Senior Spotlight

Senior Spotlight: Louie Zhong

Louie Zhong is a fourth-year materials science and engineering student at UC Davis and plans to continue his research as he pursues his M.S. in materials science and engineering at Stanford University after graduation.

A big part of Louie’s UC Davis experience was being an undergraduate researcher in assistant professor Roopali Kukreja’s lab, where he studied how materials behave on ultrafast timescales as short as a picosecond. Their research and materials can potentially be used for next-generation memory devices, which will have a major impact on computing down the line.

Senior Spotlight: Kyle Sager

Kyle Sager is graduating from UC Davis with a degree in mechanical engineering and will be moving on to work for Phillips 66 in Rodeo, as a project engineer. Some of the best advice Kyle received as an engineering student was to not shy away from a challenging problem.

“Engineering is all about problem solving and the best way to do this is actively trying to solve it. With the proper amount of interest and dedication to the subject at hand, it is impressive what you can learn and achieve,” said Kyle.

Senior Spotlight: Ian Phillips

Ian Phillips is a fourth-year materials science and engineering student finishing his undergraduate degree at UC Davis.

Becoming an engineer was a natural choice for Ian. He grew up working on cars with his dad, giving him a love of hands-on work and problem solving that he’s taken with him throughout his time at UC Davis, from studying semiconductors and ceramics at UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to teaching shop tools at the UC Davis D-Lab.

Senior Spotlight: Harshita Kaushal

Harshita Kaushal is a fourth-year UC Davis student finishing her undergraduate studies in computer science and engineering. After graduation, Harshita will be a software engineer for Optimizely, a startup in San Francisco that provides A/B testing through their platform.

Senior Spotlight: Felipe Valdez

Felipe Valdez is a mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student at UC Davis. After graduation, he is starting his full-time position at NASA.