2023 GA Participants in GASSSS Program
These participants have submitted a final GASSSS application.
If your name is not on this list and you have participated in the GASSSS program, please contact Larry Woolf at Lawrence.Woolf@ga-asi.com
| GA GASSSS Participant | Company | School | Materials Purchased | Activity |
| Thomas O’Connor | GA-ASI | Home School Science Fair Judge, San Diego CA | None | Home School Science Fair Judge – Feb 15th, 2023 9 am to noon. I judged seven 3rd through 6th grade science projects at the Christian Home School Science Fair |
| Maria Pieroni; Sandra Roman; Rania Battikha; Shannon Clague | GA-ASI | Black Mountain Middle School; San Diego, CA | None | Set up a table for the Black Mountain Middle School Career Fair and explained what we do as a company and as engineers in our careers. |
| Bobby Russell | GA | North Manchester Indiana School District, North Manchester, IN | None | Kicking off and leading a STEM Cubsesat competition for an entire school district. 2 Keynote presentations to the entire student body and a 6-hr. engineering and build breakout session. |
| Christina Grill | GA-ASI | San Diego Engineers Week Awards Event, San Diego CA | None | Volunteer at the San Diego Engineers Week event on 2/19/2023 for the GA Sciences Foundation Table. |
| John Malaney | GA-ASI | St. Michael’s School, Poway CA | 3D Printer (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=33820) Mini robot balls (Mini Robot Ball | Coding Robot Ball for Kids | Sphero) |
1/30/23: Spoke to Kindergarden through Third grade about UAVs and RPAs including programmable navigation linking it to the mini-robot balls 3/3/23: Spoke to all three 6th grade STEM classes about Additive Manufacturing |
| Matthew Virgen | GA-EMS | San Diego Science Olympiad, San Diego CA | Science Olympiad computer equipment so scores for every participating team are recorded and uploaded online for tracking and awards placement. | I was an event supervisor for the “Bridge” event. Participants came in with pre-built bridges that had to conform to a variety of standards dimensions, weighed, and then subjected to loading. Bridges were loaded with sand (into a bucket). I checked that the bridges conformed, assisted with pouring the sand into the automated loader, measured the total load, and recorded scores. |
| Howard Kwon | GA-ASI | Ellen Browning Scripps Elementary School, San Diego CA | Book (Energy: Physical Science for Kids by Andi Diehn); Legos; AquaPod Water Bottle Rocket; Flying Discs (To demonstrate transfer of energy) | Spoke to the class about what an Engineer is and what they do; Spoke to the class about Energy ; Read to the class, Energy: Physical Science for Kids by Andi Diehn; Conducted an experiment with the AquaPod Water Bottle Rocket and Flying Discs; Completed a worksheet on energy |
| Joshua Pine | GA-ASI | Cal State San Marcos Super STEM Saturday 2023 | None | Talking about the relationship of basic science and aeronautics, promoting interest in science and math |
| Barton McDowell | GA-ASI | FRC Team NOMAD Inc., Escondido CA | Purchase of miscellaneous robotics parts for FRC Team NOMAD Inc. competing in FIRST Robotics competitions. (Team #6995; frc6995.org) | I serve as a Design and Mechanical Engineering Mentor for the FRC 6995 NOMAD team. Mentored students in design process and strategic development. Including CAD design and manufacturing processes. Coaching and strategy at the event to encourage good sportsmanship and Problem solving. |
| Thane Douglass | GA-EMS | Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair | None | Science Fair project evaluation and grading: Familiarization with standard judging criteria, expectations and responsibilities; Indoctrination with Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair staff; Independent review of each science fair project entry in the assigned category; -Interview of each student participant , -Caucus with other judges from the same category to score and rank each applicant |
| Daniel Layton | GA-ASI | San Marcos Promise, San Marcos CA | None | 5 of us from GA met with various high school students in the San Marcos region to discuss career opportunities related to their interests. We spoke about our own personal paths to our career, as well as opportunities GA provides (internships, career fairs, & various paths toward full-time employment). In addition to the free-form networking starting & ending the event, we also met with a few students in round-table fashion to field any questions they had about career development. |
| Maria Pieroni Rania Battikha Ana Ramekar Kimberly Carruthers |
