UCI Samueli School of Engineering - Graduate and Professional Studies

Please join us in congratulating the four 23-24 SSoE Rose Hills Foundation fellows; Weiling Guan (MAE), Esther Hessong (MSE), Austin Parrish (MAE), and Aaron Ramirez (CBE)!

The Rose Hills Foundation program recognizes STEM students from underrepresented communities in Southern California with financial need who demonstrate academic excellence and leadership skills.

To learn more about the Rose Hills Foundation program and the four SSoE awardees, follow the link below!

Rose Hills Foundation Supports Engineering Students with Funding | Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Nov. 29, 2023 - The Rose Hills Foundation has awarded four graduate fellowships ($10,000 each) and 11 undergraduate scholarships (approximately $8,000 each) to Samueli School students. The program recognizes STEM students from underrepresented communities in Southern California with financial need w...

Congratulations to Rahul Sreedasyam and Kalan Leaks for placing at the Biomedical Research Symposium!

Sreedasyam placed first among master’s students for his research on fibroblasts, cells that help create tissue structures. Leaks placed third among doctoral students during the poster session for his recently published research using machine learning to analyze health differences between people with varying alcohol consumption patterns.

Congratulations to Rahul and Kalan! To learn more about their research and the symposium, visit the link below!

Two Graduate Students Place at Biomedical Research Symposium | Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Oct. 16, 2023 - Two UCI biomedical engineering students were recognized for their research at the 7th Annual City of Hope Biomedical Research Graduate Student Symposium in August. The students, Rahul Sreedasyam and Kalan Leaks, participated in the conference poster session that was hosted by the can...

Congratulations to Civil and Environmental Engineering doctoral student Shu Li!

Li earned the Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) for her presentation “Quantifying surface fuels using drone-based LiDAR” at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022 Fall Meeting in Chicago last December. Under the advisement of assistant professor Tirtha Banerjee, Li is using drone-based LiDAR to collect data on the amount and structure of vegetation that will be fuel for forest fires.

For more information about Li's research, follow the link below!

CEE Doctoral Student Wins Outstanding Student Presentation Award | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine March 15, 2023 - Civil and environmental engineering doctoral student Shu Li earned the Outstanding Student Presentation Award (OSPA) for her presentation “Quantifying surface fuels using drone-based LiDAR” at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2022 Fall Meeting in Chicago last December. Li is...

Join us in congratulating Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD student Daniel Kahl for placing second in the 2022 Allianz Climate Risk Award competition for his research on flood modeling and risk assessment of Los Angeles!

Kahl was one of four applicants worldwide selected to present his work in Munich, Germany, last year, and one of 12 researchers featured in Allianz’s November 2022 compendium “The Era of Resilience, Mitigating Climate Risk.”

To learn more about Kahl's research and the Allianz Climate Risk Award, follow the link below!

Doctoral Student Places Second in International Climate Risk Competition | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine March 20, 2023 - Daniel Kahl, a civil and environmental engineering doctoral student and UCI Flood Lab researcher, placed second in the 2022 Allianz Climate Risk Award competition for his research on flood modeling and risk assessment of Los Angeles. Kahl was one of four applicants worldwide selecte...

Congratulations to Xian Shi, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, for being awarded a 2023 Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) grant! This grant was awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

Shi is one of 58 scientists and engineers in the country to earn the honor this year and will receive $450,000 over three years for his research exploring the fundamental dynamics of the detonation phenomenon and detonation-based propulsion concepts.

To learn more about Shi's research, click the link below!

Shi Recognized as Young Investigator by Air Force Office of Scientific Research | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Jan. 11, 2023 - The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) has awarded Xian Shi, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, a 2023 Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) grant. He is one of 58 scientists and engineers in the country to earn the honor this year and will....

We are happy to share that two UCI Distinguished Professors - Tryphon Georgiou and Efi Foufoula - have donated $100,000 to create an endowed fund and establish the Georgiou and Foufoula Endowed Graduate Student Award.

The award will support incoming graduate students who are majors in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering or the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgiou and Foufoula’s respective home departments at the school of engineering.

The award will be given with a focus on research excellence and on students from underrepresented minority groups. In recognition of the importance of the fellowship to reward and motivate students along their path to learning, UCI will provide an annual match for a period of 10 years, doubling the amount of support for students.

Distinguished Professors Establish the Georgiou and Foufoula Endowed Graduate Student Award | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Oct. 31, 2022 - Two UCI Distinguished Professors - Tryphon Georgiou and Efi Foufoula - have made a generous gift to support students at the Samueli School of Engineering.

