Latino in STEM Journey

This is a transcript of June 2022 IOScholarships Superheroes podcast 

Nelson is thrilled to return to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory this summer through the NASA NSTGRO Fellowship.

He will be furthering his research on extraplanetary sampling with highly extendable soft robots and providing support on the sampling system and testbed validation for JPL’s Endurance Lunar Rover project.

HOST

Hello, my name is Maria Fernanda, and I’m the host of the IOScholarships Superheroes podcast.

This podcast is only a 10-minute podcast that highlights the best-kept secret of IO scholars, job recruiters, and community influencers. And most importantly, we want to provide you with financial resources to go to college debt-free and become financially savvy. Our guest today is Nelson Badillo. He’s a rising senior studying mechanical engineering with a concentration in robotics at the University of Notre Dame. He’s originally from MOCA, beautiful Puerto Rico Nelson with undergraduate research in robotics for disaster response and is passionate about promoting education in STEM this summer, he will be working as a robotics engineering researcher at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab. Welcome, Nelson, tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM.

*Please note that this podcast was aired on June 14, 2022. Now Nelson won a scholarship at NASA, and he is pursuing his post-graduate research studies at Harvard University.

Speaker

Well, Maria, thank you so much for a great introduction. And I would have to say, what inspired me to pursue a career in STEM was building things with building blocks. My parents gave me my first set when I was about six years old. Um, and I would remember sitting down with them, seeing what I could create, and I would just spend hours and hours on my end. And from there I discovered, the fascinating world of robotics by, building robots with Legos and then through my high school’s robotics program, which I helped create. That inspired me to get involved in robotics and engineering, but an event that marked my path toward engineering and now robotics was Hurricane Maria, back in 2017, hurricane Maria devastated my community. It came in as a category five hurricane and it destroyed everything.

Speaker

And back then, I was just starting in robotics in my high school.  And after Hurricane María, I realized that there was so much potential, for robotics to go into collapsed buildings and save survivors of natural disasters. And so many people were not able to be saved because we didn’t have the tools to go in and save them. So, I said to myself, there must be a robot there. There’s a way I could use my talents and skills and robotics to help these people. From there, I decided to pursue mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame. And I’ve been involved in robotics research ever since.

HOST

Uh, this story is very inspiring because you explain how artificial intelligence and robots can help humanity. I’m very interested in learning a little bit more about the ethics of artificial intelligence. And what do you think about that?

Speaker

Sure. Well, I would have to say that ethics and artificial intelligence are probably one of the most important topics we need to cover in the present and the future. Cause as technology progresses, we will use AI more and more, and we need to ask ourselves, how are we going to regulate AI? What are the rules that we’re going to put in place for AI to follow laws and moral codes of conduct? Um, so I would say that very shortly, there needs to be an independent body made up of experts in the field of AI and policymakers that gets together and decides what are the best rules to implement for AI. So we can have strong regulation and adequate development of AI that could be used for good because AI and robotics have so much potential to do a lot of good in the world, but we need to be regulated and see the best ways to use it.

HOST

At IOScholarships we have access to thousands of STEM scholarships, based on your unique diverse background, waiting for you today, some of them only require a 2.5 GPA and no essay. Remember the more you apply, the more chances you have to win apply today. I want you to share with students how you overcame the challenges coming from Puerto Rico maybe they don’t have a strong STEM curriculum.

Speaker

That’s a great question. And I would say that it was very, very difficult for me because where I come from it’s a very, very rural community and there aren’t any STEM resources available. Um, I remember that I had to convince a lot of people and get a lot of support to create my school’s first robotics program. And, it was very, very difficult because first, our main language is Spanish. Most of the classes were given entirely in Spanish. So that put me at a big disadvantage when looking at schools and opportunities in the United States. And another big hurdle was just, there wasn’t anyone in my community who was an engineer who was involved in STEM. So, I didn’t have any mentors to help, to guide me to this career. My dad is a humble, small bakery owner in my community. So I had to look for people and places that could help me through my career. That led me to become the first person in my school to ever go to a university in the United States and in my family. So it’s been a very big hurdle. Once I was at Notre Dame, the cultural shock and the language barrier were very, very difficult, but just motivated me to keep going.

HOST

I know that you won scholarships. So, I was wondering, you know, which tips will you provide to students who want to apply for scholarships in the STEM industry?

Speaker

Well, I would have to say, first of all, make a plan, see, what scholarships are out there that interest you, that align with what you want to do in the future, make a big list, and you need to apply to a lot of places and you need to be cognizant that you will get some, but you will also not get some. So, you’ll need to sit down with people who know you well, who can help you draft your essay, make a good resume, and possibly letters of recommendation. That’s very, very important.

HOST

You mentioned about the importance of role models and mentors, who is your biggest mentor?

Speaker

I would say my biggest mentor is my dad. Even though he’s not an engineer, he doesn’t know anything about STEM. He is probably the most persevering person I’ve known in my entire life. My dad grew up in extreme poverty. He didn’t have anything. Um, growing up, he didn’t have food, money for food, shoes, or books, and he had to work extremely hard for everything that he had to provide me with an education. He has always been my closest confidant. He’s the one who I trust the most and has always guided me from the very beginning. He was the mentor of my robotics team when I was in, in high school. He always went to our competitions and was always there probably every single weekend, eight hours straight. And I’m incredibly grateful for that and I will always have him as my mentor.

HOST

Nelson. I’m very intrigued about your upcoming mission. Tell me a little bit more about your upcoming mission.

Speaker

Sure. So, this summer I’ll be working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and I’ll be working as a robotics, researcher, on the upcoming Veritas mission. That’s a mission that’s going to be launched in by the year 2027 or 2028 to explore the possibility of life in the atmosphere of Venus. Because scientists from Earth through scientific observations are quite sure that there is unicellular life in the atmosphere of Venus. And they want to send a robot to take measurements that could detect ultimately if there is life on another planet. And that could be a very big breakthrough in science and engineering. So I’ll be working with the extreme environment, and robotics division to design, build, and test. Uh, one of the robots is going to be sent and go into the atmosphere of Venus, to take all the necessary measurements.

HOST

Tell me your last words of encouragement for students who want to pursue a career in robotics.

Speaker

Well, I would have to say that, just be curious, be willing to pick up a book and learn something new robotics is entirely about multidisciplinary learning. Cause the field of robotics is changing every single day and you need to be on top of what’s going on, and what do I need to learn and be resilient? When dealing with technology, and hardware, things go wrong and things break and you need to be resilient and know that you need to keep going and that if something breaks, it’s not the end of the world, you need to figure out what’s wrong and how can I fix it?

HOST

Yes, it’s very important in innovation to adapt

Speaker

Yes. And there is a lot of potential in the field of robotics. It has, it’s growing rapidly in the present and it’ll become ever more important in the future. Right now we’re seeing its potential in disaster response in medicine and it’ll just keep growing. And a lot of people don’t see the potential in robotics, but I would have to say that believe in yourself and keep going. And you will have the potential to do great things and help a lot of people.

HOST

Thank you again for your time. And thank you for being part of our IOScholarships Superheroes podcast. And for everyone who is watching, feel free to like share, and subscribe and see you next month for our IOScholarship Superheroes podcast. And remember the power of the three eyes for inspiration, innovation, and invention. See you next time.