GA-ASI | Del Norte High School, San Diego, CA | None | General Atomics’ Women’s Internal Network representatives interacted with students and parents at the PUSD college and career fair by handing out postcards and answering their questions about academic requirements for engineering positions and what different careers entail at General Atomics. |
| Magaly Juarez | GA-EMS | Patriot High School, Jurupa Valley, CA | I was hoping to keep the kids engaged by giving prizes/supplies s.a. pens, hats, shirts, pencil pouches etc. When I was their age, I attended a NASA conference and I won a jacket, which I currently still have. |
After discussing about my current role here at GA-EMS, I demonstrated the supplies to the students and explained the uses of them. I allowed them to grab the items and ask questions. I had originally set up the distillation kit, but the teacher informed me I would be presenting to 2 other classrooms, so I had to take the distillation kit apart. By the 3rd presentation, I had left the kit in Victoria Bautista’s classroom and only took what I could carry: Pipette, beakers, molecule kit, separatory funnel. Most of the time was spent talking to the student about the opportunities a College degree/Chemistry degree has to offer. |
| Nina Langley | GA | Grant Elementary School, Santa Monica CA | None | Two talks w/demos: Career & Science intrigue followed by “Nuclear Ice Cream” exercise (making N2 dip-n-dots). |
| Tina Reuter | GA | Grant Elementary School, Santa Monica CA | None | We will be doing two demonstrations at the science expo, one Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Demonstration and the other TBD. We will also pass out posters describing what nuclear fusion is and how it works. |
| Don Czechowicz, Shahin Pajoom, Alberto Nunez, Erwin Castillo | GA | Grant Elementary School, Santa Monica CA | Consumable Supplies used for “SCIENCE IS COOL” Demonstrations, Transportation costs (Gas, Parking, Lunch) | Talks will be given by GA Staff about Science being a COOL CAREER. Discussions of how to solve Global Warming…, and also Future Energy needs. Solutions will be discussed using Advanced Energy Sources, such as how the Sun Works (Nuclear Fusion) for us. Einstein and Periodic Table Posters (suitable for framing) will be distributed. Finally Cryogenic Ice Cream Demonstrations will be carried out before and after Presentation by Jet Propulsion Laboratory that will describe neat things they are doing. |
| Carole Christian | GA-ASI | Grant Elementary School, Santa Monica CA | None | I will be on hand to assist the GA team with talks/demonstrations given by GA Staff about Science being a COOL CAREER. Discussions of how to solve Global Warming, etc… also Future Energy needs. |
| Isaac Ruiz | GA | Grant School, Santa Monica CA | None | Talks will be given by GA Staff about Science being a COOL CAREER. Discussions of how to solve Global Warming…, and also Future Energy needs. Solutions will be discussed using Advanced Energy Sources, such as how the Sun Works (Nuclear Fusion) for us. Einstein and Periodic Table Posters (suitable for framing) will be distributed. Finally Cryogenic Ice Cream Demonstrations will be carried out. |
| Kara Pedersen | GA | San Marcos Promise, San Marcos CA | None | Networked with students from Mission Hills High School and San Marcos High School, inquired about student interests, and responded to student questions. Served as coordinator for the event. |
| Paul Kwan | GA-ASI | Lincoln Acres, National City School District, National City CA | DJI Mini 2 SE Fly More Combo drone for hands on demonstration with students. | 45 minute science day activity. 20 minutes of presentation on engineering and drone introduction. 20 minutes hands on flying with students. See presentation “Lincoln Acres Drone Academy Outreach.pptx” |
| Damigou Konlani-dedieu | GA-ASI | Lincoln Acres, National City CA | DJI Mini 2 SE drone for hands on demonstration with students. Then Drone was raffled off for Parent Science Day open house evening of outreach event. | 45 minute science day activity. 20 minutes of presentation on engineering and drone introduction. 20 minutes hands on flying with students. See presentation “Lincoln Acres Drone Academy Outreach.pptx” |
| Alejandro Gastelum | GA-ASI | Lincoln Acres, National City CA | DJI Mini 2 SE drone for hands on demonstration with students. Then Drone was raffled off for Parent Science Day open house evening of outreach event. | 45 minute science day activity. 20 minutes of presentation on engineering and drone introduction. 20 minutes hands on flying with students. See presentation “Lincoln Acres Drone Academy Outreach.pptx” |
