Engineering and Information and Computer Sciences Schools Induct Six Alumni into 2025 Hall of Fame
May 19, 2025 - To celebrate a decade of excellence, the UC Irvine engineering and information and computer sciences Alumni Hall of Fame made its way back to Irvine. Past and present Anteater engineers gathered at the Beckman Center to celebrate six new inductees on May 2, 2025.
Over 200 faculty, alumni, students, friends and family attended the 10th annual event that honors alumni who have significantly impacted their profession or brought distinction to their alma mater. Sixty-seven engineering alumni and 55 ICS alumni have now been inducted.
A networking and cocktail hour kicked off the event, allowing attendees to visit and connect with each other. Current graduate student Nitish Nagesh, a computer science major, has been attending the Hall of Fame for two years. He says that networking with faculty and alumni puts his time at UCI into perspective; reminding him how important the university is in shaping each successful individual in their journey.
“It is inspiring because there are some things I stress about, but hearing people talk about their time here and the mistakes they made, it reminds me to appreciate studying at UCI,” said Nagesh, who expects to graduate in 2026.
The networking mixer was followed by the award show in the auditorium where master of ceremony Tim Kashani ’86, an ICS alum, introduced Dean of Engineering Magnus Egerstedt.
Reflecting on the fitting location for the annual event, Egerstedt said the geographical location anchors everyone to one place, though they may be scattered across the globe. Before introducing the three engineering inductees, he spoke on the meaning of being an engineer, highlighting its importance in society.
“To be an engineer is, fundamentally, to be an optimist, because in all other disciplines, they study the world as it is,” Egerstedt said. “Engineers, we imagine the world as it could be, and there's power in that.”
Following Egerstedt’s presentation and induction of the three engineering awardees, Dean of Information and Computer Sciences Marios Papaefthymiou reminisced on the decade of Hall of Fame events. He presented the three information and computer sciences inductees.
Following heartfelt speeches from each of the new Hall of Famers, guests enjoyed dinner on the hillside lawn, overlooking California Street and beyond into Irvine.
Engineering Inductees
Arezoo Ardekani, M.S. 2005, Ph.D. 2009 – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Arezoo Ardekani, professor and associate head of Faculty Affairs of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, earned her master’s degree in 2005 and doctorate in 2009 from UCI in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Her research interests are in fluid dynamics and biofluid mechanics. Her findings in studying the behavior of microbes help officials determine the best use of dispersants to mitigate environmental damage. Ardekani received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, which cited her research and dedication to increasing minority participation in STEM. Her leadership is demonstrated by her professional service, and involvement in editorial boards, advisory committees and diversity initiatives. At Purdue, she has been honored with the College of Engineering Faculty Excellence Award for Graduate Student Mentorship and the Award of Excellence in Early Career Research.
“It's a great honor to be recognized by the UCI School of Engineering,” Ardekani said as she received her award. “As I walked on campus today, I was remembering all the fond memories of the time I was here as a Ph.D. student.”
Kenneth Grier, B.S. 1991, M.S. 1994 – Civil Engineering
Kenneth Grier received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1991 and was quickly hired as a structural engineer by Fluor, a global engineering, procurement and construction company. Over 30 years later, he is the company’s executive project director of Energy Solutions. Fluor supported Grier’s return to UCI, in which he earned a master’s degree in structural engineering with an emphasis in seismic engineering in 1994. Though global and based in Copenhagen, Grier emphasizes mentorship to young engineers, specifically at UCI. Grier has been a Fluor Global University Sponsor Program executive liaison to UCI since 2019, where he works with the Samueli School of Engineering to identify programs, scholarships and other funding opportunities to support. Grier is active in the UCI Engineering Alumni Society, where he has developed the Battle of the Deans Trivia Challenge, the Professional Development Workshop and Wine Tasting events to raise funds for scholarships. He also serves on the engineering Dean’s Leadership Council.
During his speech, Grier spoke about how he initially did not do well in his Fluor interview — which took place at UCI — but he was given a second chance to earn the position.
