UCLA Samueli Commencement Program 2020

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES THE HENRY SAMUELI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

AND APPLIED SCIENCE

56TH COMMENCEMENT

JUNE 13, 2020

About UCLC Samueli .............................................. 2 Program ................................................................. 3 Congratulations .................................................... 4 Distinguished Speaker ........................................... 5 Student Speaker ................................................... 6 National Anthem Vocalist ..................................... 6 Doctor of Philosophy ............................................. 8 Master of Science ............................................... 20 Bachelor of Science ............................................. 32 Awards and Honors ............................................ 46 Student Leaders ................................................... 50 Leadership ........................................................... 52

54 | UCLA Samueli 56th Commencement Program

Lighting the Way for 100 Years

The seeds of today's UCLA were planted in the 1881 creation of the downtown Los Angeles State Normal School, which later moved to Vermont Avenue. In 1919, the University of California Southern Branch opened on the Vermont Avenue campus. The University of California

at Los Angeles name was officially adopted in 1927, and in 1929, instruction began on the present-day Westwood campus.

From those beginnings, UCLA has, in just a century, become consistently ranked as one of the top public universities in the world,

and the nation's most applied-to university. UCLA faculty and researchers are routinely recognized for their leadership and breakthroughs in a stunning array of fields, ranging from health and technology to social sciences and the arts.

What began as a teachers college in downtown Los Angeles grew into one of the world's greatest universities. An engine of social mobility.

A catalyst for progress and profound insights once beyond our reach.

For 100 years, leading the way toward a better tomorrow.

The classes of 2019 and 2020 hold the honor of being the centennial graduating classes at UCLA.

...

As a land grant institution, UCLA acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, Southern Channel Islands).

UCLA Samueli 56th Commencement Program | 1

About UCLA Samueli

The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science includes more than 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students and 190 full-time faculty members. Established in 1945, UCLA Samueli is known as the birthplace of the internet, and where countless other fields took some of their first steps -- from artificial intelligence to reverse osmosis, from mobile communications to human prosthetics.

The school academic departments include Bioengineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, as well as the recently added Department of Computational Medicine, which is affiliated with both the David Geffen School of Medicine and Samueli. In addition, UCLA Samueli offers the Master of Science in Engineering Online program.

In 2000, the engineering school was re-named in honor of alumnus Henry Samueli, following a $30 million gift that supported capital improvements as well as fellowships for graduate students and early career faculty. In 2019, Samueli and his wife Susan gave another gift of $100 million to support the school's expansion well into the next decade.

Today, UCLA Samueli is in the midst of its largest growth since the school was founded, with plans to enroll up to 7,000 total students and add additional professors for a roster of nearly 250 by 2028. New faculty will bring expertise in emerging research areas, such as engineering in medicine, quantum technologies, and sustainable and resilient urban systems.

The school's facilities include four major buildings -- Boelter Hall, Engineering-IV, Engineering-V and Engineering-VI. Recent renovations have added the Student Creativity Center -- home to many of its student organizations, and the Innovation Laboratory -- a makerspace for hands-on learning and creativity.

UCLA Samueli is consistently ranked in the Top 10 among U.S. public engineering schools and its online program is ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report.

...

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PROGRAM

GABRIELINO/TONGVA LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Jared Rivera Civil and Environmental Engineering and Physics

Bachelor of Science, Spring 2020

INTRODUCTION

Professor Tsu-Chin Tsao Faculty Marshal, Presiding

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

Karin Olga Sinavsky '01, MS '03

SCHOOL WELCOME

Jayathi Y. Murthy Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

Jason Droege Distinguished Speaker

STUDENT SPEAKER'S MESSAGE

Imani Chantal Elston Civil and Environmental Engineering

Bachelor of Science, Spring 2020

PRESENATION of the CANDIDATES for Bachelor of Science, Master of Science

and Doctor of Philosophy

CONFERRAL of ALL DEGREES

CLOSING REMARKS

Jayathi Y. Murthy Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean

MESSAGES of CONGRATULATIONS

UCLA Samueli 56th Commencement Program | 3

CONGRATULATIONS

from

President Janet Napolitano

CONGRATULATIONS

from

Chancellor Gene D. Block

Congratulations, UCLA Class of 2020! Today we join your family, friends, and the entire University of California community in celebrating you and your wonderful accomplishment. You have worked hard, sometimes overcoming great obstacles, in pursuit of your UC education.

I hope you will always take great pride in what you have accomplished at the University of California, and in being a part of the UC family for life. I wish you the best of luck in whatever comes next.

Your time at UCLA has given you the knowledge, skills, and confidence you need to go out into the world and change it for the better. UCLA alumnus and tennis great Arthur Ashe once gave some simple but elegant advice: "True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost."

Your graduation this year will be memorable for many reasons, but I see it as a moment of great hope and a promise for the future. At this point in time when the world is facing unprecedented dilemmas, you are the future leaders who will seek out the answers. Nationally and globally, we see challenges ahead. But as a UCLA graduate, you are well prepared to do your part to respond to these challenges, and help your local community, the nation, and the world. As you embark on this journey, you are equipped with the tools you need to gather information, think critically, and continually adjust your understanding of the world around you.

