Rishita Wairagade: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
“Baskin Engineering does a great job of providing research opportunities for all of its engineering students.”
Voices of Baskin Engineering
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.”
Kunal Garg: Postdoctoral Scholar
Degree Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Graduate Institution: University of Michigan, Aerospace Engineering, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Aerospace Engineering, B.S.
Advisor: Alvaro Cardenas and Ricardo Sanfelice
“One of the things that attracted me to Baskin Engineering was the opportunity to do an interdisciplinary project that blends the topics of security of cyber physical systems and control theory.”
Gerrald Lodewijk: Postdoctoral Scholar
Graduate Institution: Utrecht University, Neuroscience and Cognition, M.S., and University of Amsterdam, Molecular Neuroscience, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: Utrecht University, Biomedical Sciences, B.S.
Advisor: Ali Shariati
Department: Biomolecular Engineering
“It’s been nice to establish a research network at UCSC and outside of the UCSC research community, which has allowed me to secure new project collaborations and expand my research scope.”
Andi Peeters: Staff
Graduate Institution: Loyola Marymount University, M.A. Counseling & Capella University, Ph.D. Education
Undergraduate Institution: Washington State University
Department: Undergraduate Advising
“My two favorite days of the year are the first day of the academic year and commencement. To see students walk across the stage with the world at their fingertips is just rad!”
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.”
Meghna Banerjee: Alumna
Degree Program: Computer Science B.S.
Graduate Institution: Attending Harvard fall 2021, M.E. Computational Science and Engineering
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: San Jose, CA
“I’m really grateful for all the resources I had at Baskin Engineering and the faculty who helped me along the way.”
Marcella Gomez: Faculty
Graduate Institution: California Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Ph.D
Undergraduate Institution: UC Berkeley, Mechanical Engineering, B.S.
Department: Applied Mathematics
Hometown: Riverside, CA
“I think being at the edge of human knowledge is exciting for me. I just like pushing that boundary; I’m interested in all kinds of fields and I’m just interested in learning.”
Brenda Betancourt: Alumna
Degree Program: Ph.D., Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Department: Applied Mathematics, Statistics
Hometown: Bogotá, Colombia
“From learning English to receiving an outstanding formation in Bayesian Statistics, my time at the Baskin School of Engineering was a life-changing experience for me.”
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.”
Riadul Islam: Alumnus
Degree Program: Computer Engineering, Ph.D.
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Department: Computer Engineering
Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh
“If you look at the power consumption of the microprocessor or the CPU, a big chunk of power comes in by the clock network, so I proposed a new paradigm of clocking that utilizes current rather than voltage.”