217;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":"<p>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 2020 Rover lands on the Red Planet next year, it will begin transmitting images captured with equipment that Yuri Rodea helped to build.&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.palomar.edu\/news\/from-palomar-to-space-engineering-alum-shares-his-story\/\">\u00a0Continue Reading:<span> From Palomar to Space, Engineering Alum Shares His Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10413,"featured_media":2243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"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":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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