Capstone seniors shine at the 2025 scholarship reception
Omar Corona Ramos is part of Team 25055, which is designing a self-disinfecting urinary catheter. He says financial support helped him realize his potential to help people.
The Student Union Memorial Center ballroom bustled with 213 eager scholarship reception attendees on Feb. 19, kicking off an event that celebrated donors supporting nontraditional engineering students.
“One goal I’ve had since I came to the University of Arizona has been to graduate more engineers,” Craige M. Berge Dean David W. Hahn told the audience, comprised of donors and students. “Thanks to the generosity of many of you in this room tonight, we can provide broader access to a first-class engineering education.”
Nearly 650 undergraduate scholarships were awarded in the College of Engineering this year. Several of these scholarship recipients brought unique skills to the Craige M. Berge Design Program from previous professions.
Nontraditional students do not start at the university directly after high school, opting for a different path before entering the engineering field, like community college or military service.
Celebrating the service mindset
One undergraduate scholarship recipient was electrical and computer engineering student Omar Corona Ramos, who spoke at the reception. Ramos served in the U.S. Army as a radio and satellite systems operator for four years before joining Paradigm Labs as an information technology manager during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These experiences have not only reinforced my passion for technology but also my desire to contribute to the betterment of my community,” he said.
Ramos will graduate with his bachelor’s in May, just after presenting his project with Team 25055 at Senior Design Day.
The team is designing a self-disinfecting urinary catheter that continuously kills bacteria with LED light sources over several hours. Sponsored by LumiVici, the non-chemical infection prevention prototype aims to reduce hospital-acquired infections and antibiotic reliance in hospital patients.
Leading her family and aerospace design
Pima Community College transfer student Amber Parker celebrated winning the Wildcat Engineering Trailblazer Scholarship. She was a hairdresser for 10 years before pursuing a bachelor’s in software engineering.
She was intimidated at first.
Amber Parker (center) says her family is thrilled to have an engineer in its midst.
“I was behind on the learning curve, so it was very difficult to be with people who were so talented,” she said, adding that she sometimes wondered if she belonged.
Parker taught herself how to code and improved her study habits. By developing her leadership skills inside and outside the classroom, Parker became the perfect fit to lead Team 25014 in developing an upgraded system for aerospace situational awareness.
The team’s project – called the CASA system – provides a bird’s-eye view of an aircraft’s surroundings with high-resolution cameras and boosted safety with object detection.
Scholarships were integral in helping Parker balance capstone work and family life. She said she did not qualify for many scholarships because her husband works.
“That ends up creating a lot of debt,” she said. “The scholarship helps lessen the burden.”
The dedication paid off: IBM hired her for a CO-OP – cooperative education – position that comes with a salary and continued education. Because of this support, she started the accelerated master’s program in 2024.