What most interested you about Dunlap’s instrumentation school? 

In Costa Rica, I’m involved in an astronomy club called AstroTEC. The teacher – the one who guides the group – is really passionate about astronomy, and he always says we should aim to go outside the country to study, because new cultural experiences are very nice to have. I looked for various options last year, but things got cancelled by COVID. And then Dunlap appeared. What caught my attention  [about Dunlap’s program] was, since I study Electronic Engineering, continuing the instrumentation part will be very important in my future. So I was very interested in learning how to mix the astronomy part and the engineering part, to complement my career.

What have you enjoyed most about the school so far? 

I was actually really surprised that I understood a lot of concepts in the lectures that I thought I wouldn’t get –  I thought the learning curve would be steep. But I really understood a lot of the concepts that were discussed. So I’m very happy for that. I’ve enjoyed learning about high-energy stuff – like X-rays, and millimetre waves in radio, because I really like spectroscopy and the kind of topics that are related to my degree.

What is the session you’re most looking forward to? 

I’m really looking forward to learning more about adaptive optics, because in my degree, there is not much about optics – only really simple stuff that’s not really advanced, to say the least. So I’m really curious to know more.

What do you hope to do next? 

My future plans are based on getting a Masters degree in Electronic Engineering, especially focusing on instrumentation and the parts that involve communication. Like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and that kind of stuff. I’m really passionate about that.