2013-2014 Team Members

Carlos Guerrero is a senior BSME major student at San José State University. He currently has an internship with Otis Elevator Company, where he is gaining field experience with general contractors, Otis project managers, and elevator engineers. He is putting his current field experience and company organizations skills to use with the SMSSV team. Carlos’s dream is to one day own his own company.

Cormac Wicklow is a BSME major student at San José State University. Aside from schoolwork and projects, his engineering experience is as a summer intern in the MDP division of Applied Materials. At Applied Materials Cormac worked on cutting edge R&D and mechanical design for Physical Vapor Deposition Wafer Processing Technology. His contributions to the SMSSV team is from his experience working in a large organizational setting where many teams work towards a common goal, experience in computer aided design, and excellent understanding of bachelor level mechanical engineering principles. Cormac would like to work at a large established company once he gets his bachelor degree. His dream job would be to work on R&D for Lockheed Martin.

Cory Osterman is the Controls lead for the hardware-side of the Controls team. He is a San José State University Mechanical Engineering senior with a concentration in Mechatronics. Cory was drawn to the Spartan Superway project by the opportunity to work on a large-scale, interdisciplinary project with experienced industry mentors. Also, as a public transportation rider, he was likely driven by his own selfish desire to improve his everyday commute. When he is not wiring up breadboards and programming Arduino microcontrollers, Cory works as a Mechanical Engineering Intern for Whipsaw, an award-winning product design and engineering firm located in San José. He spends his summers developing robotics and computer game design curriculum for the popular Bay Area summer camps offered by TechKnowHow, which he also helps teach. Cory is a big fan of the Maker Movement, desktop manufacturing, and a sucker for board games.

Daniel Conroy is a senior at San José State University in the BSME program. He is a member of the guideway and station team for the SMSSV project. His main contributions include the visual design and analysis of the guideway, with an emphasis on safety. Outside of school, he works for a design consulting company as a junior engineer fluent in CAD. This experience is crucial in the development and analysis of the CAD models created in this project. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career in the biomedical field, while continuing to learn about design.

David is earning his bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering with a capstone in Mechanical Design. He is passionate about anything with wheels that can go fast, especially motorcycles. He has been riding motocross and rock climbing since he was young boy, and his hobbies are one of the driving forces behind why he chose to major in Mechanical Engineering. He is an outdoor enthusiast and enjoys all extreme sports and activities (which has gotten him severely injured more times than he would have liked). He became interested in joining this project because he saw the extreme need for developing a quick and convenient mode of public transportation since he has taken public transportation on a weekly basis for the past 6 years. His focus for the rest of the year will deal with creating a solution for the propulsion system on the bogie.

Elizabeth Poche is a Computer Engineering Bachelor’s student at San José State University. Elizabeth joined SMSSV to help progress environmental friendly improvements in cars and solve rising traffic issues in Silicon Valley. Elizabeth is part of the control systems team and is responsible of the system design. The system design includes programming and communicating the master controllers, stations, and pods. Through this project she expects to gain knowledge in control systems and apply it to other control systems. Prior to joining SMSSV, she interned at Lockheed Martin for two summers. This past summer she went to China as part of the Global Technology Initiative leadership program to study globalization manufacturing and business. Elizabeth enjoys making music and traveling.

Eriberto Velazquez is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Engineering at San José State University. He has always had passion for learning about alternative energy technologies and when the opportunity arose to be involved in the SMSSV project, he was ready to jump on-board. For Eriberto, the SMSSV project presented the opportunity to get involved in a new and challenging area, the field of autonomous systems and alternative energy. Through his involvement in the SMSSV project, Eriberto hopes to gain new knowledge, expand his leadership and communication skills, and meet some new people with diverse academic backgrounds. Outside of academics, Eriberto enjoys outdoor activities including: kayaking, hiking, traveling, and more recently running. In the summer of 2013, he participated in his first ever half marathon at the SF marathon in June. He intends to continue his running career and hopes to one day do an Ironman race.

Francisco Martinez is a graduating senior enrolled in San José State University's Mechanical Engineering program. As the team lead for the Solar Power team his contributions are geared towards concept design, prototype manufacturing, project management, and a start-up approach to the SMSSV project. Francisco has worked in IT for the past 3 years, and from 2012-2013 held an internship as a Jr. QA Test Engineer at Handstand Inc., a software development company focused on education and media content management. He enjoys traveling, and having lived in Munich for a summer, he more than anything enjoys Europe. His career interest are in sustainable, energy, products, and design where he hopes to gain more experience.

Henry Tran is a graduating Senior enrolled in San José State University’s Mechanical Engineering program. Henry is a member of the Solar Power Team and Secretary for the SMSSV. Within the Solar Power Team, he is part of the designing and prototyping of the ATN solar tracking system. Henry’s work experience includes a Summer Internship at Lam Research as a Mechanical Engineer Intern. There he was able to get exposure with 3D modeling, manufacturing, data analysis, and hands on experience in the semiconductor industry.

Jaston Rivera is currently a Senior at SJSU in the BSME program and also currently working on attaining his Minor in Business Management. Jaston’s contribution to the SMSSV project is as a Project Manager, as well as being part of the Solar Design Team. When the concept of a form of public transportation that was power completely on renewable energy was presented to him, he immediately wanted to be a part of this project. Jaston has interests in the sustainable and renewable energy fields and is presently working in the Planning department at Bloom Energy. Through this project he hopes to bring awareness to this kind of technology, as well as gaining valuable experience in engineering and management.

