Class Notes

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2000s

Mohammed Al-Adeeb (B.S. 2004 Electrical Engineering & Materials Science)

will begin working on a MA in Political Science at Georgetown University during the Fall of 2008. Passionate in his service to the pubic, Mohammed spent two years empowering California Muslim-American citizens to engage in local politics and media. As Mohammed sees it, "Since 9/11, hate crimes have increased by a 1000%, civil-liberties are being stripped, and with the unjustified wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's a duty for all, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, to improve politics." At Berkeley, as of Iraqi origin, Mohammed's ambitions were to complete a PhD in engineering and return to Iraq to teach at the prestigious Baghdad University in order to contribute to the well being of the people of Iraq. With the invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein, Mohammed realizes there is a greater need for good public servants that understand the United States and Iraq.

James M. Alpert (B.S. 2004 EECS)

James is practicing intellectual property law with Posz Law Group in Reston, VA. He previously was associated with Birch, Stewart, Kolasch & Birch, LLP in Falls Church, VA and also worked as a patent examiner at the United States Patent & Trademark Office. He can be reached a jalpert@poszlaw.com.

Anthony Azevedo (B.S. 2005 Eng. Physics)

spent nine weeks this summer in the 2006 WISE program, Washington Internships for Students of Engineering. One of eight students selected nationwide, Azevedo was sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The program sends engineers to Washington, D.C., to learn how they can get involved in legislative and regulatory public policy decisions on complex technological issues.

GEORGE A. BAN-WEISS (B.S. 2003 ME, M.S. 2005 ME, Ph.D. 2008 ME)

of Palo Alto is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford’s Carnegie Institution for Science, investigating the impact of aerosols and land-use change on global climate. Also a successful jazz bassist, he plays with the San Francisco–based Mads Tolling Quartet, which released a new CD in October, and previously recorded two CDs with the Mitch Marcus Quintet. For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/georgebanweiss.

TOBIN BASTA (M.S. 2003 CEE)

recently joined Q&D Construction of Reno, Nevada, as project manager on the Ritz-Carlton Highlands Lodge, a 173-room, $200,000,000 project featuring a six-story ski resort and spa. At the time of his report, Basta's team had installed the 110-foot concrete core, footings and walls.

Picasso Bhowmik (M.S. 2004 CEE)

of Fullerton, California, is currently working as a project engineer at Oltmans Construction Co. in Whittier.

Lisbeth Blaisdell (M.S. 2004 CEE)

of Wall Township, New Jersey, received the American Institute of Steel Construction, Structural Steel and Education Council Fellowship in 2005. She is also a graduate of the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, Sandy Hook, where she was valedictorian, and of Princeton University, where she received the David W. Carmichael Prize for Civil and Environmental Engineering.

DINO DI CARLO (B.S. 2002 BioE, Ph.D. 2006 BioE)

is an assistant professor of bioengineering at UCLA, with six graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow working in his lab on new methods in microfluidics for early cancer diagnostics and personalized cancer therapy. He writes, “One of the motivations is an inexpensive blood test for early detection of cancer, which can lead to very effective life-saving treatments before cancer spreads.”

WAKOVA A. CARTER (B.S. 2000 EECS)

writes, “I am living in Houston, Texas, and working for oilfield services company Schlumberger as a project manager. When I’m not working, I enjoy the Southern sun at the pool.”

Peter Chien (B.S. 2004 EECS)

of Sunnyvale works as application engineer for Cypress Semiconductor of San Jose, a leading supplier of SRAM, clocks, physical layer devices, and communication system applications.

Rishi Chopra (B.S. 2003 EECS)

of Burlingame is currently working at IBM on the WebSphere Product Center . He is considering pursuing an M.S. in electrical engineering at Texas A&M this fall.

GREG DALTON (B.S. 2003 ME)

is an aerospace engineer at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, where he works on satellite instruments for space exploration. He's now involved in NASA's THEMIS project, which sent five satellites into space in February 2007 to determine what triggers geomagnetic substorms, the phenomena responsible for the northern and southern lights. "The fun starts when the parts return from the machine shop and I begin to build," he writes. "Then I test the finished product in a vibration lab and thermal vacuum chambers that reproduce a space environment." He recently travelled to San Diego's Mt. Palomar to deliver an infrared telescope he helped build that will hunt for nearby small stars and detect any orbiting Earth-like planets.

