SCHOOLWIDE OUTSTANDING BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

Emir Arda Deger

Electrical Engineering
Bachelor of Science, Spring 2024

Emir Arda Deger is graduating magna cum laude with a B.S. in electrical engineering. At UCLA, Deger was an undergraduate researcher in two laboratories — the Mesoscopic Optics and Quantum Electronics Laboratory and The Ozcan Research Group. He is an author on a Nature Communications paper that describes a new method of transmitting signals around obstructions.

Deger served as the corporate chair for both the Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies. He contributed to the annual IDEA Hacks event as a member of its corporate relations committee. He also designed temperature sensors for the Bruin Space Group’s Project Rapid in which students develop, manufacture and launch a cube satellite.

In the fall, Deger will continue his education at Caltech, pursuing a doctorate in electrical engineering.

RUSSELL R. O’NEILL DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD and HARRY M. SHOWMAN PRIZE (undergraduate)

Ava Asmani

Electrical Engineering
Bachelor of Science, Spring 2024 

Ava Asmani is graduating with a B.S. in electrical engineering and a minor in public affairs. A member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department’s highly selective Fast Track to Success honors program, Asmani participated in numerous extracurricular organizations having served as internal vice president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Women in Engineering, and as president of the Association for Computing Machinery at UCLA. She was an AI outreach coordinator for the Computer Science Department and served as a student mentor for Engineering 96 — hands-on engineering courses taught by either faculty or undergraduate students. She also led numerous undergraduate research, as well as equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives across the school.

In 2023, Asmani was one of 500 students who received a travel grant for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, where she earned a Best Presenter Award for her research and presentation. She also won a 2024 Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Research at UCLA. Asmani was a researcher with the UCLA Communications Systems Laboratory and is an author on two peer-reviewed papers. She also had a summer internship at Amazon, where she worked on hardware development.

Asmani will return to UCLA Samueli this fall to pursue her doctoral degree in electrical and computer engineering. She will be supported by a Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship and advised by electrical and computer engineering professor Richard Wesel.

HARRY M. SHOWMAN PRIZE (graduate)

Xun Zhao

Bioengineering
Doctor of Philosophy, Spring 2024

Xun Zhao is graduating with a Ph.D. in bioengineering. Zhao’s research focuses on bioelectronics for energy and health care applications. Some of his past work includes inventing a soft magnetoelastic generator to convert energy harvested from human bodies into electrical signals for artificial intelligence-based disease diagnosis.

At UCLA, Zhao was a member of the Wearable Bioelectronics Research Group, which is led by assistant bioengineering professor Jun Chen. A prolific researcher, Zhao authored more than 50 journal articles, including 17 as first author. His research appeared in Nature Materials (twice), Nature Electronics, Chemical Reviews, Science Advances, Nature Communication, Joule, Matter, Advanced Materials and more. In 2023, Zhao received a Graduate Student Award from the Materials Research Society. 

Following his graduation, Zhao will continue at UCLA as a postdoctoral researcher.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT SPEAKER

Emily Chang

Chemical Engineering
Bachelor of Science, Spring 2024

Emily Chang, a first-generation engineering student from Ventura County, California, is graduating with a B.S. in chemical engineering. During her time at UCLA, she assumed several leadership roles in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, serving as the alumni chair and webmaster. She also participated in natural product biosynthesis research at the Yi Tang Lab at UCLA. In recognition of her academic achievements, she was elected a member of the California Epsilon chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor society in the U.S. 

Chang established Chemical Quarterly, the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department’s newsletter. She was also the editor-in-chief for UCLA Radio during her junior year and worked at the Music Industry program in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Following her graduation, Chang plans to earn a master’s degree in food engineering while working as a cheese engineer for Lactalis in Angers, France.

GRADUATE STUDENT SPEAKER

Alexander “AJ” Johnson 

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Doctor of Philosophy, Winter 2024 

Double Bruin engineer Alexander “AJ” Johnson graduated with a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering in the winter quarter of 2024. After completing a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Northwestern University, he started graduate study at UCLA in 2018 and received a master’s degree in 2019.

Johnson worked on building inclusive speech technology with a focus on improving outcomes in educational applications of automatic speech-recognition systems for speakers of African American English. His thesis advisor was electrical and computer engineering professor Abeer Alwan. Johnson was also active in several student groups including the National Society of Black Engineers, the UCLA LGBTQ Campus Resource Center Advocacy Committee, and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate and PostDoc Society. Since getting his doctoral degree, Johnson has been working as a data scientist at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Machine Learning Center of Excellence.

UNDERGRADUATE NATIONAL ANTHEM PERFORMER

Krisha Minocha

Computer Engineering
Bachelor of Science, Spring 2024

Krisha Minocha is graduating with a B.S. in computer engineering. She was part of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department’s highly selective Fast Track to Success honors program. During her time at UCLA, Minocha served as both president and external vice president of the UCLA chapter of Women Advancing Technology through Teamwork and as a curriculum director for Building Engineers and Mentors at UCLA.

In addition to her leadership roles on campus, Minocha also served as a student tutor and held several internships during her time at UCLA, including with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and, most recently, Snowflake, a cloud computing company. Following her graduation, she will continue her work as a software engineer at Snowflake in San Mateo, California.

GRADUATE NATIONAL ANTHEM PERFORMER

Justin Quan 

Mechanical Engineering
Doctor of Philosophy, Summer 2024 

Justin Quan is graduating with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in the summer of 2024 after seven years of research in the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) at UCLA. The lab’s latest climbing robot, which he helped build, recently won a top award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Yokohama, Japan. Quan’s thesis advisor was mechanical and aerospace engineering professor and RoMeLa director Dennis Hong. In addition to his academic pursuits, Quan has also been singing with the UCLA a cappella group Resonance since 2016. Before becoming a Bruin, Quan received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from UC Irvine in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Outside of UCLA, Quan has worked as a robotics intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, developing robotic climbers and grippers. After his graduation, he hopes to continue building robotic and mechanical systems for use in extreme environments, such as outer space.