| Joel Petracci | GA-ASI | FRC Team NOMAD Inc., Escondido CA | Purchase of miscellaneous robotics parts for FRC Team NOMAD Inc. competing in FIRST Robotics competitions. (Team #6995; frc6995.org) | Mentored students in the design and software programming of the robotics software. Including requirement creation and testing of the robot software. Coaching and strategy at the event to encourage good sportsmanship and Problem solving. |
| Ayman Battikha | GA-ASI | The Clueless Robotics Team San Diego, CA | Purchase of two servo motors and printing of team’s posters for the FTC league meet 4 and regional competition | 3D solid modeling tutoring in SoildWorks for parts and assemblies; mentoring the team for mechanical engineering and design reviews. |
| John Zinck | GA-SI | Benson Primary School, Benson AZ | None | I lead a team of 10 to 15 second graders participating in the First Lego League program titled “Superpowered.” We learned how renewable energy can be produced using various methods, particularly wind, solar, and hydro-electric. The students filled out a booklet requiring drawing pictures, answering questions, and brains storming ideas, along with Lego kits. The Lego kits were a wind turbine that used a motor to simulate how it would spin to create electricity, a battery terminal where the energy would be stored, and a fair ground type ride to simulate how energy could be used. This culminated in an expo where we demonstrated to our families and a panel of judges what we learned. |
| Orpheus Dong | GA-ASI | Albert Einstein Academy, San Diego CA | None | Presented an introduction to engineering slide deck to 2nd graders at the Albert Einstein Academy. After the presentation, the kids were asked to build a free standing structure with pasta and marshmallow. A total of six, 2nd grade classes were reached during this event. |
| Max Warren | GA-EMS | University of Mississippi, Oxford MS | None | Networking with University of Mississippi School of Engineering Deans and Professors. Also participated in Senior Capstone Design presentations by listening to presentations and asking questions to Mechanical Engineering students. |
| Katherine Kucharski | GA-ASI | Albert Einstein Academy, San Diego CA | Marshmallows, spaghetti, paper plates, STEM kits x6 (2 for each class) | Talk about engineering with students, and give a science demo and hands-on activity building structures with spaghetti and marshmellows. STEM presentation about engineering, and structures, and hands on activity with the kids. Performed 6 times, with all 2nd grade classes at the school. |
| Caroline Rye | GA-ASI | San Elijo Elementary School, San Marcos CA | Five (5) Air & Space Museum Onsite “Engineering Challenge: Aircraft Design” Workshops San Diego Air & Space Museum - Historical Balboa Park, San Diego ; One (1) Ruben H. Fleet “Under Pressure” Science Assembly Show Don't Try This at Home! |
Brief overview of General Atomics and introduction to the STEM activities; aided presenters with set-up and tear-down for engineering workshops. Helped students modify gliders for form, fit and function. |
| Vincent Rye | GA-EMS | San Elijo Elementary School, San Marcos CA | Five (5) Air & Space Museum Onsite “Engineering Challenge: Aircraft Design” Workshops San Diego Air & Space Museum - Historical Balboa Park, San Diego ; One (1) Ruben H. Fleet “Under Pressure” Science Assembly Show Don't Try This at Home! |
Brief overview of General Atomics and introduction to the STEM activities; aided presenters with set-up and tear-down for engineering workshops. Helped students modify gliders for form, fit and function. |
| Ben Peuker | GA-ASI | Escondido Charter High School, Escondido CA | None | I participated in Escondido Charter High School’s Senior Project Exhibition as an industry/alumni panelist. In this role, I reviewed the senior portfolios of several students, listened to presentations about their projects, and provided them with constructive feedback. |
| Timothy Bleakley | GA-ASI | Ramona High School, Ramona CA | None | Classroom visits to RHS Senior Engineering class for project presentation reviews and team mentoring. |
| Timothy Bleakley | GA-ASI | Ramona High School, Ramona CA | Materials and supplies for building design project prototypes: Desk for disabled students: Basic height-adjustable desk; desk modification supplies (edge protector strip, padding, pop-up power socket, backpack hook, cable protector, gas struts); Watersports hydration life jacket: CO2 inflator cartridges x3 |
Interim design project presentations review. Meetings with students to provide mentoring and design feedback/guidance. Ordering supplies. Final Project presentation review |
| Shannon Clague Ana Ramekar |