“It was one of those things where I'm just trying to make sure that someone else doesn't suffer the same that I did in failing an interview and not being ready for it,” Grier said. “So, I think that's part of what the passion is that drove me to spend my time looking at ways to support the new wave of engineering students.”
Shelly Peyton, M.S. 2004, Ph.D. 2007 – Chemical Engineering
Shelly Peyton earned her master’s degree in 2004 and doctorate in 2007 in chemical engineering from UCI. Peyton is a professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University where she leads an interdisciplinary group of engineers and molecular cell biologists who build simplified models of human tissue with synthetic biomaterials. This is applied to better understand how breast cancer spreads and the dynamics of drug resistance. Peyton, who was named a Pew Biomedical Scholar, an NIH New Innovator Awardee and an NSF CAREER awardee is also passionate about graduate student training. She runs an NSF-funded program called Engineering the Cell, which brings female high school students to her lab for five weeks every summer.
In her acceptance speech, Peyton reflected on her grades and the mistakes she made at UCI.
“I wasn't a straight-A student, and so to get to graduate school, someone had to take a chance on me,” Peyton said. “And I remember the chemical engineering material science program at that time took a chance on me. I reflect on this a lot now because now I'm in a position of power and can take those chances with students to train the next generation of scientists and engineers who are poised to make these huge advancements in science and engineering, and our students aren't just their GPAs.”
Information and Computer Sciences Inductees
Kenneth M. Anderson, B.S. 1990, M.S. 1992, Ph.D. 1997 – Information and Computer Science
Kenneth M. Anderson, a professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees at UCI. His fields of interest include software engineering, hypermedia, computer-supported cooperative work and human-computer interaction. Anderson’s research contributed to Project EPIC, a research project of crisis informatics. His work springboarded the creation of Project EPIC’s data collection infrastructure, which gathered social media data on hundreds of national disasters over 10 years. This led to details and data on the public use of social media during crises. While at UCI, Anderson played trombone and baritone in the wind ensemble and basketball band. He stopped with the band to focus on completing his Ph.D.
“I started at UC Irvine in 1986 and was there for 12 years, getting those three degrees,” Anderson said. “And I just remember it was a time of opportunity. There were so many things going on in computer science and computing. And the skills I learned at UC Irvine equipped me to have a very successful research career at Colorado University.”
Punit Niranjan Shah, B.S. 2003 – Information and Computer Science
Punit Niranjan Shah began his career in software development and the SMS marketing industry after receiving a bachelor's degree in information and computer science in 2003. Three years later, in 2006, Shah co-founded CalFire Inc., now called EZ Texting. It is the number one text marketing platform, designed to deliver mass texts and Multimedia Messaging Services
(MMS) messages, with over 230,000 customers. Shah is hemi-paretic with limited use of his left hand. At UCI he contributed to advancements in stroke rehabilitation technology. His work led to the patent “Method and Apparatus for Automating Arm and Grasping Movement Training for Rehabilitation of Patients with Motor Impairment.”
In his speech, Shah gave special thanks to UCI engineering professor David Reinkensmeyer for giving him his first job.
“At the start, I was a skinny, paralyzed from the neck down, 3-year-old,” Shah said. “Now I’m standing here at the UCI Engineering and ICS Hall of Fame — it's pretty wild. Moments like this are not self-made, they're family made, friends made, they're community made. The person who gave me my first job is here today, professor [David] Reinkensmeyer gave me my first job helping people just like me —victims of stroke. Thank you for taking the chance on an overconfident, one-handed coder, who at the time really thought he knew everything.”
Jagannathan Thinakaran, B.S. 2001, M.S. 2005 – Information and Computer Science
Jagannathan Thinakaran earned his UCI bachelor’s degree in 2001 and master’s degree in 2005, both times majoring in computer science. He is the founder and CEO of CasselRoad, a Santa Monica-based Strategy Consulting firm. He is also a co-founder of the company EZ Texting, growing the group of five employees to over 100. Thinakaran also serves as a faculty adviser at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
“It’s been really great to be here,” Thinakaran said during his speech. “Nothing can be more rewarding than the idea that you’re recognized by your peers and the folks that taught you everything you know about computer science.”
– Cassandra Nava
