National Engineers Week

“What makes engineering so rewarding is to be able to impact the world and create change. I want to help people through engineering” SPEAKING FROM THE HEART : HAZELYNN KHOO, UC ‘19 Hazelynn Khoo, a mechanical engineering undergraduate student at a UC, grew up with heart issues that flared up every so often. In high school, she wore a bulky heart monitor that came with a fanny pack and obtrusive wires. When the heart issue resurfaced last November, Khoo returned to the doctor’s office for a new monitor. “I was amazed. The monitor was a four-inch sticker that I could leave on in the shower. It

James Rogers, PhD, Founder and CEO, Apeel Sciences While working on his PhD in Materials at a UC, James Rogers spent a lot of time driving back and forth to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For hours, he passed lush agriculture fields and wondered how millions in the world went hungry. He soon learned it wasn’t a problem with production, but rather an issue with food spoilage. Drawing from his research at a UC, Rogers created Apeel, a tasteless, odorless, edible coating made from plant materials that naturally keeps fruits and vegetables fresh longer. Apeel keeps moisture inside

Viral Shah, CEO, Julia Computing In 2009, Viral Shah was playing catch with his teammate Stefan Karpinksi, a UC computer science graduate student, after an Ultimate Frisbee intramural match. They may have talked some about Ultimate strategy, but a more important result of their meeting was the discovery that they shared a common frustration with computer languages, what they would come to call “the two-language problem.” “To be productive and fast, you had to write the same program twice,” said Shah, who earned his PhD in computer science from a UC in 2007. “You had this mishmash of two

Lorenzo Booth, Environmental Systems doctoral student B.S. ’15 Environmental Engineering I M.S. ’18 Environmental Systems Lorenzo Booth embodies a UC engineer to the fullest extent. The Los Angeles native has climbed the UC ladder — from environmental engineering undergrad to his current status as an environmental systems doctoral student — picking up national attention along the way. Booth’s work with UC Water has led him to research on more efficient uses of water for agriculture. In 2016, he was recognized as having the best student poster presented by the American Water Resources

Elmer Thomas, B.S. 03’, M.S. 05’ Senior Developer Experience Engineer, Twilio/SendGrid Elmer completed a B.S. in Computer Engineering and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of California focusing on control systems and GPS navigation systems under Dr. Jay Farrell. Elmer currently serves as the senior developer experience engineer at Twilio/SendGrid, a cloud-based email service helping companies increase their email deliverability. He leads, develops and manages SendGrid’s open source community, which includes more than 24 active projects across seven programming languages

Janna Rodriguez, mechanical engineer, Intel Corporation Janna’s Rodriguez’s achievements exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit and drive shared by many UC graduates. Rodriguez not only launched a successful business in her hometown of Merced as an engineering student, she also excelled in the classroom. Rodriguez credits the combination of unique programs, people, encouragement and small class-size for helping her get to where she is now. “UC was the gateway to access the extremely talented and innovative people who were always willing to help,” she said. “Summer program opportunities at

Michael Urner is one of UC most successful engineering alumni, now on his second startup company and mentoring current UC students as they move along their own engineering paths. As a student, he took part in the School of Engineering’s Innovation and Design Clinic (IDC), working with fellow engineering students and community partner Valley Children’s Hospital to design a better way of keeping neonatal patients breathing safely and cleanly while in incubators. It was a passion project for him because he had often experienced childhood illnesses and wanted to ensure other children had fewer

Crysthal Alvarez, Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Student Crysthal Alvarez is an undergraduate mechanical engineering major working in Dr. Guillermo Aguilar’s Window to the Brain Lab. She, alongside an interdisciplinary and multi-university team of faculty and postdocs, has developed a novel transparent skull implant that provides a literal “window to the brain,” which will eventually allow for new treatment options to become available for patients with life-threatening neurological disorders. Crysthal’s journey to a UC wasn’t the traditional path – she transferred from a community

Gabriel Garcia Montoya Undergraduate student, Computer Science and Engineering When you’re an engineer … the work you do can be applied to many fields. For example, if you do computer science, you can write code for a pacemaker or a drone or put that code into space. The mind of an engineer is very versatile! Born in California, Gabriel Garcia Montoya moved with his family to Mexico as young child. They lived in Nezahualcóyotl until Gabriel was eight years old. The metropolis in which he lived was becoming increasingly violent. Drugs were becoming a serious problem, and kidnappings were

Jeffrey Aceves is an excellent student. Always has been. He graduated high school with a 4.3 GPA and an Eagle Scout ranking. He graduated from a UC in 3 ½ years, having come to the campus with 20 college credits already completed. The Bakersfield native is driven, dedicated and not afraid to push his personal envelope. He was named Outstanding Bioengineering Student of 2018, was a finalist for the a UC Distinguished Leader Award, has already co-authored one published academic paper and graduated with honors. Now he’s headed to Harvard to earn his Ph.D. and make a difference in the lives of