Please join us in congratulating Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) graduate student Rozhin Yasaei for being selected as a 2022 Rising Star in EECS!

Launched in 2012 by MIT, Rising Stars in EECS is an intensive workshop for graduate students and postdocs with historically marginalized or underrepresented genders who are interested in pursuing academic careers in electrical engineering, computer science, and artificial intelligence and decision-making.

To learn more about Rozhin's research and accomplishment, follow the link below!

Yasaei Chosen for Rising Stars in EECS 2022 Program | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Aug. 29, 2022 – UC Irvine electrical engineering and computer science graduate student Rozhin Yasaei has been selected as a 2022 Rising Star in EECS.

Please join us in congratulating UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Efi Foufoula-Georgiou for receiving the 2022 Horton Medal for her outstanding contributions to hydrology and water resources research!

The Horton Medal, named in honor of Robert E. Horton, was established in 1974 and is one of the highest honors of the AGU, a union of more than 60,000 scientists worldwide. It is given annually to recognize "outstanding contributions to the geophysical aspects of hydrology." Horton medalists are evaluated by four criteria: scientific excellence, scientific impact, broader impact, and reputation and leadership.

For more information on Professor Foufoula-Georgiou's research and the honor, please visit https://engineering.uci.edu/news/2022/10/efi-foufoula-georgiou-2022-agu-horton-medal-recipient!

Efi Foufoula-Georgiou Is 2022 AGU Horton Medal Recipient | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Oct. 5, 2022 - The American Geophysical Union has awarded UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering Efi Foufoula-Georgiou the 2022 Horton Medal for her outstanding contributions to hydrology and water resources research.

Congratulations to recent Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Alumnus, David Morata Ph.D. for receiving a Best Paper Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)! Morata’s research focuses on the development of advanced acoustic imaging techniques for localizing and modeling relevant aviation noise sources and the study of propulsion-related noise sources.

To learn more about Morata's paper and research, follow the link below!

Recent Alumnus Earns AIAA Best Paper Award for Research on Jet Noise | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Aug. 19, 2022 – David Morata ’22 (Ph.D.) received a Best Paper Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for his aeroacoustics research titled “Extension of Traditional Beamforming Methods to the Continuous-Scan Paradigm.”

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Yanning Shen for being announced as a winner of Google's Research Scholar Program!

The award provides professors from around the world with $60,000 in funding for up to one year to support their cutting-edge research in fields relating to computer science.

Professor Shen researches bias in machine learning algorithms across social networks, specifically machine learning that may lead to biased results toward underrepresented groups. Her project seeks to design algorithms to address this issue. Shen hopes to draw more awareness to the importance of machine learning and how it should not only be a source of concern to large tech companies, but also to society as a whole.

To learn more about Professor Shen's research and the Google Research Scholar Program, follow the link below!

Google Awards Funding to Shen for Machine Learning Research | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine July 7, 2022 -Google has named Yanning Shen, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, a winner of its Research Scholar Program for her research titled Addressing Unfairness in Learning over Social Networks.

Please join us in congratulating Electrical Engineering PhD student Ahmadreza Danesh for being named a 2022 UCI Beall Applied Innovation Fellow!

The program offers UCI graduate and doctoral students, as well as postdocs, opportunities related to innovation, entrepreneurship, and the translation and commercialization of university research. It also includes a $5,000 stipend and access to special events and networking opportunities.

Danesh’s work pertains to brain-computer interface systems used primarily to restore motor function in patients affected by paralysis, spinal cord injury or other neurological diseases. His work is done in the Nanoscale Communication Integrated Circuits Labs led by Payam Heydari, Chancellor’s Professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

Congratulations again to Ahmadreza Danesh! To learn more about his award, follow the link below!

EECS Graduate Student Awarded Beall Applied Innovation Fellowship | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine June 28, 2022 – Ahmadreza Danesh, a doctoral student in electrical engineering and computer science, has been awarded a 2022 UCI Beall Applied Innovation Graduate Fellowship.

Congratulations to the Master of Engineering (M.Eng) 2021-2022 Cohort for the successful presentations of their capstone projects at the 2022 M.Eng Capstone Showcase! A total of 7 projects were displayed to UCI Faculty, staff, and industry representatives.

To learn more about the M.Eng Capstone Showcase follow the link below!

