Becoming an engineering major can be an exciting yet daunting decision to make in one’s academic career. Luckily for Santa Monica College’s Ebony Warren, she found an internship through Base 11 that allowed her to take what she learned in the classroom and apply it to a real-world project at UCI’s Autonomous Systems Engineering Academy. Read more about our Victory Circle Student of the Month below:

Q. What school do you currently attend?

Santa Monica College

Ebony posing with the Mars Rover she helped build and program.

Q. What is your major?

Computer Engineering

Q. What inspired you to apply for the Base 11 UCI program?

I’ve always been interested in getting hands-on experience and a few of my friends and counselors told me what a great experience Base 11 was for them.

Q. Can you give us a brief summary/overview of what your project was at UCI?

Our project was to build a working scaled-down remote-controlled version of a Mars Rover on a Raspberry Pi. A Raspberry Pi is basically a tiny version of a full-size computer.

Q. In what ways is the internship helping you towards your goals?

By getting this hands-on experience, I’ve been gained so many skills that I can apply to research labs and I better understand topics in class that relate to this project.

Q. What are your upcoming plans?

I am currently planning to transfer to a University in the fall. I’ve TAGed to UCI so I’ll probably be an anteater in the Fall.

Q. What are your dreams for your future career?

I’m hoping to do research in quantum computing and then get into Software Engineering.

Q. What advice do you have for students looking to pursue the field of aerospace/STEM?

Keep trying and don’t give up. Do research on what you want to do and try to get experience in different fields to see what you’re truly passionate about in aerospace/STEM.