Staff

Cindy Alvarenga recently joined the College of Engineering as an academic advisor in the College of Engineering Undergraduate Office.

In her role, she provides academic advising and support for undergraduates and department academic advisors. Cindy is a first-generation American and transfer student and received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from UC Davis and a master's degree in leadership from St. Mary's College of California. She previously worked in the College of Letters and Sciences before joining the college on May 3.

Each year, the UC Davis College of Engineering recognizes and honors staff members who show a strong commitment to the mission and vision of the college and consistently perform above and beyond expectations.

Lauren Worrell is the graduate program coordinator in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and has been a staff member in the college for about six and a half years.

Her main responsibilities are focused on helping students from pre-admission to graduation. Lauren does advising, but also works with funding, policy and procedures, student milestones, recruitment, admission and anything related to the graduate program and graduate student experience in CEE.

The Student Startup Center (SSC) at UC Davis is a community of students and mentors interested in using innovation and entrepreneurship to make the world a better place. The center is designed to introduce students to entrepreneurs and early-stage investors, allow students to practice the work of entrepreneurs and early-stage investors and teach students useful knowledge and skills for their journeys as student entrepreneurs.

As a five-year-old, Tho V. Le watched a black-and-white movie and asked his mom: “Why is nobody in our community a singer or actor?” But as soon as he started school, Le fell in love with numbers, computers and science. He no longer wanted to become a singer or actor.

Stacey Cook recently joined the College of Engineering as the Director of Undergraduate Affairs in the College of Engineering Undergraduate Office.

Alin Wakefield is the Research and Graduate Studies Development Coordinator in the College of Engineering. His duties focus on developing strategies to expand recruitment and retention efforts, project management, faculty development and student coaching.
 

About ten years ago, Xiaodong Qian realized the urgency and challenges of traffic in his hometown of Wuhan, China.

“All traffic had to go through one intersection near my home in a busy, commercial area. During rush hour, everybody ignored traffic lights, no one kept a safe distance and the intersection was totally congested for about two hours,” he said. At that time, he was an undergraduate student at Tsinghua University and became interested in solving traffic problems. One way to alleviate traffic congestion is to use bicycles.

Tri Dev Acharya joined the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies as a postdoctoral researcher in 2019. Tri Dev’s name refers to the trinity of Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, and he grew up in a middle-class family in rural Nepal. Following his high school education, he went to the capital for post-secondary study and later joined Kathmandu University as an undergraduate.

John Orawiec is joining the College of Engineering this fall as the Director of Strategic Change in Safety Culture and Programs.

John has spent fourteen years specializing in designing and implementing safety management systems including managing complex multi-disciplinary academic research safety, developing and delivering safety training, auditing for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance and general injury prevention.