JrSEED was founded in 2015 by a group of Professors in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Merchan-Merchan is the Director of the JrSEED program. The idea is to inspire and enhance the motivation of (incoming junior and senior) high school students to pursue a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career by offering an opportunity to learn about engineering through exposure to several unique hands-on engineering related concepts/projects.