Graduate Students Shine at Master of Engineering Design Showcase | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine June 30, 2022 – Students, faculty, staff, industry leaders and alumni gathered in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building June 3 for the first in-person Capstone Project Showcase of the Samueli School of Engineering’s interdisciplinary Master of Engineering (M.Eng) program.

An advocate of diversity, UC Irvine Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate student Rozhin Yasaei is the president of UCI’s Women in Cybersecurity chapter. WiCyS is an organization that addresses gender disparity in cybersecurity by advocating for women to obtain more roles and advance in the field.

As for what advice she would give to other women facing difficulties breaking into the field of cybersecurity, Yasaei recommends joining clubs with like-minded people and invites everyone to learn more about UCI’s chapter of WiCyS on their website (https://sites.uci.edu/wicys/). The club is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, and hosts many events including networking mixers, panels with academic and industry professionals, Hackathon, and Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions.

To learn more about Yasaei and WiCyS, follow the link below!

https://engineering.uci.edu/news/2022/5/eecs-grad-student-works-promote-gender-inclusivity-cybersecurity

EECS Grad Student Works to Promote Gender Inclusivity in Cybersecurity | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine May 11, 2022 − Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) is an organization that addresses gender disparity in cybersecurity by advocating for women to obtain more roles and advance in the field. An advocate of diversity, UC Irvine electrical engineering and computer science graduate student Rozhin Yasaei is...

Congratulations to Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate student Mukesh Kumar for being awarded the Graduate Dean's Dissertation Fellowship (GDDF)!

The GDDF award allows students to forgo nonresearch-related employment and concentrate on completing their dissertation or thesis. Mukesh is currently conducting research to better understand the behavior of wildfires at the region where wildland vegetation meets human-made structures.

To learn more about Kumar's research and future plans, follow the link below!

Congratulations Mukesh!

https://engineering.uci.edu/news/2022/5/dissertation-fellowship-goes-kumar

Please join us in congratulating Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering graduate student Samer Saleh for receiving a Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award from the National Science Foundation!

Along with 3 current undergraduate Samueli School students, Samer is among 21 UCI students who received this honor. The GRFP is a competitive program that recognizes and supports outstanding students who are pursuing research-based graduate degrees in science and engineering.

To learn more about the GRFP award and the four Samueli School recipients, follow the link below!

Congratulations to Samer and all the recipients!

https://engineering.uci.edu/news/2022/5/four-receive-nsf-graduate-research-fellowship-program-awards

Please join us in congratulating Biomedical Engineering PhD student Alexander (Olek) Pisera for being selected as one of 30 nationwide 2022 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellows!

The Soros Fellowships for New Americans (https://www.pdsoros.org/) is a merit-based graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants. Fellows are selected for their potential to make significant contributions to the United States and receive funding to support their graduate studies.

Pisera is interested in the application and development of new technologies specifically enabled by developments in DNA synthesis and screening. In the lab of BME Associate Professor Chang Liu, he is building a synthetic biological system that could allow for discovery of antibodies against classes of mammalian cell surface proteins that have been inaccessible with current technologies.

Congratulations again to Alexander (Olek) Pisera!

To learn more about his award, follow the link below!

Engineering Graduate Student Named a 2022 Soros Fellow | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine April 13, 2022 - UC Irvine biomedical engineering graduate student Alexander (Olek) Pisera is one of 30 graduate students nationwide, selected from a pool of more than 1,800 applicants, who are being named a 2022 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow today.

Join us in congratulating Chair and Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Athina Markopoulou, for being honored in celebration of Women's History Month by Women in Tech @ UCI as one of 12 recipients of the Applause Program!

Women in Tech @ UCI's Applause Program celebrates women and allies in technology across the UC Irvine campus who embody WiT’s motto “Advance. Inspire. Empower. Act.” in the workplace.

To learn more about this honor, please follow the link below! Congratulation Professor Markopoulou!

Markopoulou Honored for Women’s History Month | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine March 9, 2022 – In celebration of Women’s History Month, Women in Tech @ UCI has honored Athina Markopoulou, chair and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, as one of 12 recipients of its Applause Program.

Please join us in congratulating four engineering graduate students who have been awarded the Miguel Velez Scholarship for 2021-2022!

Angel Balam Benitez-Mata (BME), Arturo Meza (MSE), Debora Yumi De Oliveira (CEE), and Jose Alejandro Santamaria Rodriguez (MAE) all received this coveted scholarship based on their outstanding past academic achievement as well as future promise.

