Awards and competitions

Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. candidate Cassondra Brayfield was named a recipient of the Cadence Diversity in Technology Scholarship under its Women in Technology program. Brayfield was selected based on leadership skills, recognition of accomplishments, endorsement from professors, and drive to shape the world of technology. 

UC Davis College of Engineering double major, fourth-year student Sabrina Yarzada has been named a 2022 Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Distinguished Undergraduate Award recipient—making her the first person from UC Davis to win this prestigious international award.

Bangyan Huang, a second-year doctoral student at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was recently awarded first place in the 2022 Christopher J. Thompson Best Student Paper Award for his oral presentation “Statistical Image Reconstruction of Positron Lifetime via Time-Weighting (SIMPLE).” Huang received the award at the IEEE Medical Imaging Conference, which was held both online and in Milan, Italy in November 2022.

Computer Science Professor Matt Bishop recently received two prestigious honors in recognition of his research and teaching: The Taylor L. Booth Award from the IEEE Computer Society and election to the Information Systems Security Association Hall of Fame.

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Professor Tina Jeoh received the 2021 Danisco Foundation Science Excellence Medal. Every year, the award recognizes one scientist for their scientific and operational excellence and a remarkable track record of accomplishments in research and collaboration with industry.

Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Priya Shah has been awarded $40,000 for her project that unravels the essential aspects of arbovirus replication, and aims to thwart a major source of emerging disease by identifying novel therapeutic targets.

The award-winning team, named Spinal Protective Implant for Neonatal Enhancement (SPINE), included undergraduate seniors from the Department of Biomedical Engineering: Rajul Bains, Natalie Kelly, Shannon Lamb, Joe Morrison and Maya Mysore. The competitive annual award, which is given at the Engineering Design Showcase, is supported by Sandia National Laboratories and recognizes an outstanding engineering design project that supports the lab’s mission, which is to secure a peaceful and free world through technology.

Matt McNulty, Ph.D. ’22 is this year’s recipient of the UC Davis Graduate Studies Allen G. Marr Prize for dissertation excellence. McNulty is a cutting-edge researcher in plant molecular farming and a founder of the emerging field of space systems bioengineering with a passion for helping others.

Electrical and computer engineering students swept this year’s Big Bang! and Little Bang! competitions designed to drive innovation and help budding entrepreneurs bring their new ideas to market.

Scientists at the UC Davis Center for Geotechnical Modeling have compiled the most detailed experimental data yet seen on how liquefaction-induced downdrag can add to the structural load applied to a pile foundation during earthquake shaking.