News Release

Undergraduate Student Leaders Honored

June 12, 2005 -- Computer science major Lindsey Desalvo and electrical engineering major Yan Zheng were honored with the 2005 Engineering Student Leadership awards last week.  Both seniors were recognized for their outstanding service to their peers and the UCSD community. 

 Lindsey
 Lindsey Desalvo
Desalvo served as the Academic Coordinator for the engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi, where she helped organize tutoring resources for students and helped to bring faculty and students together for information exchanges.  She was also the student representative for her Computer Science and Engineering Department, and contributed to the in-depth planning of their student-faculty socials.  

Desalvo aided in recruiting and outreach activities for several years.   She served as president of the CALPIRG (California Public Interest Research Group) UCSD student chapter, and in that role she volunteered at and raised money for the San Diego Rescue Mission, petitioned local wildlife clubs to support efforts to lower the levels of mercury pollution, and coordinated the research for the "Ripoff 101" report highlighting the soaring cost of textbooks. 

Desalvo’s resume also includes research on the Tablet PC Grader, a software application that allows faculty to provide electronically-linked feedback to on student homework papers.    Desalvo has accepted a position as a software engineer with Amazon.

 Zheng served as President of the student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic

 Yan
 Yan Zheng
 Engineers (IEEE).  He was instrumental in the growth of the chapter, which was recognized with the national IEEE Membership Growth Award for two consecutive years.    The increase in student participation is due largely to Zheng’s creation and development of six team-oriented projects that allow members the opportunity to develop both their technical and professional skills.  The substance of these projects is such that the Electrical and Computer Engineering department is granting participants elective credit for their work.  

Zheng also expressed his commitment to community through his participation in the Teams in Engineering Service (TIES) Program, where he led a team for the Lakeside’s River Park Conservancy which is creating a network of remote sensors to monitor air, ground and water quality of the San Diego River.  Zheng is the first undergraduate teaching assistant for Principles of Team Engineering, a companion course for the TIES program. 

Zheng has been accepted as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Media Contacts

Denine Hagen
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-2920
dhagen@ucsd.edu

Related Links