People

Arash graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor's in BAE with an emphasis on food engineering and biotech. He's been working at Genapsys, a gene sequencing startup as a process development engineer, for the last two and a half years.

Arash spoke at the 2022 BAE alumni panel

Jessica Ashkinos is a Biomedical Engineer at Medical Electronics System, the World Leader in Automated Semen Analysis Systems & Sperm Quality Testing. She loves having the ability to help couples have children of their own. At UC Davis, Jessica worked in the Post-Harvest Lab with Dr. Irwin Donis-Gonzalez studying how to improve food storage and preparation.

For her senior design project, she worked with Dr. Stavros Vougioukas to develop optical sensors for very slow-moving platforms. Her senior design project was part of a long-term effort to develop an automated, orchard platform that achieves high fruit harvesting efficiencies.

During her time studying at UC Davis, she was a part of the Davis Volleyball Club Team, Vision Dance Troupe, SOBE, and the ASABE Robotics Team. Go Aggies!

Kia is a Hardware Project Engineer at Monarch Tractor, a bay area start-up located in Livermore, CA. Monarch is building the world's first all-electric, driver-optional compact tractor. Kia was hired after graduating with her BS in Biosystems Engineering and works on the mechanical design and build of the tractors. Her job involves a unique combination of agronomy, data science, and mechanical engineering. At UC Davis, Kia worked with LiDAR and hyperspectral imaging in Dr. Alireza Pourreza's lab. She also worked with Dr. Stavros Vougioukas on her senior design project, during which Kia and her team created a simulation of a robot to autonomously measure vineyard drip-irrigation. In her free time, Kia enjoys rock-climbing, playing the piano, running, and snowboarding.

Read Kia's alumni spotlight.

"I can sum up how Davis prepared me for my career in two words: problem solving."

Mike graduated in 2000 with a master's degree in Biological Systems Engineering. After starting out as a Project Engineer at General Mills, in 2002, Mike moved on to Genentech.

At Genentech, Mike climbed from Controls Engineer to Senior Supervisor and eventually to Senior Manager of Drug Substance Manufacturing Science and Technology. As Senior Manager, Mike leads a team of more than 20 engineers and managers. In 2012, Mike re-joined the department in a leadership role on the department's Leadership Board and is currently the chair of the board.

Taylor Charlesworth graduated in Spring of 2020 and works as a Systems Engineer at Abbott Diabetes Care. This medical device company focuses on continuous glucose monitors to assist with diabetes management. She started in July and has been working from home ever since. In her free time, she enjoys playing music, spending time with her dog and tending to her indoor plants.

Taylor spoke at the 2022 BAE alumni panel

Kyle Cheung is a Senior Imaging Data Analyst at Corteva Agriscience and started working there in June. His role at Corteva is to couple imagery with deep learning to provide insight into disease development and pest management in plants. He graduated from the BAE program with a BS in 2018 and a MS in 2020 with Dr. Alireza Pourreza in the Digital Agriculture Lab. As an undergraduate, his emphasis was in controls and automation, leading to a year-long internship with Banks Automation in Vacaville and a mechanization project at the Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center with UC ANR. His focus is bringing practical solutions to the customer. He was on the cycling team as an undergraduate and now enjoys photography and hiking.

Kyle spoke at the 2022 BAE alumni panel

Nick is a bioengineer and synthetic biologist working in San Diego, CA. He graduated from UC Davis in 2013 with a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering and completed his Ph.D. in Bioengineering at UC San Diego in 2019. Building upon his graduate work, Nick now works at a biotech startup, Quantitative BioSciences, where he leverages microbial engineering and microfluidic technology to build real-time, in-field biosensors. With sensors for numerous pollutants, nutrients, and small-molecule targets, they have deployed their biosensors at environmental monitoring sites and algae farms across the country.

Nick is grateful for the multidisciplinary training he received from BAE at UC Davis, which has allowed him to work with a breadth of systems. From manipulating genes in a single cell, designing the hardware to house and measure bacterial strains, and ultimately interfacing sensors with environmental, industrial, and agricultural systems.