GA-ASI | Highland Ranch Elementary School, San Diego CA | None | We guided elementary school students in designing and building their paper helicopters to promote STEAM and GA WIN. |
| Maria Pieroni | GA-ASI | Poway High School, Poway CA | Purchasing food and drinks for the Women In Engineering Day Event on 5/16/2023 for 30 students, 6 teachers and 7 volunteers from GA). I purchased sandwiches from Jersey Mikes and purchased cookies, chips, and drinks from Costco. Additionally, I bought graham crackers from Stater Bros for the “Don’t let your cookie crumble” activity. | The day includes tours, an engineering activity, and a panel at General Atomics. |
| Tamara Browne Catherine Wei Arianna Asgari Nina Shenoy Nicholas Willhite, Ken Shamrell |
GA-ASI | Poway High School; WIN Women in Engineering Day at GA-ASI | None | TProvided a tour and feature information about the MQ-9B aircraft, CGCS, and P3E. In addition, guided the students through flying our flight simulator. |
| Kelly Seiler Vocke | GA-ASI | Poway High School, Poway CA | None | Hands on activity to cushion a cookie using materials off the approved supply list |
| Shireen Shipman, Samantha Calabretta, Helen Tat, Lauren Hasell, Megan Kendrick, Lucy Glewicz, Kelly Seiler Vocke, Kelsey Hite | GA-ASI | Poway High School; WIN Women in Engineering Day at GA-ASI | None | The Spring 2023 Women in Engineering Day was a success! Sixteen female students from Poway High School spent the day at GA learning about our products, networking with engineers, and completing a hands-on activity. Through the support of nearly twenty volunteers, these students were introduced to roles including software, manufacturing, integration, and testing. Tour guides and chaperones helped students tour 3 different buildings, showing our products and explaining the tasks involved in various job roles. Others ran the hands-on activity, in which students designed and tested a container created to protect a cookie; this taught them various skills such as budgeting, planning, environmental testing, and iterating their designs. Finally, lunch and Q&A volunteers provided an hour of networking, eating lunch, and discussing personal experiences in engineering. |
| Nina Langley | GA | Canyon Hills High School Robotics Club, San Diego CA | Robotics Parts/Circuit Boards/Motors/Tools to build robots. Purchased from Vendors such as McMaster Carr, REV Robotics… | Nina Langley went to a Canyon Hills High School Robotics Club meeting and gave a presentation on and answered student questions about GA, her role in the company, basics of nanoengineering, & her experience at UCSD. She also helped students brainstorm for a presentation and interactive activities for a booth for the school’s “Community Night” event. Finally, Nina overviewed and critiqued robot designs with the perspective of a nanoengineer. |
| Hannah Houze | GA-ASI | TutorMate | None | Online tutoring in reading |
| Chau Nguyen | GA-ASI | Maryland Avenue Elementary , La Mesa CA | STEM Kits were purchased to create 3 different stations where the students rotated. (3) 3Doodler kits (10) 4 in 1 Solar Power and Electric Motor Kits (3) Edible Candy Science Kits |
Please find the attached slide set that I used to introduce myself and GASSSS. With the help of the teacher and parent volunteers, I was able to set up 3 different stations: Solar/battery cart building, 3-D designing, and candy chemistry experiments. I assisted each group to set up and work through experimenting and building with the students. Each student was able to complete a cart and take home. The students in the 3-D design rotation was able to draw and print a little souvenir to take home. In the candy rotation, I was able to help the students mix, heat and mold gummy. The students were able to taste the candy after we were done. |
| William Capinski | GA-EMS | San Diego High School, San Diego CA | • Qty 10 semi-circular refraction dishes • Qty 14 concave lenses • Qty 28 convex lenses • Qty 20 concave mirrors • Qty 20 convex mirrors |
I reviewed and purchased the optical components requested by the Physics instructor at San Diego High School. I created a Powerpoint presentation appropriate for Junior and Senior high school students interested in pursuing a STEM career. The Powerpoint had 4 main sections. • Summary of my education path to my Physics PhD • Summary of my professional career • Lesson on the optical properties of the material purchased for their class • Critical thinking section of how a STEM engineer needs to ask questions and explore all facets of a problem/system On Tuesday May 30th, I gave the inspirational, technology-based presentation to about thirty juniors in the high school physics class. I discussed the optics purchased for them and presented examples of their use. The same presentation was delivered to about fifteen seniors a few days later. The students will have the opportunity to “play” with the optics in the remaining few weeks of school this year, but the biggest benefit will be for the rising junior class as the instructor integrates the optics into their hands-on teaching curriculum of their senior physics class. |
