Current Officers
Sara Eckardt
Advisor
Sara graduated from UC San Diego in 2016 with an engineering degree. Currently, she supports both undergraduate and graduate engineering students at UC San Diego as part of the IDEA Center staff. In her free time, Sara enjoys going to festivals, taking a casual walk, and cuddling with her cat.
Nishta Krishnan
Co-President
Nishta is a second year PhD student in the NanoEngineering department. She is currently working in Liangfang Zhang's lab to develop novel drug delivery and immunotherapy approaches against cancer. In her free time, she enjoys playing board games, eating otter pops and learning aerial silks!
Alex Martakis
Co-President
Alex Martakis is currently a graduate student at UCSD pursing a Master’s Degree in Computer Science with a thesis. His main areas of interest revolves around Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. Specifically, how computers comprehend abstract ideas such as metaphors. Before attending UCSD, he obtained an honors degree in Computer Science from Indiana University and published multiple papers in the field of Computer Science. He hopes to continue research through academia or working in industry doing R&D. In his free time, Alex enjoys working in a collaborative environment working on side projects such as songwriting and filmmaking.
Anna Wang
Vice President of Internal Affairs
Anna is a first year MS student in the Structural Engineering department. She is interested in researching advanced composite structures as well as teaching and mentoring undergraduate students. In her free time, she enjoys trying new vegan food, hanging out with her dog, and exploring the West Coast.
Sumanth Rao
Vice President of External Affairs
Sumanth is a first-year MS student in the Computer Science and Engineering Department. His interest lies in Systems and Security. During his free time, Sumanth enjoys hiking, playing basketball, and going for a run.
Albert Liang
Vice President of Operations
Albert is a third year PhD student in the Bioengineering department. He is currently in Nathan Lewis's lab studying multi-omics integration. During his free time, Albert enjoys mountain biking, culture-themed traveling, and linguistics.
Ankur Mallick
Vice President of Finance
Ankur is a first year MS student in the Materials Science and Engineering program. He is currently interested in silicon photonics. Ankur's hobbies include learning about trending technologies and topics such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Darren Ly
Vice President of Marketing
Darren is a first year MS student in the Materials Science and Engineering program. His professional and academic interests include semiconductors, batteries, and biotechnology. In his free time, Darren enjoys playing tennis, running, doing yoga, surfing, learning new languages, and cooking!
Samantha Brody
Social Chair
Samantha Bordy is the social chair for JGSC this year. She is looking forward to planning some amazing social events for the community. She is a first year PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering department with a research focus in nanophotonics. In her free time she enjoys rock climbing and hiking.
Andrés Harisa Duvvuri
Community Service Chair
Andres Duvvuri is currently pursuing his Masters in Nanoengineering with an emphasis in Nanobiotechnology. He works as a graduate student researcher in Dr. Joseph Wang's Nanobioelectronics lab studying fabrication methods for super sensitive nanosensors. In his free time, Andres writes EDM and plays pool.
Jamey O'Neill
Professional Development Chair
Jamey is a PhD student in the Bioengineering department and plans to bring together engineering graduate students in hopes of improving their professional skillsets.
Debalina Chowdhury
ECE Department Chair Representative
Debalina Chowdhury is a first year MS student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, enrolled in the program of Machine Learning and Data Science. Her research focus is on optimization. Apart from her studies, she loves listening to old songs, swimming, and watching cricket.
Tyler Bodily
BENG Department Representative
Tyler is a PhD student in the Bioengineering Department.
Shikha Dixit
CSE Department Representative
Shikha is a first year MS student in the Computer Science and Engineering department. She is interested in program synthesis and its application in algorithm generation. In her free time, Shikha enjoys reading and painting. Her backup career path would be a professional dog walker!
Deepankar Nigam
SE Department Representative
Deepankar is a first year MS student in the Structural Engineering Department. He is interested in experiencing new cultures and is passionate about helping students learn new industry skills. Some of his hobbies include singing and cooking.
Weston Salerno
MAE Department Representative
Weston is a MS student in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. He is interested in working in medical devices after completing his graduate degree. In his free time, Weston enjoys doing activities outdoors and reading.
Shuyan Wang
NENG Department Representative
I am a fourth-year PhD student in NanoEngineering Department. I am currently working on developing biomimetic nanomedicine in Professor Liangfang Zhang’s lab. In my free time, I enjoy reading, listening to music and podcasts, and traveling with my friends.