Xinyan Deng (Ph.D. 2004 ME)

of Newark, Delaware, received the National Science Foundation's prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award, one of its highest honors for young faculty members. Deng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware, is working to develop microaerial vehicles inspired by real flying insects and other creatures capable of stable and maneuverable flight. The award will provide $455,000 over five years in support of her work.

JONATHAN D. ELKIN (B.S. 2003 ME, M.Eng 2006 Ocean Engineering)

of Tiburon, California, is a captain for the Blue and Gold Fleet ferry between San Francisco and Vallejo, Oakland/Alameda, Sausalito, Tiburon and Angel Island. Under his command are the Gemini green ferry and a high-speed, water jet–propelled boat out of Pier 39. He’s also a naval architect at Jeppesen Marine, a division of Boeing, where he works on software for large ships to plan transoceanic routes that avoid foul weather, conserve fuel and arrive on time. He received the 2008 Graduate Paper Honor Prize from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers for his paper, Hydrodynamic peculiarities of catamaran-like hull sections.

MUSTAFA ERGEN (B.S. 2002 EECS, Ph.D. 2004 EECS)

of Oakland, California, wrote his second book five years after he graduated. Entitled Mobile Broadband—Including WiMAX and LTE, the book covers mobile broadband communication and upcoming 4G systems, the topics Ergen has been involved in heavily through his startup.

LOUCYNDA P. ESCOBAR (B.S. 2005 ME)

is a quality engineer at Cisco Systems in San Jose. She's planning to pursue an MBA beginning in fall 2009.

AUTUMN M. FJELD (M.S. 2001, Ph.D. 2006 MSE)

is a postdoc at the University of Leoben in Austria.

WESLEY D. FREY (B.S. 2001 NE)

is working on a Ph.D. in radiation health physics at Oregon State University. He creates computer algorithms that allow detectors to record and analyze signals digitally, which could ultimately facilitate screening for plutonium-based nuclear weapons.

Michael J. Feldstein (B.S. 2000 BioE)

is a medical student at Harvard Medical School. After completing his M.D. at Harvard, he will start his Ph.D. in EECS at Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall.

MEHMET GUMUS (M.S. 2002 IEOR, Ph.D. 2007 IEOR)

became an assistant professor last September at McGill University's Desautels Faculty of Management in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Gumus is married and has a young child.

ILAN GUR (B.S. 2002, M.S. 2003, Ph.D. 2006 MSE)

is helping launch a startup called Seeo with colleagues from UC Berkeley. The company develops novel materials for the next generation of rechargeable batteries, and Gur-in addition to contributing to the technological effort-is managing the early stages of business development. "I'm having a blast so far," he writes. "While I'm sad to drift away from photovoltaics, I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to work with a great team and have an impact on energy storage, the proverbial yin to my yang." igur@berkeley.edu

Vibert Greene (M.S. 2001 ME)

of Newark, Calif., writes, "I have been working for the California Public Utilities Commission for 34 years now."

CAROL HU (B.S. 2002 EECS)

worked for the national law and consulting firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, as a 2007 summer associate in the Los Angeles office. Hu is in the 2008 class at UCLA's School of Law, where she is articles editor on the Entertainment Law Review and a member of the Asian/Pacific Islander Law Students Association. She also volunteers at El Centro Legal Clinic and spent last summer at Hogan & Hartson, LLP. Before law school, Hu worked as a senior applications engineer for Oracle.

CHRISTY S. HURLBURT (B.S. 2000 EECS)

is living in San Francisco. She recently got a job managing a service team at Medtronic and writes that she's "enjoying life as a Cal grad."

NICOLE E. HURLEY (B.S. 2002 BioE)

received her Ph.D. in bioengineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta last December.

Nicholas Hansen (B.S. 2003 ME)

of Orange, California, completed his master's in mechanical engineering at Cal State University Long Beach.

Christina Hwang (B.S. 2000 BioE)

writes, "I've been working in Tokyo for the past few years, but now I'm back in San Francisco. I've digressed from engineering and currently work for a hedge fund [a type of mutual fund investment partnership]."

Jerry Fairley, Jr. (Ph.D 2000 MSE)

is assistant professor at the University of Idaho Department of Geological Sciences.

EUGENE RYU KANEKO (B.S. 2001 ME)

of San Diego is a product engineer at OXO International, the consumer goods company. "I work closely with industrial designers developing innovative kitchenware products," he writes, including brands such as OXO Good Grips.

