UCLA Engineering Students Receive 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

UCLA Samueli
Eight UCLA Samueli School of Engineering undergraduate and graduate students have received the prestigious 2023 Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
The program recognizes and supports outstanding students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree at accredited U.S. institutions. More than 60,000 students have participated in the program since its start in 1952. The three-year fellowship will provides each recipient with a $37,000 annual stipend and an additional $12,000 for tuition and fees.
Following is a brief overview of the 2023 UCLA Samueli NSF Graduate Research Fellows:

Taykhoom Dalal
- Major: Computer Science (B.S.)
- Research Interests: Machine learning on large-scale genomic data sets for understanding disease
- Faculty Advisors: Shantanu Joshi (UCLA Neurology), Michael Berger (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), Chirag Patel (Harvard Medical School)
- Intended Graduate Institution: Cornell/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center/Rockefeller University Tri-Institutional Ph.D. Program

Cody Fan
- Graduate degree program: Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Research Interests: Quantum communication systems, quantum simulation techniques
- Faculty Advisor: Chee Wei Wong
- Undergraduate Institution: UCLA

John McCullough
- Major: Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
- Research Interests: Human rehabilitation and augmentation technology
- Faculty Advisor: Tyler Clites
- Undergraduate Institution: UCLA
- Intended Graduated Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Barath Palanisamy
- Graduate degree program: Bioengineering
- Research Interests: High-throughput quantification of biomarkers for rapid and affordable point-of-care diagnostics
- Faculty Advisor: Dino Di Carlo
- Undergraduate Institution: UC Davis

Sophia Shen
- Major: Electrical Engineering (B.S.)
- Research Interests: Wearable biomedical devices
- Faculty Advisors: Jun Chen and Igor Spigelman (UCLA Dentistry)
- Undergraduate Institution: UCLA
- Intended Graduate Institution: Stanford University

Aki Takahashi
- Major: Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
- Research Interests: Data-driven approaches for energy storage applications
- Faculty Advisor: Yuzhang Li
- Undergraduate Institution: UCLA
- Intended Graduate Institution: Stanford University

Alyssa Tomkinson
- Major: Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
- Research Interests: Implantable prosthetics, biomechanics
- Faculty Advisor: Tyler Clites
- Undergraduate Institution: UCLA
- Intended Graduate Institution: UCLA

Kevin Lin Yang
- Major: Civil and Environmental Engineering (B.S.)
- Research Interests: Data and policy-centered research, greenhouse gas emissions and environmental public health
- Faculty Advisors: Jennifer Jay and Sanjay Mohanty
- Undergraduate Institution: UCLA
- Intended Graduate Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
In addition, six UCLA Samueli alumni have received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships for 2023: Angela Gao, UC San Francisco; Katherine Brenner, UC Irvine; Mitchell Rogers, Yale University; Taraneh Sadjadpour, Stanford University; Breahna Singer, University of Texas at Austin and James Wang, California Institute of Technology.
Riley de Jong contributed to this story.