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May
24, 2003, 16S:
Special Commencement Issue
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Bechtel
Achievement Award: Ankur
Luthra , EECS
Bechtel
Engineering Scholarship:
Jengyee Liang, IEOR
Departmental
Citation Winners:
Nathan Huebsch, BioE
Mark Wan, CEE
Peter Chen, EECS
Kenny Kamrin, Eng. Science
Marc Oman, IEOR
Melissa Santala, MSE
Siddharth Patel, ME
Brian Quiter, NE
Other
Departmental Awards
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Photo
by Peg Skorpinski
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Mechanical
Engineering Citation: Siddharth Patel
Siddharth Patel isn’t just active on campus, he’s also a campus
activist. This year his free time has been swallowed up by protests and
activities for the anitwar movement. As part of the Berkeley Stop the
War Coalition, Siddharth has participated in campus teach-ins.
Luckily activism isn’t just work for Siddharth; it’s both a
hobby and a passion. Another passion is the International Socialist Organization,
where he often gives talks on political topics during campus meetings.
When he’s not out campaigning for his ideals, Siddharth unwinds by
teaching himself how to play acoustic guitar.
Siddharth received a full-ride scholarship to study ME at Cal. As the
child of two doctors, he toyed with doing pre-med, but decided against
it after taking an intro to biology class.
He became interested in ME in high school after watching the NASA mission
to Mars on TV.
“I was watching the live feed of the control room, and when they
landed, the engineers were ecstatic. I wanted to do what they did.”
Each ME class Siddharth has taken so far has reaffirmed his decision to
major in ME. His interests lie in intelligent and adaptive controls and
automated systems.
His research and work experience has been extremely diverse. Last summer
he was a political activist with the International Socialist Organization
in Los Angeles, the summer before he worked at Lawrence Berkeley Labs
measuring selenium content in soil and wheat and at a local antique furniture
store as a sales rep. The summer before, he did biotech research on pancreatic
cancer and chemical pathways.
During the school year Siddharth worked at the Calcorp public service
center, where he helped coordinate the student internship program for
the Berkeley school district and local nonprofits.
Next year Siddharth will pursue his master’s (and perhaps his Ph.D.)
at Berkeley, but beyond that his plans haven’t crystallized.
He chose Berkeley for grad school after falling in love with its socially
conscious culture.
“I didn’t originally choose Berkeley for the political activism,
but I am thankful I came here because the political culture of the campus
really opens your eyes to the world,” he says. “I also love
going to school with about 50,000 other students.”
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