Dylan Esguerra discovered his passion for statistics in his sophomore year of undergraduate studies at UC Santa Cruz. He later graduated with his master’s in statistics in 2023 after pursuing the 4+1 Statistical Science program.
Degree Program: Serious Games, M.S.
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Computational Media
“I wanted to get an M.S. in serious games because I want to make games that explore topics important to me, such as climate change and mental health. I think these topics need more recognition in the media, and what better way to show it than through interactive media?”
Graduate Institution: Towson University, Teaching, M.A.; University of Washington, Educational Psychology, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: Washington State University, Mathematics, B.S.
Department: Baskin School of Engineering
“I study what is needed in our division and respond with evidence-based approaches. It often involves building a program, a report, an experience, a communication, or a collaborative meeting to close gaps and help students succeed.”
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.”
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.”
Degree Program: Computer Science and Engineering
Graduate Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Cupertino, CA
“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.”
Degree Program: Computer Engineering, M.S.
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: ITT – New Delhi
Department: Computer Engineering (1991)
Hometown: Ranchi, India
“I see myself as a problem solver, and this I owe to my engineering background, because I’m constantly defining a problem, then breaking it down into smaller and smaller pieces until I can solve it with technology.”
Degree Program: Master of Science, Electrical Engineering (2016)
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Electrical Engineering
Hometown: Sebastopol, California
“If you had talked to me three years ago, I doubt I would’ve expected I’d end up where I am, but I’d wager most people would say the same about where their career takes them.”
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.”
Degree Program: Natural Language Processing M.S.
Graduate Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Department: Natural Language Processing
Hometown: Sunnyvale, CA
“It’s amazing hearing from people who are working on NLP now — for example the professor teaching my five o’clock class is teaching at five because he’s working with the technology during the rest of the day. I feel lucky to have these people teaching us.”
Degree Program: B.S., Bioengineering, M.S., Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Biomolecular Engineering
Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA
“Currently, my project is engineering zymomonas mobilis, a unique organism that has a specific metabolic pathway that helps increase the production of biofuels, specifically ethanol and butanol… Fossil fuels are quickly becoming depleted and are very toxic, so if we were able to find a sustainable synthetic source of fuel, it would be extremely beneficial for overall environmental health.”