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Akshat Sharma: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Irvine, CA“I’d like to have my own company one day, something that allows me to use engineering to drive social or environmental change.”
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Loren Matilsky: Postdoctoral Fellow
Department: Applied Mathematics
Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University, Physics and Mathematics, A.B.
Graduate Institution: University of Colorado, Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Ph.D.“Something my dad always says is ‘Give yourself permission to fail.’ In other words, doing an experiment, you might mess up or go down a rabbit hole, but you should cross that bridge when you come to it, so don’t be afraid to try something new out.”
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Aaron McPherson: Staff
Graduate Institution: Bowling Green State University, College Student Personnel, M.A.
Departments: Applied Mathematics and Statistics“Coming from previous positions where I worked almost completely independently, the level of collaboration is one of the things I really enjoy about my department manager role.”
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Haofan Cai: Alumna
Degree Program: Computer Science and Engineering, Ph.D.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Undergraduate Institution: Southern University of Science and Technology, China, Communications Engineering, B.S.
Advisor: Chen Qian“The most important thing is to have confidence in yourself. Although you will encounter many challenges and become frustrated at times during your program, you need to remain confident in your capabilities as an engineer.”
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Anuj Kumar: Alumnus
Degree Program: Applied Mathematics, Ph.D.
Department: Applied Mathematics
Undergraduate Institution:Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, Mechanical Engineering, B.S.
Graduate Institution: Indian Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Mechanical Engineering, M.S.
Advisor: Pascale Garaud“One of the best parts of my research is getting to blend different interdisciplinary concepts together like math, engineering, and physics and collaborate with different researchers across different fields.”
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Joseph Cruz: Alumnus
Degree Program: Biomolecular Engineering and Bioinformatics, B.S.
Department: Biomolecular Engineering
Hometown: Pomona, CA“The thing I’ll miss most is working in Professor Rebecca DuBois’s Lab. I’m grateful for all the support and encouragement I received while conducting research in her lab.”
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Alec Dektor: Alumnus
Degree Program: Applied Mathematics, Ph.D.
Department: Applied Mathematics
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Graduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Advisor: Daniele Venturi“As a researcher, I am constantly trying to think of new ideas. Most of them take a lot of effort to explore and oftentimes they do not work. One day, I decided to carry out an idea that had popped into my head. I quickly coded it into my computer and pressed “run.” I sat there and watched the animations appear on the screen, proving that my new idea worked even better than I had anticipated. It was such a good feeling to achieve this research breakthrough from an original idea.”
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Erin Busch: Staff
Graduate Institution: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership, M.Ed.
Undergraduate Institution: California State University, Monterey Bay, Film and Television Production, B.A.
Department: Baskin Engineering Career Success“My hope by building connections with industry is that it will help create pipelines for students and allow me to gain a deeper understanding of what companies are searching for in their applicants so I can better prepare students.”
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Michael Matkin: Staff
Graduate Institution: Indiana University Bloomington, Writing, MFA
Department: UC Santa Cruz CITRIS and the Banatao Institute“The thing that I love the most about being a part of this community is getting to work with such an incredibly diverse range of topics and researchers.”
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Abigail Kaun: Staff
Department: Baskin Engineering Dean’s Office
Graduate Institution: UCLA, Linguistics, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: UCSB, Linguistics, B.A.“I’ve worked with students my whole career, in all sorts of settings and with all sorts of objectives in life, but I have never worked with students who were more creative, collaborative, and dedicated than the engineering students at UC Santa Cruz.”
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Ashwin Chakraborty: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Robotics Engineering, B.S.
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Hometown: Palm Desert, CA“Being given a problem and being able to approach it in any way that I see fit is incredibly freeing and fun.”
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Sam Trujillo: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Menlo Park, CA“Having a community of other students striving for the same goal as yourself gives you that foundation for success.”
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Sammy Tesfai: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Engineering, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Santa Rosa, CA“What I like best about being an engineering major would be the amount of flexibility we are given to express our creativity into creating solutions to problems individuals can use in the real world.”
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Rakshya Sharma: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S., Bioinformatics minor
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: Bhaktapur, Nepal (immigrated to USA in 2015)“The best part of being an engineering major is always having the opportunity to be creative.”
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Noopur Raval: Postdoctoral Researcher
Graduate Institution: Jawaharlal Nehru University, Cinema Studies, M.Phil., Arts & Aesthetics, M.A.; UC Irvine, Informatics, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Institution: Christ University, (3 majors) Media Studies, English Literature, and Psychology, B.A.
Advisor: Norman Su
Department: Computational Media“It’s important to learn by doing, take chances, and grow from those individual experiences.”
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Manikantanagasai (Mani) Illuri: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering“This whole evolution of technology fascinates me, and I want to find ways that I can contribute to innovation that improves our quality of life.”
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Shreedhar Jangam: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Science, B.S.
Department: Computer Science and Engineering
Hometown: San Jose, CAI love the opportunities available to engineering students.
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Nhan Nguyen: Undergraduate Student
Degree Program: Computer Game Design B.S
Department: Computational Media“It’s so satisfying when you find the solution to a complex coding problem.”
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Amber Sargeant: Alumna
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?”
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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.”
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