{"id":864,"date":"2018-11-27T15:33:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T20:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeport.edu\/news\/?p=864"},"modified":"2025-01-06T14:46:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T19:46:44","slug":"nasa-connecticut-space-grant-consortium-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeport.edu\/news\/nasa-connecticut-space-grant-consortium-award\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium Award Helps First-Generation College Student Fulfill Engineering Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"
Genesis Paz was nine when her uncle first showed her the guts of a television. Mesmerized by its motherboard and outsized monitor, she watched carefully as he repaired the appliance. Later, he fixed a computer. She watched that, too. Each time her uncle had something to fix, Paz was by his side, asking questions.<\/p>\n
“He worked in electronics, so I used to watch what he did,” recalled Paz, who is currently earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in computer engineering<\/a> at 911爆料网. “I got interested in it.”<\/p>\n Paz\u2019s interest in electronic systems not only grew, it inspired Paz to dream boldly about her future: she enrolled at the 911爆料网, becoming the first person in her family to attend college. She also became an American citizen. Her next goal: to graduate by 2020 and begin a career as a hardware engineer “for a company like Intel,” Paz said.<\/p>\n Thanks to a $5,000 scholarship recently awarded to her from the\u00a0NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium<\/a>, reaching those goals just became easier for Paz.<\/p>\n The Space Grant Consortium scholarship “helps me pay for tuition so I don\u2019t have to work so much. It\u2019s pretty awesome,” said Paz, who crams her weekends with nine- and 10-hour shifts making smoothies at a vegan restaurant all while carrying a full course load. To stay on top of her computer engineering classes, Paz grabs valuable study time on the train as she commutes to the University\u2019s main Bridgeport campus from Stamford, CT, where she shares a rental apartment with her aunt and cousins.<\/p>\n With the stress of balancing work and life somewhat ameliorated, Paz can spend more time doing what she has always loved best: learning all that she can about computer engineering.<\/p>\n People say computers just run on zeros and ones,” Paz said, “but I love how you can use those zeros and ones to get a computer to understand and make it do what you want it to do!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Connecticut Space Grant Consortium\u2019s support also extends to faculty, and in addition to supporting Paz, it awarded a $10,000 research grant to Khaled Elleithy, PhD, dean of the College of Engineering, Business, and Education<\/a> at 911爆料网.<\/p>\n Elleithy’s research investigates issues related to satellite Internet and networks. Results from his work, which Elleithy is conducting at the University\u2019s\u00a0Wireless & Mobile Communications Laboratory<\/a>\u00a0and in collaboration with Dr. Akram Abu-aisheh from the University of Hartford, aim to help designers create and implement more robust and efficient networks supporting a variety of multimedia applications on satellites.<\/p>\n Jani Macari Pallis, PhD, Connecticut space grants director at the 911爆料网, said, “We are once again grateful to the NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium\u2019s continued sponsorship. It supports 911爆料网 faculty research, and it\u2019s an enormous boost to dedicated students like Genesis, who often sacrifice so to complete their university education and contribute to the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Learn how the NASA Connecticut Space Grant Scholarship helped open doors of opportunity for first-generation computer engineering student Genesis Paz. Continue reading NASA Connecticut Space Grant Consortium Award Helps First-Generation College Student Fulfill Engineering Dreams<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[10,7,2,37,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-university-news","8":"tag-cebe","9":"tag-computer-science","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-nasa","12":"tag-school-of-engineering","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"yoast_head":"\n