Cheng Ye: ECE Best Undergraduate Research Award recipient

UC San Diego undergraduate computer engineering student Cheng Ye is the first author of a Bioinformatics paper describing a phylogenetic software tool that is capable of handling the vast amounts of SARS-CoV-2 data. Ye was awarded the Electrical and Computer Engineering Best Undergraduate Research Award for his work in Professor Yatish Turakhia's lab. 

Learn more about how Ye got involved in research and the project he worked on in this Q&A:

Ye, left, receives the ECE Best Undergraduate
Research Award from his advisor, Professor 
Turakhia, at right. 

How did you decide to get involved in research as an undergraduate?

I like open-ended questions, and to try new ideas, so I got involved in research.

You got involved in research thanks to the ECE Summer Research Internship Program (SRIP). How did SRIP help you personally?

One alternative way of finding a faculty to do research with without a wonderful program like SRIP is to read their publications and email them directly. However, (1) I won't know whether they have the time to mentor an undergrad, and (2) I won't know what project I will be working on. SRIP streamlines the search process by providing a directory of faculty seeking students and the available projects.

What year are you, and do you have any goals/plans for after you complete your undergrad?

I am a senior. I am not sure whether I want to be a research software engineer or a digital circuit designer building hardware accelerators, so I am going for the BS/MS program to have more experience with digital circuit design, and procrastinating the decision.

What were you working on before you were assigned the tree optimizer project?

I was initially assigned to work on accelerating sequence alignment on GPU, but I thought the SARS-COV-2 phylogeny project might be more exciting, and it indeed was. By the way, the pandemic is a rare opportunity to make some impact quickly, though I am not saying I want another pandemic. Actually, the SARS-COV-2 phylogeny project is the first project I worked on with Prof. Yatish Turakhia. I did some variant calling in my second year, and some neuroscience in my first year in other labs. 

How does the matOptimize parallel software work?

It can both scale up (multiple threads) and scale-out (multiple hosts). The state of art software for Tree Analysis using New Technology (TNT)  can only scale-out, so it has to duplicate the internal data structure on all processes, even on the same host, so it needs a beyond practical memory to CPU ratio. matOptimize exploits multi-core CPUs more effectively, by allowing all threads running on the same CPU to share the same immutable internal data structure, which is also more compact than the one used in TNT. Therefore, it has a more practical memory to CPU ratio. It can also leverage message passing interface (MPI) to scale-out.

What are some of the challenges you faced when creating this software?

Understanding why optimization is necessary. Thanks Prof. Yatish for providing several examples in the early stage of the project to unblock me. And the parallelization. Heuristic phylogenetic tree optimization is based on applying small changes to the tree, and the effect of a change may impact whether other changes are desirable, so it is difficult to parallelize. TNT can parallelize by either optimizing a small part of tree independently on the different processes (divide and conquer), which cannot discover all beneficial changes, or having each process explore the entire tree independently, and broadcast the best tree found to other processes, and continue the process on the best tree found, similar to an ant colony. I appreciate Prof. Yatish and Prof. Russell Corbett-Detig’s insight that beneficial changes are rare, the effect of a change is local and their suggestion of finding all beneficial moves simultaneously and independently, then apply all the non-conflicting changes simultaneously. Their help and inspiration from IQ-TREE, which is another tree optimization software, make parallelization possible.

Any advice to students who think they may want to try research as an undergraduate?

Unfortunately, I don't feel qualified to answer this question. However, I can talk about what I wish I had done. First, have an idea of what I wanted to get out of the research experience, and don't forget about it. In my case, I am getting more experience with designing hardware accelerators, but with the particular problem of phylogenetic inference at hand, improving the algorithm and parallelizing across conventional hardware is a more effective solution than optimizing the implementation to death on a particular hardware platform.

I chose to improve and parallelize the algorithm and learned how to use Intel TBB and MPI along the way (and got something that exceeds my expectation).  I wish I could have found a better way of accommodating both my goal and the most effective approach to the project at hand. However, it can be difficult to see what is the best approach to the project, before being significantly involved, and what is more difficult is to wrap up a project and move on.

Secondly, communicate. A few unnecessary initial iterations of matOptimize were redundant because I felt I understood what was needed, but I didn't, but I jumped right into implementation too soon.

