Voices of Baskin Engineering

Ryan Modlin: Alumnus and Graduate Student

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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.”

Jared Duval: Graduate Student

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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.”