Go forth, Bruins, and make the world a better, brighter place. Fiat lux -- let there be light!

Congratulations, class of 2020! Today is the culmination of years of dreaming and sacrifice, tenacity and creativity, deep thought and hard work. I hope you are proud of all you have accomplished!

Despite the different nature of the celebration, I hope you will still take the time to rejoice at how your UCLA education has broadened your horizons, deepened your relationships, strengthened your skills and expanded your opportunities. Those accomplishments will remain with you wherever you may be today and in the future.

You are graduating into a time that needs you like no other time in our memory. This pandemic is teaching important lessons about vulnerability and inequality, but also about science and service, empathy and community. We will all need to shape a recovery that makes our society more prepared, more resilient and more whole. That will require imagination and vision. Your imagination and vision.

While we may face unexpected challenges, hopefully your time at UCLA will have prepared you in unforeseen ways. At UCLA, we stress the values of compassion and inclusion, careful research and thoughtful analysis, innovation and collaboration. Those are the very virtues that will serve you as you make your way through this crisis and beyond.

This UCLA community you have been a part of, the UCLA community you helped create, and the broader UCLA alumni community you are now joining will be with you always. May they always give you strength and inspiration, hope and guidance.

Congratulations again and stay heathy.

Janet Napolitano President

Gene D. Block Chancellor

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CONGRATULATIONS

from

Dean Jayathi Y. Murthy

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER

Jason Droege

To the Class of 2020,

On behalf of the faculty and staff of the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, I want to offer our warmest congratulations to you on reaching this major milestone in life. Through hard work, perseverance and creativity, you have earned your degree from one of the best engineering schools in the world.

I recognize these last few months have been extremely difficult. The COVID-19 pandemic has upended all our lives, but especially those of our students. You've had to overcome so much. You've had to adapt nearly overnight to a new educational paradigm in the middle of a public health crisis -- and far away from your UCLA friends and campus community. And you've managed to rise above it all. At times, I know it must feel disheartening and demoralizing, but make no mistake: The coronavirus will not define who you are, or diminish your many accomplishments.

UCLA engineers share a joint mission and commitment to improve society and address its critical problems through ingenuity, empathy and thoughtfulness. Today, as you graduate from UCLA, you and your fellow classmates will join the illustrious ranks of the UCLA Samueli engineers who came before you. I am confident that you will achieve even greater things and will make all of us proud.

As we celebrate and honor this chapter of your lives, may the many fond memories of your experiences at Samueli and the friendships you've made at UCLA long outlast any challenges along the way. Together, we will engineer change that impacts the lives of many generations to come.

Congratulations!

As Vice President at Uber leading the global Uber Eats business, Jason Droege focused on leveraging Uber's extensive logistics network to launch new business ventures for the past six years. The Uber Eats team scaled Uber's food delivery business to more than 550 markets across 50 countries. Jason's expertise as a successful founder and business leader across e-commerce, enterprise software and internet services helped him lead the team that created Uber's first app outside of its core ride-hailing service and has built one of the largest food-delivery businesses globally.

Prior to Uber, Jason started the camera and cloud software division of Axon (AAXN), which now equips more than 300,000 officers with on-officer cameras and powers evidence management and workflow solutions for thousands of public safety agencies in the U.S. and around the world.

Jason left his role leading Uber Eats in early 2020 to enjoy some time with family and focus on early-stage investing. Jason attended UCLA where he founded his first business in the dorms with five other computer science students. He currently resides in the Bay Area with his wife and two children.

Jayathi Murthy Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean

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STUDENT SPEAKER

Imani Chantal Elston

Civil and Environmental Engineering Bachelor of Science, Spring 2020 Imani Chantal Elston is a Spring 2020 Bachelor of Science degree candidate in Civil Engineering. During her undergraduate studies, Imani conducted research examining the lead concentration levels in the soil of Los Angeles' parks under Dr. Jennifer Jay. Imani was a former leader of the National Society of Black Engineers and a founding project member for the Engineers Without Borders -- Navajo project. As a member of the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity and the Women in Engineering program, she enjoys volunteering with pre-collegiate students and inspiring underrepresented youth to pursue STEM. Imani has held multiple internships with the City of Los Angeles as a student engineer and hopes to work for a local municipality in the future to improve the climate resilience of Southern California. Upon graduation, Imani plans to pursue a Master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA.

NATIONAL ANTHEM VOCALIST

Karin Olga Sinavsky

Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering, Spring 2001 Master of Science, Biomedical Engineering, Fall 2003 Dr. Karin Sinavsky earned her B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. in biomedical engineering at UCLA. During her time at UCLA, she was honored to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a number of graduations for the Samueli School of Engineering. She then went on to earn her M.D. at UC Irvine and completed residency training at UC San Francisco. Currently, Karin works as an anesthesiologist and chronic pain physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and is an assistant clinical professor in UC San Francisco's Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care.

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