One step closer to fire safe, recyclable lithium-metal batteries

High-energy density, improved safety, temperature resilience and sustainability are desirable properties for lithium-battery electrolytes, yet these metrics are rarely achieved simultaneously. Inspired by the compositions of clean fire-extinguishing agents, a team of nanoengineers from UC San Diego demonstrated inherently fire safe liquefied gas electrolytes, as well as a one-step solvent-recycling process which promises sustainable operation at scale, in a Nature Energy paper published on June 16.

Yijie Yin and Professor Shirley Meng working in
the lab to develop this lithium-battery electrolyte

This work provides a route to sustainable, temperature-resilient lithium-metal batteries with fire-extinguishing properties that maintain state-of-the-art electrochemical performance.

Yijie Yin, a nanoengineering PhD student and co-first author of the paper, shares how this work came about in the following paragraphs. Yin and co-first author Yangyuchen Yang are both graduate students in adjunct professor Shirley Meng’s Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conversation. Read the Nature Energy paper here.

“In 2017, a team of UC San Diego nanoengineers discovered hydrofluorocarbon molecules that are gasses at room temperature and will liquefy under a certain pressure. They then invented a new type of electrolyte, which is called "Liquefied Gas Electrolyte"(LGE). The related results were published in Science1.

Yijie Yin

The liquefied gas electrolyte greatly broadens the choice of electrolyte solvent molecules. The screened fluoromethane and difluoromethane 2 small molecules have a low melting point, fast kinetics, and wide voltage window. With the combination of co-solvents, these characteristics make these liquefied gas electrolytes exhibit excellent low temperature performance (< -60°C), Li metal Coulombic efficiency (>99.8%)3 and high performance of high-voltage cathodes4.

However, the LGE electrolyte is not yet "perfect", because the saturated vapor pressure of the molecules used is high, and like most electrolytes, it is still flammable, which makes the safety and environmental protection of the system irrational.

The idea of this work came from a chat between Yin and Yang, also a nanoengineering PhD student at UC San Diego. Yin mentioned that he wanted to try to replace the strong solvating power liquid co-solvents with the smallest ether molecule - methyl ether (Me2O) in follow-up work.

Yangyuchen Yang

‘"As a gas molecule, Me2O can only be used in liquefied gas,” said Yin. “It may only work under the pressurized system, and it may provide better lithium metal interface and stability while maintaining fast kinetics."’

During the discussion, Yang also agreed with this idea and hoped that this system could be further improved. He said, "If we continue to use the current FM and DFM weakly solvated solvents, the existing high-pressure and flammability shortcomings will not be changed, instead we should work on the searching for molecules with increased fluorinated carbon bonding".

Next, the two referred to the structure of fluoromethane to search for fluorinated molecules with longer carbon chains, while maintaining the inherent advantages of liquefied gasses, such as low melting point, low viscosity, and maintaining a certain polarity. Considering all the above requirements, 1,1,1,2 tetrafluoroethane (TFE) and pentafluoroethane pentafluoroethane(PFE) came to mind.

What's even more surprising is that these two molecules are the main components in some fire extinguishers, which means that the molecules are not only non-flammable, but also have excellent fire-extinguishing properties.

1             Rustomji, C. S. et al. Liquefied gas electrolytes for electrochemical energy storage devices. Science, doi:10.1126/science.aal4263 (2017). 

2             Davies, D. M. et al. A Safer, Wide-Temperature Liquefied Gas Electrolyte Based on Difluoromethane. Journal of Power Sources 493, 229668 (2021). 

3             Yang, Y. et al. High-Efficiency Lithium-Metal Anode Enabled by Liquefied Gas Electrolytes. Joule 3, 1986-2000, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.06.008 (2019). 

4             Yang, Y. et al. Liquefied gas electrolytes for wide-temperature lithium metal batteries. Energy & Environmental Science 13, 2209-2219, doi:10.1039/D0EE01446J (2020).

ACM Dissertation Honorable Mention awarded to Pratul Srinivasan and Ben Mildenhall

The ACM Dissertation Honorable Mention has been awarded to Pratul Srinivasan and Ben Mildenhall for their work on Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs). Srinivasan is the last of UC San Diego Computer Science & Engineering professor Ravi Ramamoorthi's graduate students to graduate from UC Berkeley. Professor Ramamoorthi moved from UC Berkeley to UC San Diego in 2014. At UC San Diego, Ramamoorthi Directs the UC San Diego Center for Visual Computing.

Pratul Srinivasan and Benjamin Mildenhall were jointly awarded an Honorable Mention for their co-invention of the Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) representation, associated algorithms and theory, and their successful application to the view synthesis problem.

