Alumni

Five people stand on stage at event accepting an award

Alum’s Liquid Cooling Research Earns IEEE ITherm Best Poster Award

  • by College of Engineering Communications
Gutta Prudhvi Reddy, an alum of the UC Davis mechanical and aerospace engineering master’s program, earned the IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, or ITherm, 2024 Best Overall Poster Award for his research titled “Assessment of Bubble Pump Model for Fluid Directional Motion for Asymmetric Heated Ratchets.”
Kellen Ochi

Master's Program Opens Doors for Alum's Rocket-Focused Career

  • by Jessica Heath
Kellen Ochi '22 cites his master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from UC Davis as the reason he now gets to shoot rockets into space as an engineer at The Aerospace Corporation, and how an early interest in planes, trains and automobiles fueled his passion for engineering.
Robert Caligiuri

Robert Caligiuri ’73 Builds a Legacy of Support

  • by Jessica Heath
Robert Caligiuri '73, who has been named a 2023 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal winner, would not be where he is today without the late Distinguished Professor of the University of California, Davis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Amiya Mukherjee.
uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering alumni sarahi granados james webb telescope northrup grumman

Eye on the Sky: Sarahi Granados '21

  • by Noah A Pflueger-Peters
The path from passionate second-grader to James Webb Telescope engineer wasn’t an easy one for Sarahi Granados '21, especially as a first-generation Latina woman in engineering, but she’s incredibly grateful for the education, resources and connections at UC Davis that helped her get there.
uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering alumni nasa mars perseverance ingenuity jpl aerovironment

Aggie Engineers Design a Pathway to Mars

  • by Noah A Pflueger-Peters

When NASA's Perseverence rover approached Mars on February 18, 2021, UC Davis mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) alumna Jessica Samuels ’99 and Sara Langberg ’16 watched particularly closely to see their hard work pay off. Perseverance, the largest and most advanced Mars rover to date, will explore the existence of water, launch history’s first extraterrestrial helicopter and serve as the first leg of a mission to collect Martian rock and soil samples and bring them to Earth.

uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering alumni sara langberg ingenuity mars helicopter nasa

Alumni Spotlight: Sara Langberg ’16

  • by Noah A Pflueger-Peters

Sara Langberg ’16 used the curiosity and passion for learning things she developed at UC Davis to help NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, part of the Perseverance mission, come to life.

Langberg is an aeromechanical engineer at AeroVironment, a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems with a long history of breakthrough innovation. Since joining the company in 2016, her team has been working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on the small robotic helicopter that will attempt the first powered flight on another planet.

uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering perseverence

Perseverance Lands on Mars, With Help From UC Davis

“Perseverance will get you anywhere” — and after a journey of seven months, 300 million miles and a nerve-racking seven minute plunge through the Martian atmosphere, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed safely in Jezero Crater Feb. 18. Many scientists, engineers and facilities — especially at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena — contributed to the mission, and UC Davis played a crucial role as well.
uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering felipe valdez alumni nasa

Felipe Valdez: Shooting for the Stars

  • by Leon Szeto

Felipe Valdez received his master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) at UC Davis this past summer. Without skipping a beat, he’s off to his next journey as an aerospace engineer at the NASA Armstrong Research Center in Edwards, California.

uc davis mechanical aerospace materials science engineering alumni brian peters inneos

Alumni Spotlight: Brian Peters '88

  • by Noah A Pflueger-Peters

Engineering alumnus and Inneos CEO Brian Peters ‘88 is a successful leader, businessman and entrepreneur in the optics industry, but he wouldn’t lead with that. In his 25 years in business, Peters takes the most pride in leading companies with an inspired community of colleagues who have helped him carve out his place in Silicon Valley.

uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering alumni matt sorgenfrei

Alumni Spotlight: Matt Sorgenfrei ‘13

  • by Noah A Pflueger-Peters

From space to the streets of San Francisco, mechanical and aerospace engineering alumnus Matt Sorgenfrei is using his control systems engineering expertise to change the way machines interact with the world.

uc davis mechanical aerospace engineering class 1969

Alumni Spotlight: Class of 1969

By Rachel Steere

The UC Davis College of Engineering Class of 1969 was a dynamic class of tight-knit engineers and several of them have stayed in contact since graduating nearly 50 years ago.

Adam Davis

MAE Alumnus Adam Davis: Building an Engineering Career

Adam Davis graduated from UC Davis in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He is a Principal Engineer at Weston & Associates Mechanical Engineers, Inc., a full-service design engineering firm providing mechanical engineering services to architects and owners for projects throughout California.
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