SACNAS Officers 2016-2017
Andrew Tran is a fourth year computer science major who is currently crushing real hard on functional programming right now. Andrew first attended SACNAS meetings Spring Quarter of his freshman year and immediately loved how unconditionally welcoming the community was. He soon became enamored with the club’s ability to mentor students seeking help and direction (especially for middle school and high school students that attend the Annual SACNAS Outreach Event!). In his final year, Andrew seeks to pay this mentorship forward by serving as co-chair of the UCSB chapter and building up the community that has given him so much. Outside of SACNAS and schoolwork, Andrew also dedicates time to SASE (Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers), playing piano, gaming, ameteur dancing, and forcing his roommate to eat vegetables.
Ricardo Castro is in four year in the Electrical Engineering program and has been part of SACNAS since this first year at UCSB. Having been interested in his signal and system processing courses his junior year of college, he has decided to further explore this field by being part of the Sensors and Controls group of the UCSB Hyperloop Capstone. Additionally, he is exploring other areas of signal processing by taking classes in digital image processing and robotics and hopes to work in DSP post-graduation. This will be his third year as an officer, starting as a secretary and ascending to co-chair over the years. Ricardo’s many focus for the chapter is to expand on the work of officers from previous years and help develop the community aspect of the chapter so that SACNAS feels more like a family. He feels that this, alongside the promoting diversity in STEM, is what SACNAS is truly about.
Bianca Dunn is a fourth year Microbiology major and MARC scholar who has a passion for understanding the world around her. Her curiosity about the natural world led her to pursue biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her fascination for the invisible world of microbes guided her to specialize in microbiology. Bianca has spent two years in Dr. David Low’s lab at UCSB researching ways to combat antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. She has also rotated through Dr. Ferric Fang’s lab at the University of Washington where she analyzed interactions between nitric oxide and various antibiotics in Staphylococcus aureus. Bianca is very interested in biomedical research, and as a Chicana and proponent of diversity in the work field, she always maintains a strong focus on increasing minority participation in STEM. She absolutely loves doing science outreach through programs like FUSE, SciTrek, MESA, and SACNAS, and she is very excited to serve as the co-outreach coordinator this year for the UCSB SACNAS chapter.
Josue Morales is a second year chemical engineering major and Regents scholar who serves as one of the two Outreach Coordinators for SACNAS. He initially joined SACNAS because of the friendly atmosphere, the professional development, and the ability to connect with great students and faculty. But what most captivated him was the Annual Outreach Event. This event brings high school students to the university and offers them mentorship, information, and first-hand experience about college. He hopes to keep the torch going and inspire more young students to pursue a higher education. Outside of SACNAS, Josue works with the student committee in charge of organizing TEDxUCSB. Lastly, some of Josue’s interests include trying new foods, learning about the history of art, practicing his terrible French, and occasionally going on a run.
Rachel Alvelais is in her third year as a Chemistry student and SACNISTA, and she serves as the UCSB chapter Treasurer. Her desire to understand the universe has led her to pursue a career in scientific research and to create innovative solutions to the problems of the future. For over a year she developed electrochemical means of producing nanostructured solar cells, and she will now continue her work in nanotechnology with the Gordon group in Chemical Engineering at UCSB. She also interned for the Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships, and in her work for CSEP and SACNAS she hopes to instill a passion for science in young students from minority, low-income, and first-generation backgrounds, and to help them receive the same opportunities she has been given.
Joseph Sanz is a third year Chemistry major who actually enjoys organic synthesis. He currently works in Javier Read de Alaniz’s lab synthesizing photosensitive molecules that can be used for a wide variety of biomedical applications such as drug delivery. Since serving as a mentor for at-risk students in high school, Joseph has always had a passion for helping underrepresented and underprivileged groups. SACNAS’s similar mission statement caused him to become more involved in outreach and eventually become an officer. Besides conducting research, serving as the Events Coordinator for UCSB SACNAS, and being a student, Joseph also enjoys playing volleyball on the UCSB club team. He hopes to continue his passion for education and research in graduate school.
Jair Rafael Santiago Carranza is a second year Computer Engineering student who currently serves as Co-Events Coordinator. Jair lived most of his life as an illegal immigrant in the United States in an area with very few opportunities and programs which were limited to US Citizens and Residents. At the end of 2011, he became a Permanent Resident and his outlook began to change. Eventually, he came to join SACNAS because he wants more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to have access opportunities and resources that he did not. He plans on becoming a naturalized US Citizen and wants to explore the fields of computer security and privacy with an internship at a major defense company this upcoming summer. His personal interests include playing competitive Smash, editing pictures and music for fun, as well as inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Jonathan Delcid:
Jonathan Delcid is a second year Chemistry major who is currently serving as Secretary. He began his scientific endeavors at UCSB by taking part in the 2015-2016 SIMS program, where he assisted in conducting research in the field of computational cognitive neuroscience. While he enjoyed his time gaining an introduction to this field of science, he is very excited to see what the field of organic chemistry has in store for him. He became interested in SACNAS while serving as intern for SIMS, mainly because increasing cultural and racial diversity in industry is of profound importance to him. Understanding and celebrating different cultures is an essential part of the human experience, which is why he also currently serves as an intern for the Cultural Mentorship Program, mentoring the students of the Black Scholars Hall. Outside of chemistry his interests include trying new foods, listening to music (Anderson Paak), and spending time with friends.
Jonathan Delcid is a second year Chemistry major who is currently serving as Secretary. He began his scientific endeavors at UCSB by taking part in the 2015-2016 SIMS program, where he assisted in conducting research in the field of computational cognitive neuroscience. While he enjoyed his time gaining an introduction to this field of science, he is very excited to see what the field of organic chemistry has in store for him. He became interested in SACNAS while serving as intern for SIMS, mainly because increasing cultural and racial diversity in industry is of profound importance to him. Understanding and celebrating different cultures is an essential part of the human experience, which is why he also currently serves as an intern for the Cultural Mentorship Program, mentoring the students of the Black Scholars Hall. Outside of chemistry his interests include trying new foods, listening to music (Anderson Paak), and spending time with friends.
Andy Rosales Elias is sophomore at UC Santa Barbara. Before his freshman year, Andy participated in the Summer Institute of Mathematics and Science, where he researched Machine Learning and its use on optical image recognition. Currently, Andy is conduct ing research on Machine Learning and its applications of Computer Vision at RACELab, UCSB under Chandra Krintz and Rich Wolski. For the summer of 2017, he will be interning at Intel Corp. to work on image recognition and object detection. He is extremely passionate about diversity in the tech field and in academia. He serves as the campus ambassador for the non-profit organization CODE2040. On his free time, he enjoys taking walks by the beach, longboarding and biking around Santa Barbara's trails.