From the ACM citation: Srinivasan’s dissertation, "Scene Representations for View Synthesis with Deep Learning," and Mildenhall’s dissertation, “Neural Scene Representations for View Synthesis,” addressed a long-standing open problem in computer vision and computer graphics. That problem, called “view synthesis” in vision and “unstructured light field rendering” in graphics, involves taking just a handful of photographs of a scene and predicting new images from any intermediate viewpoint.

NeRF has already inspired a remarkable volume of follow-on research, and the associated publications have received some of the fastest rates of citation in computer graphics literature—hundreds in the first year of post-publication.

2022 Bioengineering Award of Excellence: Kendra Worthington

Every year, six outstanding undergraduate students who made significant contributions to their academic department and the Jacobs School of Engineering community are celebrated with department Awards of Excellence at the Ring Ceremony event for graduating undergraduates.

The 2022 Bioengineering Award of Excellence was awarded to Kendra Worthington. Learn more about her background and future plans in this Q&A.

What do you enjoy about bioengineering, and why did you decide to pursue this field?

I love that bioengineering is a diverse field, both in research and in its community. What initially drew me towards bioengineering was knowing that I would always be learning something new throughout my entire career, which means that I will never be bored in bioengineering. I also love that as a bioengineer I can serve my community through the creation of next generation therapeutics, and it's this desire to help others that fuels me to work hard and be the best bioengineer that I can be.

Were you involved in any activities/groups/clubs/research labs on campus that were impactful during your time at UC San Diego?

I was involved in the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) during my time at UC San Diego. BMES is one of the single most impactful factors of my time here. It is a community full of people who support one another and a place where every individual can grow and become who they want to be. BMES is also an org whose core mission is to serve our community, and as a bioengineer whose goal it is to make an impact in the world, I loved that I was surrounded by so many other people who have that same drive to help others. Due to this strong sense of community, I served as an officer three times for the org: as Freshman Representative my first year, as Bioengineering Day Chair in the 2019-2020 school year, and as Vice President Internal in my final year.

I was also involved in the Christman Lab on campus for all four years. What I loved about that environment was not only the opportunity to engage in top-tier research, but also the mentorship I received there. Dr. Christman and all of the grad students in the lab have always encouraged me to believe in myself and it was the guidance of them and most especially my graduate student mentor, Holly Sullivan, that has inspired me to pursue my own career in research.

Do you have any advice for current or future engineering students?

My advice for any current, and especially future, engineering students is that anyone can be an engineer. I think many people get stuck in the idea that because they are not a top student, they can't be a good engineer. However, it isn't the best grades in the class or the top spot in a student organization that makes a person a good engineer. It's the passion they have for their field that makes them the best engineer. So, don't worry over the small things like that one midterm in your class you didn't do well on. Instead, focus on the big picture and focus on what you are learning and if you will be able to apply it to real-world engineering solutions. At the end of the day, if you want it and are willing to put in the work for it, then you can and will become an engineer.

What will you do next year?

I am heading off to the University of Colorado Boulder to get my PhD in Biological Engineering with funding by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. I hope to continue to do research in biomaterials and one day become a researcher who helps bring the next-generation therapeutics to those who need them most.

Anything else that's important to know about your time and experience at the Jacobs School?

Many students get caught up in the "what if's", especially when choosing a college. However, the thought of "what if I chose this other school for undergrad" never crossed my mind, and that was because UC San Diego and Jacobs School has always been the right place for me. It is a phenomenal school with so many resources available to you that if you look, you will find the opportunity that you want. UC San Diego has been a great launching pad for my future career, and better yet, the Jacobs School is full of some of the most hard-working, inspiring students that I have been honored to learn alongside. I think you would be hard pressed to find a place with people who have a greater sense of comradery and more enthusiasm for science than there is here at UC San Diego.

2022 Computer Science and Engineering Award of Excellence: Eman Sherif

 

Every year, six outstanding undergraduate students who made significant contributions to their academic department and the Jacobs School of Engineering community are celebrated with department Awards of Excellence at the Ring Ceremony event for graduating undergraduates. 

The 2022 Computer Science and Engineering Award of Excellence was awarded to Eman Sherif. Learn more about her background and future plans in this Q&A.

What do you enjoy about computer science and engineering, and why did you decide to pursue this field?