Baskin School of Engineering Distinguished Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, former Chancellor of a UC, second dean of the Baskin School of Engineering "I was most fortunate to learn from the world's greatest engineering professors on how to think critically and creatively. Many professors have become my life-long mentors and greater family members. As a professor I have tried to continually value and practice what I had learned from them as a graduate student." Professor Sung-Mo Kang’s remarkable career began with one of the most important electrical engineering

A UC engineering education propels student into a career in the space and technology hub of Southern California Daniela Marques, BS Materials Science & Engineering Expected graduation: 2019 When Daniela Marques visited the UC campus, she knew she wanted to do engineering. That feeling was amplified by all the smiling faces she saw on campus. Once she was accepted, Marques found a family through the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity (CEED) before she even started freshman year. CEED acquainted Marques with the university, including the labs. As a freshman, Marques met Erin, a

“We see ourselves wanting to develop technologies that might be considered fanciful at one point but become reality very quickly. So we see ourselves looking at a blue sky and saying, ‘Well then, let’s come up with ideas which will change the world.” Gaurav Sant Associate Professor and Henry Samueli Fellow in Civil and Environmental Engineering Director of the Institute for Carbon Management at UCLA Gaurav Sant and his research collaborators have an ambitious goal, one that could be the 21st century equivalent of turning lead into gold. Sant leads Team Carbon Upcycling at a UC campus, which is

Michael Campbell, Computer Science Principal Engineering Specialist, Aerospace Corporation Michael Campbell (Class of 1980) is a Principal Engineering Specialist at The Aerospace Corporation, a Federally Funded Research & Development Center headquartered in El Segundo, California. The organization provides a wide range of technical support to many U.S. government space organizations such as the Air Force, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), NASA, and NOAA. Mike is a true UC engineer, earning his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics and computer science all from UC campuses. He

For Vanessa, the UC experience has provided a unique community of engineers. As a fourth-year Chemical Engineering student, her UC has granted her the opportunity to channel learned skills through different mediums like undergraduate research, student organizations, and working on campus projects. The UC experience has also allowed Vanessa to strive towards her career goals. As the president of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), she is exposed to new opportunities and is always finding new ways to give back to the next generation of women engineers. “The opportunity of collaboration to work

From an early home-made radio, to a multi-billion dollar industry, a UC engineering education provides the link to a technological invention that likely enables the device you’re reading this from Henry Samueli, BS ’75, MS ’76, PhD ’80 Co-Founder and Chairman, Broadcom Inc. Benefactor, of a UC School of Engineering The son of Jewish immigrant parents, Samueli grew up in Los Angeles and spent much of his free time as a child helping out in his parents’ modest liquor store. An early success building a home radio kit sparked an interest in electronics that led Samueli to a UC, where he earned

Bev Crair B.A. in Computer and Information Sciences ’83, B.A. Mathematics ’83 VP of Product Development & Quality in Lenovo's Data Center Group “The UC system teaches students how to discover, how to ask important questions. UC graduates have an inquisitiveness about what's possible.” Bev Crair is VP of Product Development & Quality in Lenovo’s Data Center Group. As the group’s technical lead, she’s responsible for business strategy and planning, as well as new technology development and implementation. Crair emphasizes the potential for technology to create positive change in the world, and

Adrian Salguero UC computer science graduate student Adrian Salguero felt behind the curve when he started his computer science and engineering undergraduate degree at the Universit y of California. He was relatively new to the subject while some of his classmates had been programming for years. But he stuck with it, and now he is earning his PhD in computer science and engineering at a UC, one of the top ranked computer science programs in the country, as a Sloan Scholar. Sloan Scholars receive a four-year fellowship worth $40,000, meant to stimulate fundamental research by early-career

Brenda Betancourt Professor, University of Florida Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Brenda Betancourt moved to California in 2010 to pursue a Ph.D. in Statistics at a University of California. She is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida. While at UC, her research focus was on applications of Bayesian statistical methods. She says that her time as a UC PhD student was life-changing for her. She learned to speak English fluently while working on her degree, and she received the mentoring, support, and education to pursue an academic career. Today, Betancourt continues her

Alfred Chuang, M.S. ’86 Chairman and CEO, Magnet Systems, Inc. Never give up and always see things through to completion. These life lessons were imparted by Alfred Chuang, founder and CEO of Magnet Systems, Inc., to graduating seniors at a UC College of Engineering. “The UC College of Engineering has a unique culture that motivates engineers to try, often times fail, and re-start again,” Chuang says. “Years later, I found out that’s what tech entrepreneurship is all about.” After graduating from a UC with a master’s degree in computer science in 1986, Chuang worked for Sun Microsystems, Inc