This spring, Jairo Cadena-Mendez (class of 2026) is putting the finishing touches on a capstone project for his computer science and engineering degree under the direction of Assistant Professor Parikshit Maini. Combining robotics, aerospace engineering principles and a profound knowledge of coding, the project is right up Cadena-Mendez’s alley, illustrating one of the many potential applications of computer science and engineering that he finds fascinating.
“It’s a broad field,” Cadena-Mendez said. “There’s machine learning, robotics—many different routes—and they all require a lot of math. But you get to apply skills with code to attack challenging problems.”
Turning curiosity into opportunity
The child of parents who received no formal education beyond elementary school, Cadena is no stranger to attacking challenging problems. Last year, he was one of only 150 students nationwide to receive a prestigious Google/TalentSprint Techwise Fellowship, and last summer and spring, he interned at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech. He served in the Mars Science Laboratory, the team behind the Curiosity Rover.
Launched in 2011, the Curiosity Rover has been exploring Mars since 2012. Part of its mission is to send back images and data from the Red Planet to help scientists understand the Martian climate and to lay the foundation for future human exploration.
“I worked on automating reports and creating a dashboard for software to visualize the data sent back from the Rover,” Cadena said.
Working that closely with the data and the team guiding the project gave Cadena early access to important findings.
“We would meet every week to talk about our findings, and then you’d see them hit the news a month later,” he said.
When he wasn’t actively working on the project, he was able to have other, unique life-changing experiences, including driving a test rover: “It actually takes a lot of math to drive it. You have to use radians to rotate the rover.”
About the entire experience, he said, “It was inspiring. I learned a lot and met a lot of really cool people. It helped me realize what I want to do.”
After graduating, Cadena intends to continue studying in Professor Maini’s lab, exploring reinforcement learning and aerial robotics.
Finding direction through exploration
For Cadena, exploration is a theme of life, and for those who know him, it is fitting that he worked on a project named “Curiosity.” During his time at JPL, he was the only American intern on his team. He made friends with the other interns, who were from Italy, France and Spain, and as a result, he’s planning to spend three weeks this summer in Europe.
“I’m going to land in Italy, and three weeks later, I’m going to leave from Spain,” Cadena said. While he only has loose plans to travel by train, stay in hostels and visit the friends he made during his time at JPL, he is in the meantime learning Italian on Duolingo. This dedication is only one example of his commitment to exploring new things. He is a member of the Nevada Electric Racing Club, where he collaborates on designing and building miniature F-1 racing cars for national competition. He plays intramural soccer, and recently, he saw an advertisement for an upcoming triathlon.
“So now I’m training for one, running twenty miles a week,” he said. “I want to try it. Why not?”
Giving back to his First-Gen community
When he isn’t running, racing or learning Italian, Cadena, a TRIO STEM Scholar himself, can be found in the First-Generation Student Center providing support to students studying algebra, calculus (1 and 2), computer engineering and physics. About his approach, with characteristic warmth and generosity of spirit, Cadena said, “Two brains are better than one.”
The First-Gen Center was important for Cadena in his academic journey. When he joined the University, he didn’t know anyone, and the First-Gen Center took care of that.
“I saw someone wearing a First Gen shirt, and I came up to him and said, ‘I’m first gen, too!’” he said with a grin. “Once I got into the First in the Pack, I met a lot of students from a similar background. Students who were like me. It was great.”
As he finishes his undergraduate degree, he described the tutoring support he is happy to offer other students in the Center that has meant so much to him: “It’s a great time to give back.”