T. John Koo (Ph.D. 2000 EECS)

of Nashville, assistant professor of computer engineering in the Department of EECS at Vanderbilt University , received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award for his work on "Computation Platform for the Design of Hybrid Systems." He has been an associated faculty member of the NSF Information Technology Research Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems since 2004 and was a visiting professor in Berkeley's EECS department in 2002.

Hannah Koon (B.S. 2006 EECS)

is working at Cisco as a Systems Engineer, where she finds ways to align IT Technologies to customers' business strategies and empower both individuals and company infrastructure. She is looking to pursue an MBA in the next few years.

FLORIN CONSTANTIN LAPUSTEA (B.S. 2006 CEE)

previously worked for Bechtel Corporation in Romania and is now doing highway design projects for URS Corporation, the global engineering, construction and technical services firm. florin@berkeley.edu

DEREK FAI MING LEI (B.S. 2003 EECS)

of Oakland, California, writes, “Go ahead, show the world some techie love!” dereklei@gmail.com

ANTHONY S. LEVANDOWSKI (B.S. 2002 IEOR, M.S. 2003 IEOR)

took his robotic motorcycle, Ghostrider, all the way to Washington, D.C., to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. The modified motorcycle, which balances, navigates and rights itself independently, was on display from early December through late January as part of the "Treasures of American History" exhibition presented by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (see photo). Levandowski designed and built the vehicle with the Cal Blue Team to compete in the DARPA Grand Challenge in 2004 and 2005. www.ghostriderrobot.com

JENGYEE LIANG (B.S. 2005 IEOR)

died at age 25 last November of complications from lupus. An honor student, she still found time for numerous extracurricular activities, including serving as senator in the Associated Students of the University of California, president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers student chapter and a children's swimming teacher through the Special Needs Aquatic Program. She won the prestigious Bechtel Engineering Scholarship and an Alpha Pi Mu National Award of Excellence. She enjoyed writing, traveling, reading, music and dancing.

Chunghau Lee (B.S. 2003 EECS)

of Camarillo, California, attended UC Santa Barbara after Cal and earned a master's in computer science. He is now working at Amgen providing technical support.

Adam C. Leigland (Master of Science 2001 Civil Engineering, Master of City Planning 2002)

Adam is chief engineer at Aviano Air Base, Italy, where he is responsible for comprehensive planning, design, and construction of USAF and NATO infrastructure and facilities in Italy. He recently won the Society of American Military Engineers Tudor Medal for outstanding contributions to engineering, design, construction, and planning for the past three years and demonstrated leadership in managing projects or organizations.

Misha Leybovich (B.S. 2005 Eng. Physics)

began working on his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and technology policy at MIT this fall. Before settling into graduate school, he spent five months traveling through four continents and 20 countries in a tour that featured, among other highlights, a trek to Mount Everest Base Camp and running with the bulls in Pamplona. He also spent five months working at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo and worked as hiking director at Camp Oski at the Lair of the Golden Bear, Berkeley's family camp in the Stanislaus National Forest. He writes, "Getting to live and hike in the wilderness on a regular basis as well as meet hundreds of cool alums and befriend the dozens of amazing fellow staffers made for the best summer job I've ever had."

RUI MA (B.S. 2004 EECS)

of Shanghai, China, completed three years of technology investment banking and is now a member of the real estate investing team at Morgan Stanley Shanghai.

Meena Makhijani (B.S. 2000 ME)

of Berkeley writes, "I work in the medical device industry as a product development engineer. I am on my company's Cal recruiting team, so I remain tied to the campus. I continue to play tabla and perform Indian classical dance."

Gaurav Moudgil (MS 2005 Civil Engineering)

did an internship with HCG Associates after graduating in 2005. In late 2005, he started Global C Inc back home in New Delhi, India. Global C is a a full service Development Consulting Firm that provides Representation and Project Management services for Project Developers, Lenders and Users.

Brent Nelson (BS 2002 Mechanical Engineering)

joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Northern Arizona University after holding an NAE CASEE engineering education postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Biologically-Inspired Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology

Scott Newman (B.S. 2003 Engineering Physics)

iscurrently in the EECS Ph.D. program at UC Santa Barbara,researching gallium nitride lasers and LEDs.

Marc Oman (B.S. 2003 IEOR)

is living in San Francisco and working for ZS Associates, a global management consulting firm. He comes back to campus as often as possible, especially to visit Hearst Pool and his friends in the College of Engineering.

Yeonjoon Park (Ph.D. 2003 MSE)

of Yorktown, Virginia, writes, "Let the miracles of the class of 2003 begin! UC Berkeley was my academic hometown and remains in my mind forever."