 What I enjoyed most about CSE is how flexible the degree is. The responsibility of choosing a major when you are 17 years old that will dictate what you can do for the rest of your life is really daunting. So I wanted to make sure I chose something with the most amount of options. With a computer science degree I knew I could enter basically any field whether it is education, government, healthcare, etc.  

Were you involved in any activities/groups/clubs/research labs on campus that were impactful during your time at UC San Diego?

 I was involved in the Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) during my second year which was really important in giving me experience outside the classroom and helped me discover my love for research. Without participating in ERSP I probably would never have continued doing research in computer science education and would not have decided to pursue a PhD in computer science. I was also involved in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) which helped me feel more comfortable in engineering and gave me the ability to connect with my peers who look like me and share a common interest in engineering. 

 Do you have any advice for current or future engineering students?

 My biggest piece of advice for future computer science students is to explore all the different career options computer science can bring to you. A lot of times students only focus on software engineering, which can be great for a lot of students, but a computer science degree can bring you so many other careers as well. 

 What will you do next year?

 Next year I plan on starting my PhD program in computer science at the University of Washington, Seattle. I will be advised by Dr. Amy Ko and my research focus is on computer science education. 

 Anything else that's important to know about your time and experience at the Jacobs School?

I really loved my experience at the Jacob’s school! The faculty and staff are amazing and really made my time here memorable.  

2022 Electrical and Computer Engineering Award of Excellence: Raini Wu

Every year, six outstanding undergraduate students who made significant contributions to their academic department and the Jacobs School of Engineering community are celebrated with department Awards of Excellence at the Ring Ceremony event for graduating undergraduates.

 The 2022 Electrical and Computer Engineering Award of Excellence was awarded to Raini Wu. Learn more about his background and future plans in this Q&A.

What do you enjoy about electrical and computer engineering, or why did you decide to pursue this field?

I chose to pursue electrical engineering as I wanted to learn more about the fundamental technologies behind the devices that have surrounded me forever. It was really surprising and intriguing to me how few people knew exactly what was going on in ubiquitous electronic things that are everywhere. I wanted to be one of those people.

 Were you involved in any activities/groups/clubs/research labs on campus that were impactful during your time at UC San Diego?

I was primarily involved in HKN and the Wireless Communications Sensing and Networking Group (WCSNG) research group. I joined WCSNG my first quarter here and I joined HKN shortly after, starting in the Winter quarter of my first year. Both WCSNG and HKN consist of amazingly talented people, and it opened my eyes to what was possible throughout my undergraduate career. Having mentors and peers that were just as excited about engineering as I was kept me motivated throughout my undergraduate career. One HKN officer a year older than me actually first inspired me to try and graduate in three years. I had no idea it was possible until he mentioned he was doing it. Coincidentally he was also in my research group and also pursuing the ECE BS/MS program. In WCSNG I pursued research related to wireless virtual reality, intelligent next-generation cellular networks, and distributed computing for spectrum sensing. In HKN I served as Project Chair/Secretary, then HARD Hack Director.

Do you have any advice for current or future engineering students?

1. Don’t let self-doubt stop you from pursuing exciting things. Many of my best experiences here have been the result of just taking moonshots. (For example, trying to join a research group my first week of my first quarter or applying to be an HKN officer as a freshman)

2. Work with people that you can admire. I’ve found that by working with people who can inspire you, it’s much easier to grow into who you want to be.

 Any idea what you'll do next year, or what you hope to accomplish with your degree?

Next year I’ll be continuing here at UC San Diego for my Master’s degree in the ECE department’s BS/MS program, and hopefully completing a thesis with WCSNG and my PI Professor Dinesh Bharadia. I chose to focus on Computer Systems Design in my undergraduate degree, but I’ll be switching to Communication Theory and Systems for my Masters and I’m excited to be jumping into a fairly different variety of EE.

Anything else that's important to know about your time and experience at the Jacobs School?

In some ways it feels like I’ve just started college and it’s already over! As a third year, most (5/9 quarters!) of my experience with the Jacobs School has been through remote learning, but it has still been amazing. I look forward to staying here for my Master’s. Additionally, the ECE department here is fantastic. Both the faculty and administration have been incredibly supportive throughout my undergrad here. It was really surprising to me how painless it’s been to achieve what I wanted to achieve - whether in regards to courses, research programs, or even as a student org leader.

