Shreedhar Jangam: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: San Jose, CA
I love the opportunities available to engineering students.
BE25 Voices
Maryam Siddiqui: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.; Electronic Music, minor
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
“There’s a lot of intersection between electronic music and computer science. In one of my classes, we’re using a specific music programming language to program our own sounds and electronic instruments. Doing these types of projects heightens my interest because I never thought I could blend those two fields and passions of mine together.”
Selin Ovali: Graduate Student
Degree Program: Human Computer Interaction, M.S.
Undergraduate Institution: Purdue University, Computer Science B.S.
Department: Computational Media
“I specifically chose this program because I really liked the people involved and the research currently being done at Baskin Engineering in the HCI field.”
Justin Grant: Graduate Student
Degree Program: Human Computer Interaction, M.S.
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Los Angeles, Philosophy, B.A.
Department: Computational Media
“My goal is to build on my undergraduate philosophy degree to develop technology that is useful and accessible to everyone.”
Adeel Akhtar: Postdoctoral Scholar
Graduate Institution: University of Waterloo, Electrical and Computer Engineering, M.S. & Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Mechatronics, B.S.
Advisor: Ricardo Sanfelice
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
“I am not thinking too far ahead, but instead trying to live in the present. I am more concerned about making meaningful contributions and learning as many things as possible in my postdoc appointment at UC Santa Cruz.”
Zia Isola: Staff
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Barbara, English Literature and Writing, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: UC Berkeley, English Language and Literature, B.A.
“So many of our students have the challenge of being the first in their family to go to college, the first to consider graduate school, or of being the first to be in a STEM field. It’s intimidating to leave what is familiar and step into new territory. They embrace that challenge with such heart, commitment, determination, and passion. It’s completely inspiring.”
Zehang “Richard” Li: Faculty
Graduate Institution: University of Washington
Undergraduate Institution: Chinese University of Hong Kong
Department: Statistics
Hometown: Xuzhou, China
“A big part of my research deals with how I can use statistics to solve global and public health problems.”
Jessica Xie: Alumna
Degree Program: Technology and Information Management (TIM), B.S.
Graduate Institution: University of Edinburgh Business School, Scotland
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Rosemead, CA
“The TIM degree program encompassed everything that I was interested in because you get to learn about computer engineering, computer science, and business and information systems.”
Angela Ramirez: Graduate Student
Degree Program: Natural Language Processing M.S.
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Department: Natural Language Processing
Hometown: Atwater, California
“We’re getting real experts who work in the industry to show us how they use the technology and what they do with it. Getting that perspective is really cool.”
Keerthi Krishnan: Alumnus
Degree Program: B.S., Computer Science, minor in Applied Mathematics
Graduate Institution: Chapman University
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
“Baskin [Engineering] gave me that forefront of knowledge that allowed me to excel in my graduate career.”
Marcela Alfaro-Córdoba: New Faculty
Graduate Institution: Iowa State University, M.S., North Carolina State University, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: Universidad de Costa Rica
Department: Statistics
“It’s exciting to introduce the topic of statistics to people that have no prior knowledge or experience with the field. My goal is to motivate students to keep learning about the field of statistics.”
Manping Jia: Graduate Student
Degree Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ph.D.
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz, University of Science and Technology, Beijing (M.S., Materials Science)
Undergraduate Institution: University of Science and Technology, Beijing
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Hometown: Datong, China
“My dream job would be one where I could develop wearable bioelectronic devices for health monitoring.”