| Christopher Geraci | GA-ASI | E Hale Curran School, Murrieta CA | Purchased owl pellets and other items necessary to dissect the pellets. | Assisted with setup and dissection of owl pellets with the 4th /5th grade combo class. |
| Ivan Burow | GA-ASI | Valle Lindo Elementary School, Chula Vista CA | Purchase of 25 kits of: https://www.amazon.com/Stomp-Rocket-Original-Rockets-Packaging/dp/B00000K3BR?th=1 |
Talked to students about my Aerospace Engineering Degree and how engineering plays a role in their everyday lives. Presented students with the stomp rockets and demonstrated how different angles of the launcher affect the trajectory and how hard they stomp will affect how far the rockets will launch. |
| Cory Cottonaro | GA-ASI | UCSD | None | Mentoring chemistry student (1 hour mentorship orientation UCSD + 30 minutes every 2 weeks with the mentee from January 20th – June 14th) – total time: 1 hour + 9 (30 minute meetings) – 5.5 hours (One initial planned meeting was missed) |
| Brandon Washington, Debra Roy, Jake Crawford Gregory Wong Gregory Thomas Shane Steinfeld David Jackson Debbie Lopez Aaron Majors Patricia Cain Reyna Espinosa Carabantes Arturo Tapia Gutierrez |
GA-ASI | JROTC STEM Leadership Academy, San Diego CA | None | We are hosting the USD JROTC STEM Academy for a STEM/Aerospace Engineering Enrichment and Campus Tour where you will have the opportunity to: • Show some basic engineering principles with the use of demonstration items. • Speak with students about your personal journey in Aerospace and how you got to your position from a high school graduate. • Speak to the students about your role in the company’s mission. • Guide students through our unrestricted areas where we build our product. • Assist with setting up and breaking down demonstration items, tables, tents, and backdrops. |
| Brendan Lyons | GA | The O’Farrell Charter School, San Diego CA | Two plasma balls, a six-pack of fluorescent lightbulbs, 4 magnet sets for age 5+, 2 magnet sets for age 9+ | This activity provided kindergarten through fifth grade students with an onsite college and career fair to help increase the exposure of diverse careers and professions. I attended in my role as a research scientist at General Atomics. I showed upwards of 500 students fun plasma and magnetism demonstrations to get them excited about a career in the sciences. |
| Kathreen Thome, Auna Moser, Shawn X. Tang, Kathryn Birdsong, Alicia Dautt-Silva, Maria (Marlene) Ortiz, Elizabeth Brown | GA | AAUW TechTrek (American Association of University Women) San Diego | None | 8 GA employees + 2 non-GA employees gave ~130 total women (girls, their junior coaches and adult chaperones) tour of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility in two separate groups. We had 5 stations of DIII-D (control room, model, pit, RF, and patch panel and a robot. |
| Orpheus Dong and Alan (Woody) Snyder | GA-ASI | UCSD COSMOS, La Jolla CA | Funding was used to purchase 25 multimeters for the robotic class students. In addition funding was used for drinks and snacks after the manufacturing tour of 3 different buildings. | Provided a tour of A14/15 and 21, visited all the robots at GA and spoke about the manufacturing process and our internship programs. |
| Kevin Patterson, Milton Malueg, Shahab Seichi | GA-ASI | Bear Valley Middle School, Escondido CA | 2/24/2023 | Plans for a Midi controlled Tesla Coil, Parts for the coil per the parts list provided in the plans. |
| Shawn Tang, Auna Moser, Lindsay Ward-Kavanagh | GA | Virtual AAUW TechTrek, CA | None | GA employees participated in the AAUW Virtual TechTrek with one workshop on spectroscopy and a virtual tour of DIII-D and a career panel. |
| Paul Ferrell | GA-EMS | Canyon Hills High School FIRST Robotics Team 1266, San Diego CA | Robot Parts | I am mentoring for FIRST Robotics team #1266 |
| David Zhang | GA-ASI | Living Stream Christian Church in San Diego, Vista, CA | None | Demonstrated to a group of 2nd graders the history, principle, parts, and steps of using a microscope to observe an onion epidermis specimen. Let the kids draw what they observed. Taught them how to calculate the actual size of the onion cell size according to their drawings. Then compared their calculated onion cell sizes with googled results |