2022 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Award of Excellence: Rachel Luu

Every year, six outstanding undergraduate students who made significant contributions to their academic department and the Jacobs School of Engineering community are celebrated with department Awards of Excellence at the Ring Ceremony event for graduating undergraduates.

The 2022 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Award of Excellence was awarded to Rachel Luu. Learn more about her background and future plans in this Q&A.

What do you enjoy about mechanical and aerospace engineering, or why did you decide to pursue this field?

I initially was an Environmental Engineering major because I wanted to see if I could develop engineering solutions to combat current environmental issues in the world! However, at the end of my first year, I switched over to mechanical engineering (because of the MAE switch) but also because it allowed for such a broad introduction to many different engineering topics. And I’m so glad I did! Because I found a passion for materials within the mechanical engineering major and particularly so, an interest in the study of mechanics of materials! My interest in environmental engineering still lingers and actually shows its face again in my research interests which are in developing sustainable materials!

Were you involved in any activities/groups/clubs/research labs on campus that were impactful during your time at UC San Diego?

Research! The majority of my research took place in Professor Marc Meyers’ Group studying biological materials science though I was also a part of an environmental fluids lab and a robotics lab prior to joining the Meyers Group. In the Meyers Group, I studied an array of biological matter, including horse hooves, jackfruit, roly-polies, and arapaima fish scales all with the intention of understanding unique biological hierarchical microstructures and then implementing their ideas into novel bioinspired engineering materials. During my experience with the group, I was able to present my research at over 6 conferences and I’ve been able to be a part of multiple research programs such as McNair Scholars Program and TRELS. Shoutout to my PhD graduate student mentor, Ben Lazarus, who introduced me to this field of research -- this field of research which I have found such a sincere passion for! I seriously could not have achieved as much without his constant support, trust, and encouragement. 

IDEA Engineering Student Center! In the summer before my first year, I participated as an ACES Scholar at the Summer Engineering Institute 2018. This made a huge impact on my college experience since I was able to get a head start on getting acquainted with the university and it was also where I met some of my best friends! The next two years, I returned over the summers as a Peer Facilitator where I was able to help mentor incoming engineering students which I found to be extremely fulfilling. I also became an intern at the IDEA Center working with the ACES Scholars Program. Being able to help underserved communities in engineering became one of the best experiences I’ve had at UC San Diego.

Do you have any advice for current or future engineering students?

My advice to all engineering students is to not worry so much about what others are doing or what seems like the most “conventional” path for an engineer. Instead, know that you can pave your own path if need be. Not everyone's engineering journey is going to look the same or be perfect. Did I think I would have studied horse hooves when I first got into engineering? Haha, no! But, it sure turned out to be fantastic.

Any idea what you'll do next year, or what you hope to accomplish with your degree?

I applied to PhD programs this past cycle and I am over the moon to say that I was accepted in mechanical and materials engineering programs at Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, and MIT -- all which certainly made for a tough decision! This coming fall, I will be pursuing my PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT as a MIT Rosenblith Presidential Fellow and NSF Graduate Research Fellow! I look forward to continuing my research in the mechanics of biological materials with the goal of creating bioinspired sustainable materials! As a grad student at MIT, I hope to also continue my outreach efforts by reaching out and leading first generation and underrepresented engineering communities at MIT. In the future, I hope to become a professor that leads my own research group. *hint hint* Maybe, I’ll be back one day, UC San Diego :)

Anything else that's important to know about your time and experience at the Jacobs School?

I am a first-generation student at UC San Diego! I applied to engineering on a whim because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do to get a “successful” career as a child of immigrant parents. I feel very thankful to the Jacobs School and the IDEA Center for such an amazing and supportive experience in helping me realize my passion for engineering.

2022 Nanoengineering Award of Excellence: Meghan Shen

Every year, six outstanding undergraduate students who made significant contributions to their academic department and the Jacobs School of Engineering community are celebrated with department Awards of Excellence at the Ring Ceremony event for graduating undergraduates.

The 2022 NanoEngineering Award of Excellence was awarded to Meghan Shen. Learn more about her background and future plans in this Q&A.

What do you enjoy about nanoengineering, or why did you decide to pursue this field?

I think the idea of gaining perspective by seeing things most people don’t get to see is what initially drew me to nanoengineering. After brief stints in a radiology lab and in an optics lab, I joined the Lab for Energy Storage and Conversion. There, I was taught to think critically about world energy issues and to appreciate the natural world around me. Then, I decided I wanted to work in this field.

