Victoria works as a Project Engineer at Gallo and graduated from UC Merced with a degree in mechanical engineering. Her love of computer science first started in high school, and has continued throughout her career as an engineer.
Victoria Mendoza: I was first introduced in high school during my senior year. We were offered a class called Engineer Your World. Honestly, I took the class because I didn't know what career route I wanted to take in the future. We had to code a song and that was my first experience with coding or anything computer science related. It was so simple, but at the same time so complex, and it felt amazing to create something so unique. I slowly started to understand all the different ways that you can essentially code to get the same final result.
Victoria Mendoza: In college, one of the first classes we had to take as engineers was a coding course. We were offered a choice between Python and Matlab, and I ended up taking the Python course. Throughout college I did eventually have to learn a bunch of different coding languages, but I really felt like that introduction with Python was instrumental to build off of, and helped develop that coding muscle.
Victoria Mendoza: So the joke that we always had as mechanical engineers was, you were either good at CS or you were really really bad. There was no in between, so it was one of those things where, for me, I felt like Python was easy but at the same time, the other languages like Matlab were really challenging. It was mostly due to lack of exposure and it took a lot of hard work and late nights studying to feel like I caught up to my peers. I had to learn how to ask my peers for help, because everyone codes so differently. Finding those friends who I could go to in class, office hours with TAs, and some professors was really crucial to getting over some of those coding language barriers.
Victoria Mendoza: One professor comes to mind immediately, Professor Sun. He taught a lot of his class on car mechanics, because he felt like cars were something most students knew about and may even go into the industry after graduating. He dedicated so much extra time in the class to teaching us all Matlab and really diving deeper with every student in the class. Instead of a regular final exam, he gave us a basic code and told us we had to figure out how to make it into a car that can do donuts. And we all just had to figure it out in 10 minutes. It was creative and fun and really made me realize how unique CS can be.
Victoria Mendoza: I think it's the fact that you can do so much with it. Whether it was making a car do donuts or creating a song back in Engineer Your World, there are just endless possibilities. It’s useful in so many different contexts.
Victoria Mendoza: Even though I don’t necessarily use coding in my current role, I know it helps to know it. I work alongside one of the controls engineers who does code and it’s been amazing working side by side with him on projects where I can continue learning and flexing that part of my brain. So even though I don't get to make those changes myself, I do get a better understanding of how the equipment works.
Victoria Mendoza: Computer science really teaches you how to analyze things differently compared to anything else. You can build code 30 lines long that will give you that same final product as something else that’s only 15 lines long. And when you have an issue come up, it’s all about problem solving. Where did it start? How can I figure out and analyze the problem? Is there another way to look at it? CS teaches you all these building blocks that you can then take in whatever direction you want to get to your final product.
Victoria Mendoza: Just take the leap and don’t be discouraged. It takes time and practice. If the idea of being creative and getting to build something excites you, I say go for it and learn something new!
