DEAM

Alumni Spotlight: Carolyn Pura '77, '79

Carolyn earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at UC Davis in 1977 and ’79, respectively. She spent three decades as an engineering manager at Sandia National Laboratories, before departing in 2006 to become a nonprofit organization management consultant and contractor.

Alumni Spotlight: Richard Corsi '85, '89

Richard is Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) and Co-Director of the UT Center for Sustainable Development. He is the ECH Bantel Professor for Professional Practice, the 2015 recipient of UT’s William David Blunk Memorial Professorship, and a member of the prestigious UT Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He earned his master’s degree and PhD at UC Davis in 1985 and ’89, respectively.

Alumni Spotlight: Brian Underwood '91

Silicon Valley high-tech entrepreneur Brian Underwood co-founded California Gold Almonds with Gary Alldrin, a third-generation almond farmer who shares Brian’s vision of growing and processing superior-quality almonds for worldwide food-processing companies. Brian also has co-founded and held leadership positions in successful ventures such as Whaleback, Silicon Image, SideStep and Signalworks. He earned his master’s degree in engineering and materials science at UC Davis in 1991.

Alumni Spotlight: Babak Taheri '94

Babak is an engineering and product development visionary and board advisor, with more than three decades of experience in achieving rapid growth for global tech companies in high-volume automotive, military, consumer, industrial and medical markets. He currently is an advisory board member at Novasentis Inc., having previously served in key positions at companies that include Freescale Semiconductor, Intel, SRI International, Apple and InvenSense Inc.

Alumni Spotlight: Scott Maxwell '84, '86

Scott has been a venture capitalist since 2000, initially as a senior managing director at Insight Venture Partners, and then at OpenView Venture Partners, which he founded in 2006. He spent most of the 1990s working with financial service companies, and prior to that was a technology designer and developer. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at UC Davis in 1984 and ’86, respectively, where he bonded with Professor Maury L. Hull during research work on preventing knee injuries, and designing robots to help make physical therapy more productive.

Engineering Awards Dinner

 

February 21, 2016
1:30 am to 5:30 am

The UC Davis College of Engineering will present its annual awards dinner on Saturday, February 20, 2016 at San Francisco’s Exploratorium, on the waterfront in San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, and Alcatraz.

Biography: Adam Steltzner, '90

When the robotic explorer Curiosity successfully touched down inside Mars’ massive Gale Crater at 10:32 p.m. PDT Aug. 5, 2012, the jubilant scientists and technicians trading enthusiastic high-fives included Adam Steltzner, whose 1990 undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at UC Davis eventually led to his becoming team leader of Curiosity’s Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) System.

Alumni Spotlight: Ted Odell '78

After 26 years in leadership positions with Intel, Ted Odell (B.S. ’78) recently began began teaching science and physics at Oakmont High School in Roseville, CA. Odell left a lucrative career in business to devote his life to engaging the next generation of students with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).