Andrew....
Was brilliant, directed and passionate. Accomplished. Kind and supportive.
At 21 years old, his dreams were stolen by mental illness. After years of severe depression, he took his own life. He fought his illness to achieve many successes, including near completion of his Mechanical Engineering degree with a high GPA, participation as Chief Engineer of the Unmanned Underwater Vehicle design group of the campus Northrup Grumman Collaborative Project (NGCP), and a summer position with Northrup Grumman. The NGCP is a technology demonstration team between Cal Poly campuses (San Luis Obispo and Pomona) solving real-life challenges – in this case, projects that integrate operation of autonomous air, ground and underwater vehicles. Andrew loved the excitement and purpose of this club. He inspired and challenged his fellow students, professors, colleagues, friends and family with a unique and informed perspective that was entirely his own.
His Scholarship
The Andrew Cole Lawson Cal Poly Pomona Memorial Scholarship was established to provide hope, encouragement and creative design opportunities to students like Andrew. It will be awarded to engineering students of any discipline with a criteria to participate in the NGCP. The scholarship has been established as an endowment. Upon reaching $50k,the annual scholarship will be self-sustaining and funded by the account’s interest. As of August 2019, total gifts total $47,621!. I have personally funded the first three scholarships, and my family will assist in funding the annual scholarship until the endowment minimum is achieved. At which point it will be a forever scholarship!
MEET SANTIAGO BOSCH!
At a young age, Santiago developed a builder’s mentality: if you want something, make it. Fascinated by building and creating from a young age, it was his photography and film making hobbies in high school that generated a need to build tools, gadgets and fixtures that didn’t exist or were too expensive. At Irvine Valley Community College he focused on mechanical engineering. After a couple of years he was introduced to, and attracted to the curriculum of Industrial Engineering. He loves studying the design/process and particularly appreciates the challenge of improving the product process. He is inspired by a quote posted in the Cal Poly Pomona engineering building hallway; “Engineers make things. Industrial Engineers make things better.” He explains Industrial Engineering as a blend of engineering and business and likes the concept of industrial engineers as being “the people’s engineer.” Recognizing that so many great product ideas do not see the light of day because of poor execution, he looks forward to a career solving problems to move innovative products to the consumer to improve the quality of life.
Santiago is a senior at CPP and anticipates graduating Fall 2020. He joined the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) NGCP team in Fall 2018 as a Systems Engineer. He has gained invaluable, practical experience in making and improving the UGV, working with his team members, and learning how to manage and document projects.
Through years of multiple attempts to land an internship, Santiago landed his first internship at Fender Musical Instrument Corporation (FMIC) in Corona, CA. Playing the guitar since age 10, he was thrilled to be a part of their team while blending his music and engineering passions. He plans to go back to FMIC as a full-time engineer, potentially followed by industrial/manufacturing engineering positions at other industries. Ultimately, Santiago hopes to work as a consultant for small and start-up companies to help them design and manufacture products.
Dedicated to learning and helping his family fund his education, Santiago wants to stay focused on studies while limiting future school debt. He concludes that the Andrew Cole Lawson CPP Memorial Scholarship not only benefits him financially, but that it is also an honor to be presented with an award that holds great value and respect.
2018 -Tristan Sherman
Tristan was awarded the 2018 Andrew Cole Lawson Memorial Scholarship as well as a supplemental award in 2019. After three years of NGCP experience, he has served as 2018-19 Program Manager to organize and support five different teams as well as the collaboration between Cal Poly San Luis Obispo students. NGCP has provided him practical experience to support long-term goals of designing autonomous system platforms for applications such as precision agriculture, nature preservation and disaster relief.
With seemingly unlimited energy, Tristan is well on his way to making a difference. Besides serving as NGCP Program Manager in 2019, he continues working for CPP as UAS Lab Manager to help fund his tuition, continues his coursework, and flies Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for a precision agricultural research team. In August 2019, along with others, he presented agricultural research findings to California’s Lt. Governor, Eleni Kounalakis. His group is comparing remote sensing data against highly calibrated test equipment. The goal is to increase the accuracy of plant health estimation from the images by creating an AI tool to compare images to ground data. The objective is to determine which crops require the most water/nutrients so farmers can focus their resources there instead of spraying the entire field evenly. This has the potential to drastically reduce resource usage and at the same time increase yield.
Tristan cultivates his creative skills with a minor in music; playing violin in the Cal Poly Pomona Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an avid swing dancer and can be found at the lindy hop venues near LA almost every week.
2017 Nicole Curtis-Brown – 1st Scholarship Recipient
As a 4th year Aerospace Engineering student in 2016-2017, Nicole received the first Andrew Cole Lawson Memorial Scholarship. After serving the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team for 3 years, she was selected to lead the entire Cal Poly Pomona NGCP team including facilitating collaboration between the CPP and San Luis Obispo campuses.To ease the financial burden on her parents, she took approximately 19 units per quarter to complete her degree in 4 years.At the time of her scholarship award, she shared with me that she planned to work at Northrup Grumman in space vehicle design upon graduation and subsequently pursue a PhD in the industry. At dinner, she shared that she was thrilled to be awarded the scholarship – that it meant someone besides her family believed in her future.
Since her graduation in Spring 2017, Nicole has been working for Northrop Grumman in Space Structural Analysis. In addition to technical expertise, she was surprised the level of leadership and program management skills also required for her job. She has applied valuable skills learned as NGCP project manager. She believes leadership and management are not emphasized enough in the day to day college curriculum but are learned through these extracurricular projects.
Nicole has continued her NGCP involvement serving as a student mentor and Northrop Grumman Evaluator. She is very proud of the team and the project legacy and is excited to see what the students accomplish each year.
