Voices of Baskin Engineering

We want to provide greater context around online content for consumers, and reduce the amount of time people have to devote to sorting through information.

I spent many years in the reading room when radiologists were reading and looking at the patient images and observing what their struggles are... I think that [my device] could be very instrumental in helping a radiologist to improve head and neck cancer management.

What I would consider to be a career well-performed would be one in which I would be able to answer this question: How do stem cells think?

It is important to have a community, especially for students of color because it's easy to feel like you're erased, that you don't belong somewhere because historically you're not a part of that group, but things have to change and things are changing, and it's so important to have diversity in tech.

It is just amazing to see what people my age can do with the resources that we have at universities. It makes you feel like we can really do something good for the future. I think we have potential to really save this earth

The Ph.D. experience allowed me to mature as a person. I learned to function in an environment where I had to figure out the parameters myself. I came out of UCSC with self confidence and the ability to figure out a solution and explain it to an audience.

I super recommend taking a class like CSE 115A where you finally get to build something that you want to build... We are all used to doing homework assignments, so when you actually have to make that leap, it is really amazing the amount of growth that comes from that.

I think for any entrepreneur you just have to be ready that it's going to be tougher than you think, but at the end of the day, even if you fail, you're going to learn so much.... it's going to be so hard, so be ready for that, but it's, it's worth the ride.

I sat in on some of the seminars in Professor Derrell Long’s group in the Storage Systems Research Center. They have a seminar every week, and I came and listened to all the grad students talk about how they were progressing on their research projects, and that made me want to pursue graduate school.

I use millions of nanoprobes to detect the activity of neurons non-invasively. My new probe has a lot of potential applications but one of the ones I want to mention is that it could help us to develop a high-bandwidth brain/machine interfaces, and we could use that to develop prostheses for people with disabilities.

Even when I was a kid, I was really interested in making computers do things they weren’t supposed to... After school, I worked for the National Security Agency for a long time, and it really motivated me to see how important it is to secure computers when lives are on the line.

I love the fact that [my lab] will encourage you no matter what you want to research on... They are really open to listening, and not just listening but also discussing, and they won’t put you down if your ideas don’t match theirs. There is a lot of healthy discussion going on all the time, even during lunch breaks.

I feel like I have had such incredible mentors at UCSC, and so much of what I have learned and the passion that I have developed for bioinformatics has been a product of the wonderful mentorship that I have had around me, so it has been really great to be able to take that full circle and provide that same thing for other undergraduate students.

My research revolves around preventing pressure injuries... A lot of research is about developing a specific new technology that will prevent pressure injuries, but I am kind of taking a more system approach for which you can use any technology and apply it.

I would ask the incoming class of female engineers to join clubs like Society of Women Engineers, AMC-W, and Girls Who Code to build a strong network of women around them... That is what has helped me get through high school and college, and I really want incoming students to find a strong group of women to help them as well.

"Calculating the trajectory of a rocket is cool, but can your computer carry on a conversation without someone noticing it's a computer (to pass the Turing Test)?"

"There’s a lot of opportunity for collaboration here, but a lot of it is only possible if you put yourself out there."

"Teaching here has given me confidence and motivation. When I read evaluations from satisfied students, it makes me think this is what I want to do."

"When you are learning a new field, your brain feels totally restructured, as if a whole new world has been revealed to you."

"There’s so much more to becoming a well-rounded student and person than remaining on your major track alone, and UCSC recognizes that."

"UC Santa Cruz has a good core set of professors working in data science and machine learning. There’s a broad spread of research interests among professors within the department."

"Throughout my time as a graduate student here, I was very fortunate to be able to research with faculty members who are globally known for their work. "

"Maybe you need to vent about something that’s happening or need questions answered. When this happens, it’s nice to know someone’s there."

“It’s important for a college to support engineering organizations and provide students the free time to be involved with them. There’s a good balance of academic and non-academic activities here.”