On Thursday November 21st, students of ILS attended the first STEAM Engineering Panel during F block in the Black Box to gain more knowledge on what it takes to become an engineer and what the job title consists of.

The STEAM Engineering Panel was coordinated by Mr. Ilizarbe and Dr. Rebecca Shaw. During the panel Mr. Ilizarbe asked the engineers questions students had wrote down when they signed up.

The panel included engineers Micheal Stasko, Mauricio Burgos, Eduardo Morales, and Angel Reanos. Micheal Stasko is an aerospace engineer who has worked on Boeing Satellites including Directv and closed area programs. Mauricio Burgos is a civil engineer who works on designing building bridges, roadways and infrastructure projects. Angel Reanos is a computer science engineer who recently got an internship at Google and focuses on AI. Angel Reanos is a electrical engineer who works on the ITS, Intelligence Transportation System, which is the electronic science on the highway, cameras, and more.

When the civil engineers build the roads and highways, it is his job to redesign or design new electrical systems and test equipment that will be set up on the roads. 

Throughout the panel, the engineers shared their stories on how and why they became engineers. They had inspiring stories about how they got mediocre grades in high school, but then worked hard in college to do well, which resulted in many opportunities to go to top engineering universities such as, the University of Florida.

The engineers told the students the importance of perseverance and not giving up even though they might be discouraged because of the difficulties of hard engineering classes, projects, and tests in college. Also, they explained to students about how it is imperative that students do two or more internships so that there are more job possibilities for them after college.

After a long panel full of informational and inspiring stories from the engineers, Mr. Ilizarbe opened the floor for any students who had further questions for the engineers. 

Junior Andres Marquez was intrigued and fascinated by the accomplishments of the engineers and how they overcame their obstacles. 

“I actually I was very surprised by the different things they actually worked on and what they actually ended up doing because you come in with this image of civil engineers only build bridges and so on. It’s fascinating how they explained to us so many things that they have experienced real life. They know what college is really worth, what you should really work for, what you should already strive to do, rather than what’s going to give you the most profit because in the end, you still want to wake up every day, be happy to your job and enjoy your life,” he explained. 

The STEAM Engineering panel provided advice and information regarding a future career path in the engineering field. Students interested in perusing a profession in engineering truly benefited from this panel.