Name: Sarah Aguasvivas Manzano
Hometown: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Advisor: Nikolaus Correll
My Path to Engineering
Growing up I wanted to be a professional tourist. I still wouldn’t be mad if that ends up being my line of work. I grew up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Watching my single mother accomplish her goals and conquer difficult challenges on her own made me develop the idea that I had no limit on the things I could dream and on my capabilities. I later decided I wanted to be an engineer. I was always told I was too soñadora (person who dreams too much). In fact, one day I mentioned I wanted to be an aerospace engineer to friends and someone mumbled the song “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics. The joke is on him! I still live my life, sometimes, dangerously optimistic.
I had a blast during my childhood and maybe that is why I never had trouble learning at school. My brother and I were on our own at home a lot while mom was working and we would build multiple things when we were not fighting, such as a cable railway system for our teddy bears using pulleys and hemp yarn, among other silly inventions. Inspired by a family friend I developed a strong interest in astronomy during my teenage years. I asked my mom to save the money for my Quinceañera party and instead give me a big telescope (8 inches, not so big). Later I taught myself some programming, which came in very handy later on.
Fast forward to my early adulthood, I learned about a program from Penn State called “2+2.” It consisted of attending a local university (INTEC) for my first two years of engineering school and then attending Penn State (Main Campus) to complete the major. They had majors that were not found in the Dominican Republic and that is when I got the opportunity to study aerospace engineering. During my uni years in Santo Domingo, I learned about building things, CAD modeling and multiple engineering tools and fell in love with making things.
I finished aerospace engineering at Penn State, but I did not think it was going to be easy for me to find a job in the fields that I was good at just yet because I am not a U.S. citizen, so I decided to go for my master’s degree.
During my master's studies in aerospace engineering, I started doing research on neural networks and built my own variable-architecture multilayer perceptron in C++ and also took multiple machine learning courses. While working on this field I realized I wanted to integrate my newly acquired machine learning skills to engineering problems, that is what made me decide to go for my PhD in computer science instead of staying in aerospace engineering. I ultimately want to combine robotics with aerodynamics. I found the Correll lab and loved the challenge of learning robotics and possibly applying what I have learned in the past about dynamics and aerodynamics to the field itself.
Why CU Boulder?
I heard about CU Boulder and the City of Boulder and the landscapes here. I also heard great things about Colorado and CU’s aerospace engineering program. For some reason, I put CU Boulder in my radar and did not actually apply to too many other schools. This was the place I wanted to live at for some reason unknown to me. I also did not have a contingency plan for the case that I got rejected either. I just assumed that’s where I was going to go. I am telling you I am dangerously optimistic sometimes. Fortunately, it all worked out.
I loved Pennsylvania but the weather was not my friend there. Even if it snows here I like it more than the East Coast as the tropical creature that I am. The sun is always out and … I don’t know … Colorado makes me happy.
CU is a great school, especially in engineering. What I love the most about CU is the ITLL and my lab. I feel very spoiled that I have at my disposition a lot of expensive equipment and machines thanks to the ITLL and my lab. I will never take that for granted. I also really like the graduate course availability and the CU computer science PhD program. I believe it sets you up for success and the program itself is shaped so you become a better researcher. I really enjoy the atmosphere in which you work too, the people are really positive and everyone is open to new ideas and collaborations. I also really recommend the graduate housing program. It is a great deal and very convenient. In my free time, I like to do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at 10th Planet Boulder.