Undergraduate

The three-quarter Capstone course at UC Davis gives biological systems engineering students the skills and experiences they need to become leaders in engineering design. This year’s teams worked on projects ranging from remote sensing to aquaponic indoor plant growth to alginate encapsulation of caviar. Two exceptional teams are highlighted.

Growing up, Kathryn Tarver would have never believed she would one day be an engineer. Now, she is graduating with a B.S. in biological systems engineering, having become a dedicated machinist and problem-solver.

When Wayne Low Kum graduates this spring with a B.S. in biological systems engineering and a minor in psychology, it will mark the end of a journey over 20 years in the making. Wayne started at UC Davis as a first-year student in the late 1990s, but returned to school in 2020 to finish his degree after dropping out his senior year.

“It’s never too late to learn or to go back to school, and when an opportunity like this presents itself, you can’t be scared,” he said. “There’s no shame in learning.”