Veteran educator and NPI WIT sponsor, Paul Guevarra, recently presented his Research Experience for Teachers (RET) poster at the NSF Engineering Education and Centers Grantees Conference. The two-day conference was held at the Sheraton Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia on September 22 – 23, 2022. His research has a poster titled “Fluid Dynamics Investigations of Subsea Choke Valve” which aims to study the adverse effects of flow-induced vibrations (FIV) of fluids on underwater valves used in oil and gas exploration. The investigation involves a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) as the mode of visually capturing turbulent fluid flow on video using a laser and a high-speed camera. Velocity vectors produced by the seeding particles in the fluid flow were exported into Matlab for modeling and analysis. His six-week summer research program at the University of Houston was under the watchful eyes of principal investigator Dr. Weihang Zhu and research team head faculty, Dr. Kamran Alba.
In addition, he recently accepted a three-year grant from Rice University called Inclusive Learning through Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (ILEEPS). This program for high school Earth Science, Environmental Systems, and Aquatic Science teachers aim to further their content knowledge and pedagogical skills. It primarily uses Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) to enhance cultural awareness to grow their understanding of creating an inclusive and equitable learning science environment for students of diverse backgrounds.
Mr. Guevarra has been the faculty sponsor of WIT at Foster High School since 2014. He has 68 Juniors and Seniors on his current WIT roster. He teaches AP Physics and Earth and Space Science at the same campus.