Ken Ho is a senior at San José State University majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Ken, a member of the SMSSV, is one of the designers for the cabin team. His task is to contribute and develop a conceptual design to prototype manufacturing. He will be collaborating with the industrial designers and human centered team. In addition, he has worked for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, as an intern he was assisting the project engineers to ensure the project was reliable and able to meet requirements. Based on his internship, he joined the SMSSV project because he believes he will be able to expand his skills and knowledge even further more in the transit industry.

Laisz Lam is a student at the College of Business of SJSU, graduating this Fall semester 2013. Laisz has been volunteering at the start of the Sustainable Mobility System Silicon Valley (SMSSV) at San José State University since September 2012. Her formal education is in graphic design and business accounting. Being a co-founder of two technology companies, her working experience is quite diverse. She has designed the organization logo for SMSSV. This year, she is contributing her entrepreneurial experience to the nonprofit start-up SMSSV. Currently she is working on the business plan for Prof. Furman who is the director for this interdisciplinary team project.

Man Ho is a member of the Control Team in which his role is to design the pod's speed and acceleration control system to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers. Besides spending time with his family, Man enjoys driving, playing video games and plans to travel the world when the occasion arises. A native of Vietnam, Man experienced firsthand the negative impacts of a rapidly growing population combining with unsustainable transportation solutions. Man joined the project with the hope that his small contributions would help bring about positive impacts on the future our planet and human mobility, not just in the U.S. but also in countries around the world. Man is currently in his senior year majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Mechatronics at SJSU. He is fluent in English and Vietnamese and still retains some French from his bilingual primary education.

Maria Blum-Sullivan is a Human-Centered Designer who has dedicated her life to using design to fuel social change. An alumni of SJSU, she returned as mentor for the SMSSV project to help students in the areas of design and the user experience. In her professional life, she runs the design firm Blum+Sullivan Design and serves on the Board of Directors for The Center for Farmworker Families.

Marjo Mallari is a computer engineering undergraduate at SJSU. She joined the SMSSV team because she was interested in working on an interesting project for her senior project. The suspended railway design for a personal rapid transit system captivated her because it was a fresh and challenging engineering solution to the traffic problems that she faces as a driver. She is interested in designing the project’s master controller’s scheduling algorithm. She also wants to focus on creating the interface between the customer and the reservation or ticketing system. Aside from academics, Marjo likes to learn random facts because she enjoys watching Jeopardy! She seeks to diversify her knowledge by traveling and reading. She wants to visit each continent and read science fiction, fantasy, and dystopian novels. Her favorite novels include the Harry Potter series, Oryx and Crake, and The DaVinci Code.

Max is a mechanical design student in the SJSU ME program, and is the bogie team leader. He was originally in the Industrial Design program, but found calculations easier than hand drawing. Max is primarily excited about two ME subjects: Renewable Energy and Product Design. The former involved him in Reneco, a project to create a startup renewable energy company. The project was ill fated, but fostered an entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to engineering topics, he is interested in brand identity, interface design, and philosophy. On his off days, Max enjoys cars almost as much as he enjoys driving them. Three pedals are a necessity, and he’ll easily burn away 8 gallons of gas on a good day, and end up right back where he started. He became involved with the Superway project because he’d rather spend his gas money carving up backroads than commuting to work.

A member of the Bogie Team, Paolo Mercado is a senior at San José State University pursuing an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. He is taking a focus on mechanical design and has an interest in automotive transportation, both of which coincide with this particular aspect of the 2013-2014 Superway project. Through the remainder of the project Paolo, along with the Bogie Team, looks to create a physical replica of their final design, going one step closer towards making an autonomous transportation network in the Silicon Valley a reality. Outside of his studies Paolo is an avid cyclist.

Randall Morioka is a student at San José State University, majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Japanese. In 2007 he received his Eagle Scout rank in Boy Scouts after leading a community service project that involved constructing and donating planter boxes to Union House Elementary. He decided to join the Spartan Superway team after he saw the potential in the project. Not only that but he was also excited at the opportunity to work with other engineers from different disciplines and students from different majors. Randall joined the controls team after noticing that the team holds potential to learn about mechatronics, which is his specialization in mechanical engineering.

Timothy Santiago is a senior enrolled in the BSME program at SJSU. Timothy, a member of the SMSSV, is one of the designers for the solar power team. Contributions towards the efforts of the team are geared towards concept design to prototype manufacturing. In addition, he is currently sustaining an internship at View Inc., a leading developer of electro chromic glass, where he seeks to develop his expertise in a multidisciplinary environment working in both process development and product management. Prior to View Inc., Timothy worked for Genentech, Inc. as an intern for the summer of 2013 supporting efforts in a special projects team to sustain Genentech’s energy portfolio. His career interests are in sustainable products and green building where he hopes to gain more experience in this dynamic industry.

Trent Smith is a senior enrolled in SJSU's computer engineering program. He chose to study computer engineering because of his love of puzzles, patterns, problem solving, helping people, and curiosity in computer electronics. He is part of the controls team for SMSSV, and will be in charge of designing network logic and pod scheduling algorithms. He is an active member of the SCE whom frequently tutors his peers. His technical interests include networking, embedded software, mobile technology, operating systems, FPGAs, and PCB design. He currently works for SJSU Technical Services, providing network support for students and faculty. He frequently participates in school events such as the recent 2014 Barracuda Hackthon where his team placed 4th he practices Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, bonsai, programming, and plays video games.