Degree Program: Ph.D., Computer Science and Engineering
Graduate Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: Azad University
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Tehran, Iran
“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.”
Graduate Institution: University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Undergraduate Institution: University of Central Arkansas
Department: Undergraduate Affairs and MEP
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
“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.”
Degree Program: Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering
Graduate Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Barbara
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Hometown: Fresno, California
“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.”
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.”
Degree Program: Ph.D., Computational Media
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Undergraduate Institution: Western New England University
Department: Computational Media
Hometown: Dudley, Massachusetts
“SpokeIt is a big team project I’m working on. It’s a game with this overarching narrative and within that game there are a bunch of therapeutic mini games that focus on different kinds of speech therapy.”