Congratulations to all awardees! To learn more about the award, click the link below!

Four Graduate Students Earn Miguel Velez Scholarships | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Feb. 17, 2022 – Four graduate students from the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering have won the Miguel Velez Scholarship for 2021-2022. They are among the 14 UCI awardees announced by the Graduate Division.

A biomedical engineering (BME) graduate student at UCI, Ninaz Valisharifabad has fallen in love with the heart and the brain. Alongside BME Professor Arash Kheradvar, Ninaz conducts research focusing on cardiovascular engineering.

“I love it, honestly,” Valisharifabad says. “I think if we figure out how these two functions, then we can solve a lot of problems with these two, it’s going to be really helpful because, right now, the understanding is limited.”

To learn about the source of Ninaz's interests, follow the link below!

https://news.uci.edu/2022/02/08/heart-on-the-brain/?utm_source=uci-digest&utm_medium=email

Heart on the brain Out of love for her family, Ninaz Valisharifabad studies how the heart and brain function together

Please join us in congratulating the six engineering graduate students have been awarded the Henry Samueli Endowed Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year!

Minh-Anh Dinh, Ian Geiger, Jiaji Li, Grey Simpson, Qian Yi, and Tuo Zhou all received this coveted fellowship based on their outstanding academic merit.

Congratulations to all fellows! To learn more about the fellowship, click the link below!

Samueli Endowed Fellowship Awarded to Six Graduate Students | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Feb. 4, 2022 – Six engineering graduate students have been awarded the Henry Samueli Endowed Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Please join us in congratulating civil and environmental engineering doctoral student Yian (Anne) Sun for being awarded the Canham Graduate Studies Scholarship ($25,000) from the Water Environment Federation at its annual WEF Technical Exhibition and Conference this Fall!

Sun conducts wastewater engineering research in the lab of Diego Rosso, professor of civil and environmental engineering. She attended the global water conference to present her work on developing new methods of detecting and characterizing microplastics that are present in wastewater, especially during the stages of water reclamation.

To learn more about Sun's award, please follow the link below!

Water Environment Federation Grants Scholarship to Doctoral Student Sun | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Jan. 24, 2022 - Yian (Anne) Sun, a civil and environmental engineering doctoral student, was awarded the Canham Graduate Studies Scholarship ($25,000) from the Water Environment Federation at its annual WEF Technical Exhibition and Conference in the fall. Sun conducts wastewater engineering research...

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Michelle Khine, biomedical engineering professor and associate dean for the Division of Undergraduate Education, who has been named one of six inaugural Samueli Scholars by the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute!

The Samueli Scholars Award Program recognizes current UC Irvine faculty whose achievements show extraordinary promise to advance basic, translational or clinical scholarship in integrative health and have a history of contributions of national distinction in their disciplines. Dr. Khine's research involves developing innovative, low-cost and scalable point-of-care and continuous physiological monitoring solutions, including respiratory and blood pressure sensors

To learn more about Dr. Khine's award, please follow the link below!

Khine Named Inaugural Samueli Scholar | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Dec. 21, 2021 – Michelle Khine, biomedical engineering professor and associate dean for the Division of Undergraduate Education, has been named one of six inaugural Samueli Scholars by the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute.

Join us in congratulating Civil Engineering graduate students Shirin Kianidovom and Genesis Figueroa for their respective awards at the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2021 History and Heritage/Student Scholarship Night! The annual event brings seasoned professionals together with young engineers and college students in the local civil engineering community.

Kianidovom and Figueroa are among 9 UC Irvine Civil Engineering students recognized at the awards. To learn more about their award, please follow the link below!

Students Shine with American Society of Civil Engineers Scholarships | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Jan. 3, 2022 – When the Orange County branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers held its 2021 History and Heritage/Student Scholarship Night last month in Fullerton, it awarded nine of the 15 available scholarships to UC Irvine students.

Please join us in congratulating Professors Julie Schoenung and Andrei Shkel on being named fellows of the National Academy of Inventors!

Professor Schoenung leads research into new materials to meet the demands of ballistics, energy and transportation applications. Her group is involved in a green engineering initiative to investigate the impacts of materials manufacturing and use on human health and environmental quality.

Professor Andrei Shkel specializes in designing micro-electro-mechanical systems including chip-scale gyroscopes and inertial measurement devices. His work has applications in fields as diverse as transportation, space exploration and medicine.

Congratulations again to Professors Julie Schoenung and Andrei Shkel!

