A digital noticeboard celebrating achievements and highlights in the college,
from grant updates to best paper awards.
Take a bite of some byte-sized news.
Using AI in Teaching Wins Poster Award
Amir Saeidi, an assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, earned the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference Committee’s Choice Poster Award for his initiative in training a large-language model to act as an assignment expert to better engage students and build critical thinking skills.
Marc Facciotti Recognized for Community Engagement Work at UC Davis
The UC Davis Office of Undergraduate Education has celebrated the biomedical engineering professor with the Marco Molinaro Award for Community Engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning. The award honors his work on the Know Your Students web application, which aims to achieve greater inclusivity and equity of learning in classrooms.
Nurturing Students into Global Engineers
Renetta Garrison Tull, an electrical and computer engineering professor, has been included in “Academic Leadership in Engineering Education,” a new book published by Springer Nature. Her chapter focuses on models for international engineering collaborations and includes examples from UC Davis initiatives, such as the PROMISE Engineering Institute.
Yayoi Takamura Named IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer
The professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering was selected for her talk on tuning the magnetic properties of complex oxides at the nano- and micro-scales to build a better understanding of how these materials interact and open doors to faster and more efficient computing technologies in next-generation spin devices.
Aidan Gilchrist Receives Early Career Award
The American Federation for Aging Research has honored the assistant professor of biomedical engineering with a Glenn Foundation for Medical Research Grant for Junior Faculty. "This award is more than financial support," said Gilchrist. "It validates that our work has the potential to impact the field of aging and stem cell metabolism."
Mason Earles Named a 2024 Wine Industry Leader
WineBusiness Monthly has named Mason Earles, an assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, as a "Research Superstar" for its 2024 list of individuals shaping the wine industry. The outlet celebrated Earles for his efforts to take precision agriculture for vineyards to the next level with artificial intelligence.
New Research Investigates Internet for All
With new funding from the NSF, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Alexander Gamero-Garrido will use existing and novel methods of internet measurement to investigate and improve the quality of broadband networks at anchor institutions like libraries and schools, often the primary source of internet services in underserved communities.
BME Professor Co-Leads New Head and Neck Malignancies Innovation Group
Biomedical engineering professor Randy Carney co-leads a partnership for developing breakthroughs in head and neck cancer care. The team connects engineers, scientists and clinicians from UC Davis and UC Davis Health. “Think of it as a ‘meeting of the minds’ as we brainstorm outside of the box on new angles to research new treatments,” Carney said.
NASA Spotlights Alum Felipe Valdez
Now a flight controls engineer at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, Felipe Valdez earned his Master of Science degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from UC Davis in 2020. In a recent NASA profile, Valdez details pursuing his education through childhood adversity and how he turned early internships into a dream career.
2024 UC Davis Lab Safety Award
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Cheemeng Tan’s lab has been recognized for its dedication to safety. The lab frequently collaborates with specialized safety experts, conducts routine safety drills and has an ongoing tradition of celebrating safety wins with team lunches, reinforcing the lab’s commitment to a positive safety culture.
Extreme Environments at the Exploratorium
As part of the Exploratorium’s After Dark series and UC Davis Grand Challenges, assistant professors Maike Sonnewald of computer science and Rich Whittle of mechanical and aerospace engineering joined a panel of experts to discuss extreme environments and how humanity might manage increasingly severe conditions.
ACS 2025 Energy Lectureship Award
The American Chemical Society has selected Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Marina Leite as a finalist for the 2025 Energy Lectureship Award for her contributions to the solar energy conversion field. Leite, along with her fellow finalists, is invited to present her research during the society’s spring meeting in March.
