News Release
2025 Jacobs School Award of Excellence Recipients
June 12, 2025-- The Jacobs School of Engineering will celebrate the undergraduate students in the class of 2025 at its annual Ring Ceremony on Friday, June 13. At Ring Ceremony, students graduating with degrees in engineering and computer science receive their class ring, and together recite the Jacobs School of Engineering oath, vowing to practice engineering with integrity and high ethical standards.
Six students were selected from the nearly 1,500 students receiving bachelor’s degrees from the Jacobs School of Engineering to receive an Award of Excellence from their academic department. This award recognizes their outstanding academic, leadership and community contributions to the Jacobs School.
Here are the 2025 Jacobs School of Engineering Award of Excellence recipients:
Shu Chien - Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering: Catharine Tian
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Tian, a double major in bioengineering and psychology, was an avid researcher during her time at UC San Diego. She co-led a research project in Prof. Ester Kwon’s lab that optimized a fluorescence-based calpain activity assay to improve the diagnostic sensitivity for traumatic brain injury, with applications in both diagnostics and therapeutic evaluation. Tian also completed two industry research internships, at Pfizer and Phillips.
Tian was a finalist in the UC San Diego International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering’s Ideathon for her team’s proposed household reverse-osmosis water filtration device to address the water crisis in the Navajo Nation. She collaborated with local nonprofit volunteers and organizations to help distribute and install the filters in specific households, ensuring that their idea translated into tangible community benefit.
Aside from research, Tian was involved in the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.
Next year, she’ll pursue a master’s in biomedical engineering at Columbia University. Her ultimate goal is to advance medical device innovation that integrates engineering principles with human-centered design to improve diagnostics, therapeutics and patient care.
Computer Science and Engineering: Anuj Jain
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In addition to a degree in computer science and engineering, Jain majored in Oceanic-Atmospheric sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and minored in math. Jain founded Triton Quantitative Trading, a student organization that grew to over 250 members, providing a place for students to create algorithmic, statistical and financial trading models and facilitating interactions with industry experts. He also designed and instructed UC San Diego’s first student-run course on Quantitative Finance.
Jain was also active with the CSE alumni board, serving as the student representative. He was the VP of Finance for the CSE Society, was the student representative for CSE’s Undergraduate Committee, and was involved in the Global Ambassadors Program for incoming international students.
Jain is now earning a master’s in Financial Engineering at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, learning to create the complex models used in trading and other investments. Ultimately, he plans to be a quantitative researcher, using the AI skills he gained at UC San Diego. He’s also interested in cryptocurrency.
Electrical and Computer Engineering: Ali Alabiad
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Alabiad was active in the Project in a Box student organization, serving as president this year. PiB develops hands-on projects to make engineering education more accessible to students from elementary school through college. He is proud of how the group has expanded to meet the needs of more than just engineering students.
“We went from being an ECE organization to one that welcomed other engineers and even people from other backgrounds and shared our passion for building projects and having fun in the process of doing that,” said Alabiad.
In addition to PiB, Alabiad conducted research in Prof. Siavash Mirarab’s lab. He developed deep learning models to classify species based on DNA reads from clinical or environmental samples.
After graduation, he will pursue a master’s degree in ECE with a specialization in machine learning and data science here at UC San Diego. After that, he plans to develop responsible AI models that can be used for practical applications.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: Dave Laygo
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Laygo was very involved in SEDS during all four of his years on campus. SEDS - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space - develops next-gen rockets, and Laygo in particular helped develop a liquid bi-propellant rocket during his time with the student org. His research and hands-on work with SEDS culminated in a first-author paper for the 2025 AIAA SciTech Forum. In addition to his technical work, Laygo also served as Director of External Affairs for SEDS, organizing K-12 outreach events to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders.
In addition to SEDS, Laygo conducted research in Prof. Aaron Rosengren’s lab, helping develop a cost-effective and transformative solution to the emerging space debris proliferation problem. He also took what he learned from his leadership role in SEDS to expand the lab’s outreach and community engagement efforts, too.
As an IDEA Scholar, Laygo served as a mentor for the Jacobs School’s Summer Engineering Institute, where he assisted incoming engineering students as they transition to college. He was also a tutor in the MAE Department for both freshman and senior design courses.
After graduation, Laygo is pursuing a PhD in aerospace engineering focused on bioastronautics at Texas A&M as a Chancellor’s National Academy Fellow. Ultimately, he hopes to advance manned space exploration, while improving medical solutions on Earth through this space-based research.
Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering: Hailey Tran
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A chemical engineering student, Tran has been involved in the UC San Diego chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers during all four years. This year, she served as president, and helped coordinate nearly 100 student volunteers for the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting held in San Diego.
In addition to AIChE, Tran conducted research as an undergraduate student in Prof. Jon Pokorski’s lab, focused on 3D-printed engineered living materials. She co-authored a paper about using cyanobacteria (or photosynthetic microorganisms) instead of harsh chemicals to facilitate sustainable synthesis of polymers.
Tran was a tutor in several chemical engineering classes, where her instruction methods helped lead to across-the-board improvements in student exam performance.
Next year, she’ll pursue a PhD in chemical engineering at UCLA as an NSF GRFP Fellow. She hopes to continue conducting research in biocompatible materials for health and environmental applications.
Structural Engineering: Valerie Hope
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During her time at UC San Diego, Hope was very involved in three student orgs: the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), the Seismic Design team as part of the Society of Civil and Structural Engineers, and the Triton Solar Decathlon team.
Valerie served as president of SWE this year, and was vice president internal last year. She was a design lead for Seismic Design, and also a previous structural design lead for Triton Solar Decathlon.
Valerie also mentored high school students through the EDGE (Empowerment and Development for Girls in Engineering) program run by SWE and Women in Computing, which was one of the most meaningful projects she was involved in at UC San Diego. EDGE pairs UC San Diego college mentors with high school mentees to provide a space for high schoolers to learn more about the possibilities and career paths in STEM fields, particularly engineering and computer science, while promoting the presence of young women and non-binary students in these fields.
She was involved as a committee member her freshman year, as the lead her sophomore year, and then as a mentor for the past two years.
Another highlight of her time at UC San Diego is the annual Seismic Design competition, where teams from around the country put the towers they’ve built through a shake table test. After many late nights spent designing and building the tower with the Seismic Design team, she said it’s rewarding to see it survive the tests, which their tower did the past two years.
Next year, Hope will pursue a master’s degree in sustainable design and construction at Stanford. Ultimately she hopes to use these skills in a career in sustainable infrastructure, a passion she developed while studying structural engineering.
Media Contacts
Katherine Connor
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-8374
khconnor@ucsd.edu