I was born and raised in Cidra, Puerto Rico, a small town on a small island in the Caribbean Sea. As a child, I used to watch my father work on cars all day. Naturally I became interested in cars and mechanics. As a teenager I began repairing cars myself. While working on various cars I noticed how different countries take different approaches to engineering solutions in the automotive industry. This brought my attention to Japan. The Japanese engineers were always able to somehow produce reliable, efficient cars that were reasonably priced. I was intrigued by how they could achieve decent performance in all areas without compromising quality or cost.

My passion for cars propelled me into a career in mechanical engineering. Just studying mechanical engineering wasn’t enough, however. I wanted to see firsthand how Japanese engineers studied and this motivated me to apply to the International Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Course for Undergraduates (IMAC-U) at Tohoku University. Luckily, I was accepted as part of the first generation of students in the IMAC-U program. Though I suffered some culture shock, after learning enough of the culture and language I finally reached equilibrium in Japan. Life was great! Japan is very clean, safe and in many ways very different from Puerto Rico so I was able to grow as an internationally minded person.

During my senior year I joined the Adachi-Takeno Laboratory, a laboratory specializing in tribology. What is tribology you ask? Tribology, the study of friction, lubrication and wear of surfaces in relative motion, helps you understand the mechanisms on the interfaces in machines, allowing you to improve their performance by reducing friction, or to extend their lifetime by reducing wear. My research dealt with developing a motor using surface acoustic waves to produce motion. A surface acoustic wave (SAW) motor uses the piezoelectric effect to create waves on one surface, which are in turn used to move another object. SAW motors are a promising technology given their high speed, high resolution, and simple design.