#UCEngineers

Cybersecurity-CTA

Riverside, Ca –

 

Gabriel Garcia Montoya Undergraduate student, Computer Science and Engineering

When you’re an engineer … the work you do can be applied to many fields. For example, if you do computer science, you can write code for a pacemaker or a drone or put that code into space. The mind of an engineer is very versatile!

Born in California, Gabriel Garcia Montoya moved with his family to Mexico as young child. They lived in Nezahualcóyotl until Gabriel was eight years old. The metropolis in which he lived was becoming increasingly violent. Drugs were becoming a serious problem, and kidnappings were beginning to occur regularly. One day his father received an anonymous threat that Gabriel and his sister would be among the next kidnapping victims. Gabriel’s father immediately purchased tickets to the United States for Gabriel and his sister.

 

Gabriel’s parents were unable to leave Mexico at the time, and so he lived with a family member in Texas for four years, until his parents were able to make their way to the U.S.

 

“It sounds like a sad story but it helped me become an engineer,” Gabriel says. “My parents sacrificed a lot for me. They wanted me to be safe and have a better life.”

 

Gabriel decided to go to college, as a way to honor his parents. “I’m going to college for myself, but also for my parents because they sacrificed so much for me and it would make them happier than anything for them to see me graduate.” He decided on engineering as a way to make his parents proud and to one day be able to give back to them.

 

He also picked engineering because he likes how versatile the field is. “When you’re an engineer, you can switch industries easily, and the work you do can be applied to many fields. For example, if you’re doing computer science, you can write code for a pacemaker or a drone or put that code into space. You could go anywhere and it’s applicable to any field. That also applies to engineering in general. The mind of an engineer is very versatile!”

 

As an undergraduate student in the Computer Science and Engineering Department, Gabriel says that what he likes most about the school are the professors. He says they really care about the students and want them to be successful. He appreciates being “pushed” a bit by his professors, and he attributes his recent on-the-spot offer for an internship at Space Systems/Loral to the rigorous training he received in one of his classes.

 

When he’s not studying, Gabriel likes to be in nature, particularly the forest. He also recently picked up break-dancing again, after a brief hiatus, and has joined the breakdancing club on campus.

 

Learn more about Gabriel:  https://youtu.be/ekNdAaA5fIE