Cal Poly recently introduced a university-wide initiative of the Learning Aligned Employment Program (LAEP) created by the California Student Aid Commission.
LAEP offers eligible students at public colleges and universities the opportunity to earn money to help defray their educational costs while gaining education-aligned, career-related employment.
To be eligible to participate in the program, students must be from an underrepresented background and have demonstrated unmet financial need.
During the 2022-23 school year, Cal Poly placed the most LAEP students in on-campus research experiences in the CSU system and is set to further grow the program’s research placements.
Computer engineering graduate Derek J. Russell was one of the spring 2023 LAEP participants.
“Having these opportunities for students to work on what they’re passionate about while also getting paid is so beneficial,” Russell said.
He worked with computer science Assistant Professor Mugizi Rwebangira throughout his LAEP experience, where they used machine learning to infer demographic information of authors in collaboration networks using only publicly available information, like names and facial features.
“Derek Russell was a delightful student to work with,” Rwebangira said. “He had a lot of interesting ideas and spent a lot of time doing background research on the topic and finding new and interesting angles to pursue.”
Post graduation, Russell landed an associate software engineer role at Moody’s Analytics. His dedication and drive got him to where he is today.
“One thing that’s beautiful about this opportunity is, in the short term, you’re making money, but in the long term, you’re building your skillset and creating relationships with professors and other people in the field,” he shared.
By Taylor Villanueva