Congratulations to Dr. Iryna Zenyuk and Dr. Sunny Jiang for their respective awards at the 4th annual UCI Innovator Awards ceremony! The Innovator Awards are an annual celebration of UCI’s innovators and entrepreneurial leaders.

Dr. Zenyuk was recognized with the Emerging Innovation/Early Career Innovator of the Year Award. This award recognizes distinguished innovators who have demonstrated excellence in the early stage of their careers, or in the early stages of an innovation breakthrough, through a combined effort in outstanding research and innovation.

Dr. Jiang was recognized with the Innovator of the Year Award. This award recognizes distinguished innovators who have demonstrated excellence by developing a breakthrough idea, process or technology and shown its transformational potential to improve lives and create economic value.

For more information about Beall Applied Innovation, please go to www.innovation.uci.edu.

Congratulations again to Dr. Zenyuk and Dr. Jiang!

After record rainfall triggered devastating and deadly flooding in Wester Europe this past summer, Dr. Anne Lemnitzer (associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering) lead an 18-member recon team to these flood-ravaged areas. This trip took the team to affected areas Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands; with the hope of learning how to improve engineering practice and advance research.

Lemnitzer says, “We studied riverbeds that were washed out and completely redeposited elsewhere. The questions that need to be answered in such cases are: What material was transported, why was it so easy to transport and where did it end up?”

To learn about Dr. Lemnitzer's findings, please click the link below!

Lemnitzer Leads Recon Team to Flood-ravaged Areas in Western Europe | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Oct. 7, 2021 - Record rainfall triggered devastating and deadly flooding in Western Europe this past summer. The extreme weather event, July 14-16, killed more than 200 people in Germany and Belgium and caused billions of dollars of damage.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Russell Detwiler and Dr. Faryar Jabbari for their respective US Department of Education’s Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) awards this year!

This program provides fellowships to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, (and other qualified candidates) for academic programs in fields designated as areas of national need. These awards will provide funds for PhD student fellowships. The fellowships are designed to assist graduate students who demonstrate financial need, have excellent scholarly records, and plan to pursue the highest academic degree in their fields.

Congratulations again to Dr. Detwiller and Dr. Jabbari!

Congratulations to current MAE PHD student, Donipolo Ghimire, for being named a 2021 Beall Applied Innovation Fellow!

Working with the UCI Beall Applied Innovation (BAI) and Graduate Division, Ghimire is creating a new venture program aimed at nurturing an entrepreneur mindset among graduate students by providing resources to develop their ideas into products or services.

Ghimire tells us, "Many graduate students are not aware of the available university resources that are dedicated toward commercialization and translation of their research. We want to encourage graduate students from every department to innovate and create new ideas by collaborating with their fellow students.”

To learn more about Ghimire's accomplishment and new program, please follow the link below!

MAE Grad Student Named Beall Applied Innovation Fellow | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Oct. 7, 2021 – Donipolo Ghimire, graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been awarded a 2021 UCI Beall Applied Innovation Graduate Innovation Fellowship in the New Ventures – Develop and Implement Entrepreneurship Programs.

Congratulations to current MSE PhD student, Katherine Acord, for being awarded a postdoctoral fellowship through the National Research Council Research Associateship Program!

After graduating this Fall, Acord will spend a year conducting research at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. Acord tells us, “I’m grateful to receive this fellowship, and excited to work at a state-of-the-art research facility with researchers who are making great strides in the development of advanced ceramics for aerospace applications. I look forward to contributing to this important area of research.”

To learn more about Acord's accomplishment, please follow the link below!

MSE Graduate Student Selected for National Research Council Fellowship | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine Aug. 23, 2021 - UC Irvine materials science and engineering graduate student Katherine Acord has received a postdoctoral fellowship through the National Research Council Research Associateship Program. After graduating with a doctorate in December 2021, Acord will spend a year conducting research at...

Congratulations to recent EECS graduate, Dr. Rohit Zambre, for his award from the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC)! Dr. Zambre earned the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award for his help with making supercomputers communicate more efficiently.

This award is given each year for the best doctoral dissertation completed in high performance computing (HPC) in the previous year. Dr. Zambre currently works at AMD Research as an HPC architecture researcher in Washington.

To learn more about his achievement, please click below!

Zambre Wins Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award for Supercomputing Communication | The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine July 30, 2021 – Helping supercomputers communicate efficiently was the aim of Rohit Zambre’s doctoral dissertation, which has won the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC) 2021 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award.