Name: Patricia Garcia

Hometown: Miami, FL

What is your major? Mechanical engineering

Where did you intern? What did you do there? I interned at the University of California Berkeley, where I worked jointly in the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center (BSAC). I was part of the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (TBSI), a collaborative research and education center of Tsinghua University and UC Berkeley.

Within TBSI, I worked at the Data Science and Information Technology Center, which focuses on advanced materials and device technologies to improve people’s quality of life with sensor networks. For example, in my specific project, these devices sense the smallest anomalies, such as weak signals from the radial artery, which could be an early sign of heart failure. My work was conducted in Lab 2A: Sensors & Microsystems, where I focused on wearable sensing technologies, integrated energy harvesting and storage systems.

How did you get your internship? I ‘ve been involved in various research projects throughout my time in high school and at the undergraduate level. After spending the summer following my freshman year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I applied online after I learned of the opportunity from a former labmate. Read more at FIU News.