Heena Patel (B.Sc 2006 Civil and Environmental Engineering)

is living in India. First I spent a year doing water and sanitation work in slums and now am studying tabla and philosophy.

Duc Biev Pham (B.S. 2002 EECS)

of Campbell,California, is running his own photography business in the Bay Areashooting concerts, sports and action, fashion shows, and otherevents. Recent shoots have included the Tour de France in July andthe Summer Olympics in Athens in August.

VINCENT RUBINO (B.S. 2001 BioE)

worked at Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals in Berkeley for seven years in equipment validation, facility engineering and quality assurance. His last project was QA support for construction and qualification of a $50M biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility. Since 2007 he has lived in South Korea, where he is the first and only foreigner to work at his Korean research institute, specializing in nanotoxicity studies. He is also a South Korean delegate to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 229: Nanotechnologies and is ISO project leader for developing a regulatory guide for nanomaterials.

Marc Ramirez (B.S. 2004 ME)

started this past fall as a master's student in UC San Diego's mechanical engineering program.

Karen Rayment (B.S. 2001 EECS)

of Alameda is working in hardware design and as an R&D engineer at a Bay Area broadband equipment and services company.

Shadrach Roundy (M.S. 2000, Ph.D. 2003, ME)

a lecturer at Australian National University, was cited in the TR100,

EDOUARD L. SERVAN-SCHREIBER (Ph.D. 2000 EECS)

is assistant director of advanced analytics at Teradata in Massy, France. He writes, “Being a student at Cal made me feel like I was in the center of the world. Even if the work was intense, it made sense to everyone to do a lot of that work in cafes. Professors would give their office hours in cafes, which I thought (as a Parisian) was the pinnacle of civilization.” http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/spotlight/servan-schreiber.shtml

PRIYA SREEDHARAN (M.S. 2001 ME, Ph.D. 2007 ME)

of Plymouth, Michigan, is a Science and Technology Policy Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, working with the Office of Atmospheric Programs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Shuyi "Chris" Shi (B.S. 2001 EECS)

of Orange County writes, "I graduated in a tough year. It was just after the dot-com bust and very tough to find decent work. But no losers come out of EECS! After taking a low-paying job in Texas, I have climbed my way up within four years of graduating to become a lead software engineer commanding a six-figure income. Give me a holler if you are looking for programming work. Go Bears!"

Diane Floresca Smith (B.S. 2001 CEE)

of Foster City, California, is working as a project manager at Project Management Advisors, Inc., in San Francisco, managing 600,000 square feet of biotech development space in the Bay Area.

Stanley (B.S. 2002 EECS)

of Atherton writes, "Hey Jan: Working in San Francisco now; e-mail me if you see this message."

KAREN TRUONG (B.S. 2005 IEOR)

works full time at IBM in Burlingame, California, and is pursuing a master's degree in industrial and system engineering at San Jose State University.

Celia (Lin) Tsao (B.S. 2000 EECS)

writes, "My husband Perry and I went on a four-week vacation in May with our tandem bicycle. We flew up to Seattle and bicycled down the Pacific Coast back to our house in Sunnyvale, for a total of 1,150 miles! Traveling by bicycle is a terrific way to experience the beauty of the coast. We had an amazing time and I highly recommend bicycle travel."

ELIZABETH A. VARGIS (B.S. 2004 BioE)

is in a biomedical engineering Ph.D. program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is studying the use of optical spectroscopy to identify tissue changes due to brain and cervical cancers.

Anita Villanueva (B.S. 2000 EECS, MSE)

of Cambridge, Massachusetts, writes, "I'm currently having a great time in grad school at MIT!"

QIAN WANG (M.S. 2000 CEE)

writes, “I just bought a house in the beautiful city of Chino Hills in Southern California. I’m working toward obtaining my structural engineering title and license.”

ALISEYA WRIGHT (M.S. 2005 CS)

of Oakland, California, took a brief pause from creating innovative web video applications at Yahoo! to create . . . a baby! Mya Yasmine Mokeddem was born on March 28, 2009.

Mike Tao Zhang (PhD 2001 IEOR)

Mike moved back to Bay Area lately after worked for Intel for 5+ years in China and the US. Currently he is a Sr. Manager at Spansion and Vice President of the US-China Green Energy Council. After 10 years in the semiconductor industry, he won the Li Foundation Heritage Prize for Outstanding Achievement (2007) and the IEEE RAS Early Career Award in Robotics and Automation (2008). Go bears!

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