Hello everyone! My name is Sierra T. Morales, formally known as Secours. I am a Mechanical Engineering Technology major. I was drawn to my major after having quite a bit of experience with Autodesk Inventor and building trusses throughout my third and fourth year of high school.
If I am being honest, MAT 2680 will be my last mathematics only course I will be taking during my undergrad as I plan on graduating in Spring 2021.
For the past three years, my track after City Tech was to commission as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army either pursuing a career in the engineering corps or medical corps. However, it wasn’t till early Spring 2020 that I realized that I no longer wanted to be part of the armed forces but, rather join the civilian world as a medical engineer. I am currently prototyping a modified version of the continuous glucose monitor (CGM) used on type 1&2 diabetes patients.
My interests revolve around building drones and robots but, lately with quarantine, I found myself only interested in playing animal crossing on my Nintendo switch.
I would say I am proud of the woman I’ve become today with my strict Asian upbringing and being an immigrant coming from Montreal, Quebec, coming in 2008 not knowing a lick of English.
I don’t read much other than the documents, manuals, and articles I need and as for my favorite animal…definitely a panda.
Now, as for how the pandemic affected me, my husband and I were both forced out of our apartment in the city along with 100s of other younger tenants in the building in early march. My husband and I temporarily stayed with his family in Miami, Florida for a few months and recently decided to come home to New York about a month and a half ago. Ever since we came back, I’ve been staying in a hotel apartment hunting…still no luck. You would think that in the city where most people are fleeing or are being kicked out that there would be vacancies and desperate landlords seeking tenants but, instead they’re price gouging and being picky.
Now to stray away from the gloom of pandemic sob stories, I am a peer advisor for the Mechanical Engineering department, I work with Perkins Peer advisement—you may reach out to us here on openlab at any time for any of the Tech and design majors, simply look up Perkins. If you need any help with advisement, tutoring, or need help at all, don’t hesitate to ask. Another thing, I am also your SGA Executive Secretary, if you have any questions pertaining to the school, clubs, etc. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us on either our instagram @citytechsga or via my personal email until I receive my official SGA email sierratmorales@gmail.com
If you have any questions about clubs particularly the Mechatronics Club (robotics), ASME Student Chapter (engineering society), I am the President of both these clubs, feel free to ask me anything. I also work closely with the other clubs ie. Drones Club, Makers Club, VR&AI club, IEEE Club, let me know and I’d be happy to connect you to the right people if you’re interested in getting involved in club activities.
Would you know how clubs will function/interact during this “distance-learning” period, (was hoping to be more active this semester before the pandemic went out of hand)?
Also, you have an interesting project! Would you happen to be working closely with a professor to guide you through?
I definitely have many more questions about surviving through the MET department!
As of right now, I believe clubs will have different means of hosting their clubs, it all depends on a club to club basis.
I know for my clubs, my Vice President and I are currently trying to figure out which platform we’ll be using to have weekly/bi-weekly check-ins with our members. We may use Zoom or Skype, it all depends on what the majority of the club members use and we’ll go from there. At this moment, I still have the slack account active for members to reach out to one another whether its through club general, direct, or team section chats. Slack is a messaging application similar to What’s app but has different chats so that it stays organized.
Initially, I started working alone however, I seek guidance from Professor Gaffar Gailani, he teaches Inventor or IND 2304 in our dept, from time to time given his background in the medical engineering field. If you’ve ever taken his course or plan on taking it, he’ll have you design a medical device for your group project. It’s because of him that I realized I wanted to shift gears and pursue a career in medical engineering.
As for your questions regarding surviving through our department, ask away! If you need any help at all, we’re not all that scary, we’re all struggling to get the same degree lol so we help our MECH family out. The professors aren’t bad in our dept either, just do your work and even chat with them, you’ll learn quite a bit from their stories or from their teaching methods. If you do well, they have connections and are willing to help you get a job in the industry after you graduate. Feel free to email me anytime with any more questions or drop a comment down below in case there are other MECH students in this class with similar questions.