Melinda Lopez
Melinda Lopez pondered majoring in engineering, math and physics. Acting just like a kid helped her finally make a decision.
By playing with magnets, shocking resistors and taking a hands-on approach to science the same way she did as a child, Lopez discovered that actually experiencing science can bring about a deeper understanding of the underlying concepts. And that’s why her journey stopped at California State University San Marcos and with physics.
“I remember liking to play with magnets when I was young,” she said. “And then when I got to do it again in college, what I got out of it was what electrons and electricity have to do with each other and how one has an effect on the other. That finally made sense to me and it was really cool.”
She believes undergraduate research, a cornerstone of the CSUSM College of Science and Mathematics experience, also provides her an edge. Lopez says undergraduate research offers real-world context and application to what students learn in textbooks and lecture classes.
Lopez says her research with Dr. Stephen Tsui is a good example of that. She said they used electrical current to shock resistors. Depending on the voltage and polarity, the resistors would react differently. She said the resistors wouldn’t change until they were shocked back. She said this method has applications in advancing flash memory and making electronics smaller and more efficient.
Getting her hands dirty in science helped her determine what she wanted to pursue in part by finding out what she didn’t want to do. Lopez went to Washington State to participate in a mechanical engineering summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). She enjoyed the experience and found out a lot about herself, but she also determined mechanical engineering was not for her.
“It prepared me for when I would start thinking about graduate schools because I knew I could do research,” she said. “It wasn’t this scary thing because I could already do research. A lot of the students who were there hadn’t done research before and they wouldn’t get to do it when they went back to their universities. I knew I was ahead of the game.”