Julia graduated from UC Davis in 2019 with a Bachelor's in Biological Systems Engineering. She currently works as a researcher at the US Department of Agriculture in Albany, CA on a couple projects involving biodegradable plastic films and coated paper for applications such as detergent pods and milk cartons, respectively. She works in collaboration with Method who creates nontoxic, ecofriendly household products including hand soap and surface cleaning sprays. She plans to attend graduate school next Fall 2021 to continue research and pursue a PhD. One of her favorite hobbies is running. While an undergrad at Davis, she was on the cross country and track club for all 4 years! She is very excited to share her experiences with future BAEs today!

Julia spoke at the 2022 BAE alumni panel

My name is Sandon Du and I am a Manufacturing Engineer at Nutcracker Therapeutics, a biotech startup located in Emeryville, CA. Nutcracker is focused on the rapid development and manufacturing of mRNA-based vaccines via biochips. As a manufacturing engineer, I work on process implementation on Nutcracker’s proprietary microfluidics-based platform. Startups often have many roles to fill and hats to wear so I may occasionally help the quality assurance and validation teams. 

I was a Manufacturing Associate at Grifols Diagnostics Solutions before getting hired as a manufacturing engineer at Nutcracker. To the fresh college graduates that are struggling to find a job, sometimes you need broaden your search and take what you can get. Grifols was a good stepping stone for me to gain the experience and knowledge necessary to work as an engineer in biopharma industry (along with what I learned at UC Davis, of course!).

Trung Duong is a 2020 UC Davis BSE alumnus coming from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. He is currently working at E. & J. Gallo Winery as a Winery Systems Engineering Intern and will finish his 6-month internship by the end of this month. In February, he will be transitioning and enrolled in the Master of Engineering in Engineering Management program at Cornell University. In this program, he is extremely excited to leverage his management and leadership skills and to gain more business insights to facilitate his future career goals. In his free time, he enjoys going to the gym and playing ping pong, basketball and video games.

Trung spoke at the 2022 BAE alumni panel

I am a 2013 UCD EBS alumna working as a Lead Automation Engineer at Banks Integration Group.

At Banks, we help our pharma & biotech customers automate their manufacturing processes. (Think of the show "How It's Made.") This involves programming, electrical design, documentation, and hands-on startups where we implement our solutions, as well as project management.

EBS prepared me with a foundational understanding of the processes that are critical to making life-saving drugs and challenged me to become a better thinker, problem-solver, and communicator.

I love the close-knit connections that the EBS program fosters among its students and its faculty. Many of these strong relationships continue to benefit me personally and professionally years later.

Knowing that the work I do is saving lives is great source of motivation for me. Working closely with people is also something that inspires me. I love to hear people's stories, collaborate with them, learn from them, and help them grow too. The teamwork needed in the EBS program served as a great outlet for me.

Emily graduated in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in Biological Systems Engineering. She was the recipient of the M. S. Ghausi Award which is given to the outstanding student from the College of Engineering. After attaining her bachelor's degree, she has continued her academic pursuits at Colorado State University. More of Emily's story can be found in the September/October 2018 Resource Magazine.

Carolyn earned an Agricultural (Biological Systems) Engineering BS degree from UC Davis in 2001 where she spent two years as a live-in caretaker at the Animal Science Horse Barn. In 2000, Carolyn joined the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as an intern in the Dixon Field Office. After graduation, she joined NRCS at the State Office where conservation and agricultural engineering took her throughout Northern California. Her design projects include irrigation and tailwater return, dairy manure management, stream and wetland restoration, small pond design, and design tool development. In 2004, Carolyn obtained her Civil Engineering PE license. She transferred to the Napa Field Office in 2006 and has been working with landowners and partnering agencies on erosion control, storm water conveyance, livestock water systems, irrigation water management, and stream restoration projects. In 2007, she earned her Agricultural Engineering PE license in the field of her passion – agriculture! In January 2012, Carolyn promoted to the Bay/Delta Team Engineer and serves 8 counties. Carolyn served as Acting State Conservation Engineer for 4 months in 2017, was a 2009-2011 ASABE Trustee, was the 2010-2012 Chair of ASABE’s Professional Engineers Institute, has been active in the CA/NV Section since 2001, and participates on many Natural Resources and Environmental Systems (NRES) technical committees.

Learn more about Carolyn in her Alumni Spotlight.