Water quality engineer
undergraduate electrical engineering
Manuel has been a techie since he was a kid. He moved to Rancho, Oranjestad at nine from the Dominican Republic. As he said he found himself “a weird chicken” while other kids liked hanging outside and biking he preferred staying inside breaking electronical toys apart to see what’s inside and figuring out how it works. Radioshack, a local hardware store, was his favorite place as a kid because he could buy components to build electronics. Manuel ended up going to Colegio Arubano VWO but couldn’t further his studies immediately in The Netherlands because of documentation issues. He started to work and while being at a college fair he met Christie who told him about Brenchies 3d printers something Manuel already was experimenting with. He would volunteer after work at Brenchies Lab and ended up working for the foundation managing Brenchies makerspace at the library. Manuel now studies Electrical Engineering at the University of Eindhoven. He finds himself obsessed with efficient electrical systems and how to improve energy production. For Surfside Science he designed and made the water quality sensor.