Student
Profile
Monica
M. Medina
My family is from Puerto Rico, about a year after I was born in San
Juan we moved to the states and moved around until we settled in San
Antonio, TX. I grew up with two younger sisters. My father works for
the Air Force and my mother is a high school Spanish teacher. They have
given so much support and encouragement to me throughout my life and
I can’t thank them enough. I couldn’t have gotten this far without my
parents.
Why did
you decide to go to college?
Fortunately, attending college was not a hard decision I had to make.
It was always understood that I would go to college. I never considered
another option. My parents graduated from college and always encouraged
my sisters and I to do the same. We grew up knowing that we would attend
college when we graduated from high school. My big decision was what
university I wanted to attend.
What
motivated you to pursue an engineering degree?
Although my father is a civil engineer, I never knew exactly what
that was when I was younger. During the summers in high school I attend
the PREP (Pre-Freshman Engineering Program) in San Antonio, which is
a three year program. Students are introduced to the different engineering
fields and different classes that help them succeed in engineering.
After finishing this program I knew I wanted to pursue an engineering
degree. I thought engineering was a field that could open the door to
a variety of opportunities. My last summer before I graduated from high
school, I attended two more summer programs. I spent a week at New Mexico
Institute of Technology. I was put in a class to learn more about electrical
engineering. I had fun putting circuits together and figured I’ll be
an electrical engineer. Then I went to the SEE (Summer Enrichment Experience
in Engineering) at Texas A&M University. That is when I decided that
I wanted to go to Texas A&M.
What
advice would you give to a student about pursuing an engineering degree?
For me, a degree in engineering is not easy. No matter how difficult
it gets, don’t give up! Make sure that you are in a field of engineering
that you enjoy. If you don’t like what you are studying, it’s that much
harder to get through it. When you start taking classes freshman year,
take general courses or courses in different areas to get exposure to
the different fields of engineering. Also, it’s not easy to do it alone.
When you have friends to study with and support each other, you can
get through anything.
What
type of research are you engaged in right now?
I started working in the Power System Automation Laboratory (PSAL)
under Dr. Karen Butler with the Summer Undergraduate Research Program
at Texas A&M in 1998 and then again in 1999. First I worked on distribution
level insulator failure characterization. Then I got more involved with
a project on characterization of underground cable failures. Jesús Cardoso
was the graduate student working on this project. This project is concerned
with maintaining reliable distribution systems. That reliability is
tied directly to failure of equipment in the distribution system such
as transformers, insulators, and distribution lines. In an optimal situation,
the company would like to detect equipment near failure and replace
it at a convenient time without loss of service to the customer. More
specifically researchers are developing a system to detect cable near
failure in underground power distribution systems. My undergraduate
research concentrated on experiments that have been conducted on damaged
and undamaged sections of underground cable at a test facility at the
TAMU Riverside Campus. Time domain and frequency domain analysis were
performed on data measurements recorded during the tests. Characteristics
of the data were analyzed. This characterization will be used as a basis
for the cable failure detection system to be developed in the future.
This research experience has brought so many opportunities. I have
gained experience in technical presentations and I am learning to overcome
the fears of public speaking. I never thought of continuing my education
and now I plan to go to graduate school. The exposure to the area of
power has opened a door for me. Power never caught my attention until
I began to work in the Power Systems Automation Laboratory. Also, the
experience I gained there helped me get an internship this past summer
at a major utility company.
What
are your short and long-term career goals?
I graduate this December with my B.S. in Electrical Engineering. In
January I plan to begin graduate school at Texas A&M to get a Masters
degree in engineering concentrating in the area of power. After graduate
school I would like like to start a career in the power industry.
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