Wave Staff Report
COMPTON — Moira Iñiguez, a 2025 Compton College graduate and mechanical engineering major at Cal State Los Angeles, is interested in underwater robotics.
“I’m committed to conservation efforts when it comes to the ocean and ocean life,” Iñiguez said. “As a future mechanical engineer, I would like to be a voice in the industry for marine conservation.”
She is focused on completing her bachelor’s degree now and, upon graduation, would like to get work experience within the ocean engineering or adjacent industry. She may consider pursuing a graduate degree in the future, possibly in a related specialized field.
“Even if I can’t participate in the more exciting engineering projects directly, such as robotics, I would like to be a voice in the room where a design team is making a decision about whether to go with an easier option or a more complicated option that would be better for the health of our oceans,” Iñiguez said.
She is on her way to making her career dream a reality. Focused on physics, Iñiguez graduated from Compton College with an associate degree in general sciences last June and transferred to Cal State L.A. in August.
While at Compton College, she was heavily involved at the MESA/STEM Center on campus, served as the STEM Club president, and was a paid student worker as a physics tutor. She was first introduced to the MESA Center after joining the Make It Happen program, a summer enrichment workshop where students learn how to program and operate Arduino (a coding software and hardware platform) used in robotics, prototyping, and automation.
From that point on, Iñiguez was hooked and knew she wanted to pursue a mechanical engineering degree.
“The MESA Center and those involved became my supportive community on campus,” she said. “I also built a working relationship with my STEM counselor, who agreed to be my academic accountability person who I met with once per week to stay on track.”
One project highlight was working with a team of students and a Compton College physics professor on the annual High Altitude Balloon project.
“As the project leader, I used my Arduino platform knowledge to design a sensor payload to go up in the weather balloon and collect data,” Iñiguez said.
Through Compton College’s MESA Center, she applied and was accepted to the Caltech Connection mentorship program, which offers one-on-one mentorship in an informal setting. Under the guidance of their mentors, undergraduate students participate in scientific literature analysis, build their research acumen, and have the opportunity to participate in computational or experimental research activities.
“I participated in this project for two years and was paired with a postdoctoral researcher and a doctoral student working on different research projects,” Iñiguez said. “I had the invaluable opportunity to present our work at Compton College’s annual Research Symposium and at Caltech’s Presentation Day.”
Along with her successes, Iñiguez has faced some challenges in pursuing her higher education. She was diagnosed for the first time with ADHD after graduating from high school. While it is still a daily struggle, she has persevered through family support and finding resources and supportive communities on the college campuses.
Iñiguez is attending Cal State L.A. on scholarship through the First Generation Scholarship Fund. After struggling through her first semester solo, she has found a support system with several classmates who study together within their engineering space called the CoLab, and joined the RoboSub Club, where members design and program an autonomous underwater vehicle to enter the annual RoboSub competition in Irvine, among other activities.
Iñiguez hopes that her story will inspire other students to persevere in higher education, no matter the challenges, especially those with ADHD or similar disorders. Her advice?
“Spend more time on campus and get involved — be where the action is,” she said. “Get to know people, especially those with similar interests. I have made a lot of connections by being in the shared educational spaces on campus and having discussions with my peers. You’ll be surprised what a difference it makes.”
She reflected on her journey into higher education.
“While I still struggle with a lot of stuff, if I take a step back and reflect, I don’t think that when I enrolled at Compton College three years ago, I would have ever envisioned myself making it to this point in my education,” Iñiguez said.
