My name is Julia Cardoso, I am a senior majoring in mechanical engineering here at UCF. I grew up in South Florida , specifically Boca Raton, and I went to Florida Atlantic University High School.

At UCF my favorite classes have been statics and my small satellites class! Statics was the first engineering specific class I took, and I remember it changing my view of structures I see every day, and finding it a really cool application of all the math I had learned throughout the years. I am currently taking Small Satellites and Space Payloads and I am loving it as it is a class! When I graduate I want to work in space payloads, so taking a class explaining applicable knowledge before I get to industry is really rewarding.

I wanted to become a STEM ambassador because I had many good mentors who facilitated my growth in STEM by introducing new ideas and providing me confidence I needed to get through the classes, and I want to provide the same thing to high schoolers. I think a lot of people are intimidated by engineering, and want to break down that barrier.

Outside of classes, all my hobbies are engineering skewed. I am on the UCF Knights Racing: BAJA team where we design a single seater off road car for competition, I have my own project car in my Ford F150, and a 15lb Battle Bot named Tatertot. I love buying broken gizmos and giving them new life, mostly old CD players and film cameras.