Were you involved in any activities/groups/clubs/research labs on campus that were impactful during your time at UC San Diego?

I am involved in battery research at the Lab for Energy Storage and Conversion. Being a part of LESC allowed me to meet many mentors who helped me develop organizational and technical skills, and they believed in my potential before I did. Not only was I inspired to pursue materials research, but I was inspired to pursue mentorship and teaching because these people were so inspiring.

I am also involved in Tau Beta Pi where I served as the NanoEngineering Department Representative and the Historian. Planning Nano-events brought me a lot closer to the nanoengineering community at school, enabling me to make some of my best friends. I also got to broaden my horizons by learning about other engineering disciplines through TBP.

Lastly, I worked at the Teaching and Learning Commons leading math supplemental instruction sessions. I liked that I could create this safe space for students, because I personally struggled with asking questions in class and talking to professors when I started college. This experience showed me how much I enjoyed teaching others, because it gave me freedom to try out different learning strategies and games - like linear algebra jeopardy.

Do you have any advice for current or future engineering students?

Over the past year, I struggled with balancing schoolwork, labwork, and deciding what I wanted to pursue after undergrad. I was unsure if I could handle grad school, and I was shying away from opportunities because they seemed too far away or too difficult. During this time, my PI said that our actions should reflect our hopes, not our fears, and I think this sums up the advice I want to give to others. You’re a student. You essentially have unlimited potential, and this is only the beginning. So reach for those opportunities that excite you, even if they scare you.

Any idea what you'll do next year, or what you hope to accomplish with your degree?

This fall, I will be pursuing a PhD in Materials Science at UC Berkeley. I hope to leverage my experience working in the lab to plan thoughtful experiments regarding materials characterization. In my career, I want to be a mentor that encourages students to believe in themselves. I also want to fight for educational equity and make sure everyone gets to learn what they love. 

Anything else that's important to know about your time and experience at the Jacobs School?

When I started college, I was not yet a nanoengineering major. I was not yet a fan of chemistry or physics, and I felt out of place when I took my first programming class. Still, I ended up loving my major, 1. because nanoscale things are super cool, 2. because the people I met within the Nano community have this infectious enthusiasm and kindness that made me feel less alone at UC San Diego. 

2022 Structural Engineering Award of Excellence: Ramtin Azarbad

Every year, six outstanding undergraduate students who made significant contributions to their academic department and the Jacobs School of Engineering community are celebrated with department Awards of Excellence at the Ring Ceremony event for graduating undergraduates.

The 2022 Structural Engineering Award of Excellence was awarded to Ramtin Azarbad. Learn more about his background and future plans in this Q&A.

What do you enjoy about structural engineering, or why did you decide to pursue this field?

What has fascinated me about this field is that the projects we work on have tangible applications; you may pass by the building you helped design and can see how it has changed the landscape of the city. Aside from the major itself, the Structural Engineering community is filled with the most helpful individuals I have encountered in my four years here at UC San Diego. The upperclassmen are enthusiastic to give you advice on coursework and work-life, the peers would seize every opportunity to help you if you do not understand a topic, and the faculty is there if you need assistance and guidance.

Were you involved in any activities/groups/clubs/research labs on campus that were impactful during your time at UC San Diego?

I served as the Vice President of Development and Co-president at the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers (SCSE) for the past two years. Additionally, at SCSE, I was the technical events director for the Pacific Southwest Symposium at UC San Diego, which hosted 850+ students competing in various engineering competitions. I also served as the Vice President of Service at Circle K International at UC San Diego, providing service opportunities for the members. 

 Do you have any advice for current or future engineering students?

Step up when the opportunities arise to learn and lead. From joining a club to doing research, these opportunities are countless at UC San Diego, and can give you valuable friendships and important skills.

 Any idea what you'll do next year, or what you hope to accomplish with your degree?

Next year I will be pursuing a master’s degree in structural design and analysis here at UC San Diego. I hope to use what I learn to get a full-time position as a structural designer upon graduation.

Anything else that's important to know about your time and experience at the Jacobs School?

Engineering is definitely challenging and hard to navigate alone. It is important to seize every opportunity to get help from TAs, professors, peers, and academic support offered through the university. It is also important to make sure you save some time for your leisure and hobbies. Four years pass by quickly and you grow to miss the moments you had in college, so make sure you spend some time with friends and experience the college.

