As the weather warms up and finals draw near, QUESTees are excited for the summer to start. Between internships and other cool summer activities, the students plan on keeping busy. Also – check out the QUEST-suggested summer playlist below!

Cohort 40 student Akash Marakath will be getting the most out of his break. He will spend his summer on the golf course as an instructor while participating in tournaments! Marakath also plans on traveling this summer and breaking his lifting records.

Reflecting on the semester, he really enjoyed his first QUEST class – BMGT/ENES190H. He said, “I’m grateful to my team and my mentor for making my 190H experience amazing!” He has learned a lot and is excited to apply it in his research.

Akash Marakath (second from left) with his BMGT/ENES190H team and client

He will be conducting research for Northrop Grumman. Through research, Marakath will help adapt the sensors for an autonomous boat created to identify dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay. This is a great project to improve the Bay!

Cohort 39 student Adelina Seck has an internship with Capital One as a Business Analyst at their McLean office. She, along with other QUEST students, are looking to have a great learning experience with Capital One. 

Adelina Seck (right) pictured with Karen Nyugen (Cohort 40).

From Cohort 37, Bobby Chen has awesome plans as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer Intern at Tesla. Also, he is excited to hang out with fellow QUESTees working in the Bay Area!

Bobby Chen

Here are some songs to add to the playlist for your summer QUESTs! Thank you to all the awesome QUESTees who gave recommendations to this playlist:

1. Stoked by Weston Estate
2. Buttercup by Hippo Campus
3. Better by Khalid
4. Summertime Sadness by Lana del Rey
5. 3 Nights by Dominic Fike
6. All Of The Girls You Loved Before by Taylor Swift
7. Heaven by Niall Horan
8. OMG by NewJeans
9. California Gurls by Katy Perry
10. Strawberry Skies by Kid Travis
11. Message in a Bottle by Taylor Swift
12. Titi Me Preguntó by Bad Bunny
13. Tieduprightnow by Parcels
14. One More Weekend by Maude Latour
15. Soapbox by The Wrecks

To all of QUEST, have a wonderful summer vacation, and we can’t wait to see you next semester!

It’s that time of year again: to say goodbye to our beloved seniors! While we will miss them, we are so excited for them to enter the next chapter of their lives. We spoke with four seniors about their advice for future and current QUESTees.

Ethan Martinez, Cohort 36, is graduating with a degree in Computer Science. Before starting his full time position at Twitch, he will be spending this summer traveling abroad. He encourages students to form bonds within the program, saying to “spend time with other QUEST students and your team members outside of class and project related things!”

Ian Rosenthal, Cohort 36, is graduating with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Technology Entrepreneurship. Following graduation, he plans on working as a GPS consultant with Deloitte. He wants QUESTees to “take in every moment” and focus on networking by “maximizing time with everyone and taking time to build relationships!”

Alex Hou, Cohort 36, is graduating with a degree in Finance and a minor in Technology Entrepreneurship. He will be working as a Strategy Consultant following graduation! He also advises students to take advantage of the network that QUEST and UMD provide. He’s happy to connect with future students looking to build their network. Make sure to take advantage and reach out to Alex along with all the other graduates from QUEST.

Nick Bailey, Cohort 35, is graduating with a double degree in Operations Management & Business Analytics and Marketing. He will be a consultant at Deloitte after graduation. He advises students that “once in a life opportunities happen to good people all the time.”

We are so excited for and proud of our seniors! We know they will be successful and wish them all the best during their next journey.

This month, I was thrilled to interview Jessica Strongin, a senior chemical engineering major from Cohort 36. Jess is an accomplished QUESTee, winning best capstone for her team’s 490H project for McCormick. She’s interned with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission focusing on incorporating data science into radiation protection codes and nuclear site decommission using drones. She’s involved on campus being both a teaching assistant for multiple courses and a board member of Snider Consulting Group, a club that does pro bono consulting for UMD student organizations. Jess and I discussed her postgrad plans and passion for research and teaching.

Jess (second from right) with her 490H team

After graduation, Jess plans to pursue graduate school as a chemical engineering PhD student. She has vast graduate research interests including focusing on the intersection of computational and experimental materials development. Jess has already had a vast amount of research experiences. She’s currently an undergraduate researcher in the Koeth Group, where she has completed projects in studying dielectric behavior in extreme electronic conditions and applying machine learning to radioactive sample classification. Access to research stimulates her ability to problem solve and taught her about how chemical engineering can be applied to solve the worlds problems. 

Jess described her graduate degree as a means to an end as she aspires to be a chemical engineering professor. Jess aspires to teach because of her love for chemical engineering and her knack for explaining tough technical topics. She’s been a teaching assistant for three classes at UMD: CHBE250, CHBE424, and BMGT438A (the QUEST data course). Each class pushed Jess to focus on different aspects of teaching. For the foundational courses such as CHBE250, she puts herself in the shoes of students who are new to approaching the math behind chemical engineering. She even developed a series of Excel modules based on problems students actually need to solve in classes later in the curriculum. She’s also learned how to adapt to working with different professors and then navigating how to best serve the students. Being a TA for BMGT438A, the QUEST data course, has been its own challenge as this course is sometimes difficult to understand for students without a coding background. Jess has taken this in stride and wants to be a knowledgeable resource for her students. She relies on feedback from students to meet their needs and address her teaching strategies. For example, she’s recently decided to review concepts by having students code along with her line by line, which has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response. Most importantly, her main goal is to make every class she TA’s for as accessible as possible for the students, specifically in building foundational skills for them to carry through the rest of their education.

Jess credits QUEST for helping her find her current path. QUEST gave her the framework to gain interdisciplinary skills and apply them in collaborative environments, skills she continues to use in her work. She advises current QUEST students to find their passion and to show up for the numerous opportunities presented to them. She encourages them to find what they like and don’t like and be open to meeting new people. Jess has found her passion in chemical engineering and in teaching, and we wish her so much success in her future education endeavors.