Jacobs School faculty receive Distinguished Teaching Awards

Three Jacobs School of Engineering educators were honored with Distinguished Teaching Awards from the UC San Diego Academic Senate in recognition of their creativity, innovative teaching methods, ability to motivate students to actively seek out knowledge, and an extraordinary level of teaching commitment.

Bruce Wheeler, an adjunct professor in the Department of Bioengineering, was awarded the Barbara and Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award; Maziar Ghazinejad, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Leo Porter, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Academic Senate members. Learn more about all three Jacobs School of Engineering recipients below.

Bruce Wheeler, adjunct professor in the Department of Bioengineering 

What do you teach?  I’ve been teaching for 51 years – high school math (I’m certified in New York); at an experimental elementary school in Blacksburg Virginia; 6 years as a TA at Cornell; university professor ever since.

For 6 years I was the chief advisor to 1600 electrical engineering students at Illinois– one of my students is now a UC San Diego Bioengineering faculty member; I founded the Bioengineering Department at Illinois and created its bachelors, masters, and PhD programs –two of my first faculty hires are now my colleagues in the UC San Diego Bioengineering Department; I also created the bachelor’s degree program in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida while I was Department Chair.  For the last six years I have taught every graduating senior in the Bioengineering senior design course.

What do you enjoy about teaching? Seven years ago I came to UC San Diego for two reasons – to help with the start of the Biosystems major – apparently someone thought I knew something about starting bioengineering degree programs -- and because, as my beard and hair grew increasingly gray, I thought that I would have greater impact not from another R01 grant but rather by communicating my experiences to and working with undergraduate students.

This award says that I made the right choice. My dream has been fulfilled.

Why is teaching an important, integral part of your job? It has been a most wonderful experience, being surrounded by incredibly bright, driven, personable, innovative people – with very diverse interests and backgrounds. They will shape the future of our state and our nation. I’m proud of all of them.

I’ve had the opportunity to encourage many to see a future beyond what they imagined when they entered UC San Diego. My students have kept me young – perhaps the greatest gift that anyone could ever get. They have given me far more than I have given them. I am most grateful. Thanks so very much to my loving and supportive family: my wife Gayle and daughters Jean and Julie – all biomedical engineers or biomedical practitioners; to the Bioengineering Department, to the Jacobs School, and to UC San Diego. Thanks to Adam Engler who nominated me and to students who supported me with letters.

I thank the Barbara and Paul D. Saltman Endowment Fund. It is a great honor to be thought of in the same breath as Dr. Saltman who had a truly outstanding teaching and research career at UC San Diego.

Maziar Ghazinejad, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

What do you teach? I teach engineering mechanics, design, and materials science. I also try to teach about learning processes.

What do you enjoy about teaching? Sense of wonder in students. When my students see concepts with fresh eyes and ask questions that only unaccustomed minds would ask, I feel their refreshing takes pass on to their classmates and me and enhance our imagination. I also enjoy conveying the beauty of (seemingly dry!) STEM topics and equations by connecting them to intuition and real-life scenarios. The moments my students apply science and engineering concepts to create new things or analyze different phenomena are very rewarding. Finally, I appreciate my students’ sense of humor!

Why is teaching an important, integral part of your job? Learning is a multilayered and circular process, and it has different levels. Each time I teach a topic with new examples, I see new angles and deeper details. It feels like re-discovering a familiar place. Also, because of constant exposure to curricular activities, teaching has directly helped my research and creative process. Bringing the methodology of one field to another (and synthesizing) often results in refreshing outcomes!

Leo Porter, associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering

What do you teach? I teach a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in the CSE department including undergraduate introductory programming, data structures, computer organization, and computer architecture courses as well as graduate computer architecture and computing education courses.  I also teach and direct a summer program at UC San Diego called COSMOS that seeks to excite a diverse and talented group of high school students about STEM.

In addition to teaching computer science,
Porter also competes in Ironman races!

What do you enjoy about teaching? I enjoy the opportunity to interact with students, whether it be in conversations with the class as a whole or talking with them directly in office hours.  It is fun to learn how students think about the ideas of the course and then adapt my course for future quarters to help improve their understanding.  Of course, I enjoy helping students achieve that "aha" moment when they come to understand a tricky concept.

Why is teaching an important, integral part of your job? One of the reasons I became a professor was to mentor hard-working students who are motivated to improve themselves and society.  Our lessons will be the foundation for this next generation of software engineers and leaders, whose work will impact the quality and value of tomorrow's technologies.