Meet our 2025 Cohort
2025 Summer First Fellows
Adem Taiyr (he/him) I will be joining the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), and my main research interest is in developing occupant-aware buildings through the use of physics-based machine learning and vibration sensors. Over the past three years, I have volunteered at several educational consultancies, providing free university admissions preparation and guidance to high school students and aspiring researchers in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, particularly those from underrepresented groups, including low-income and single-parent households. Outside of academics, I enjoy cooking and am an avid fan of Star Wars and science fiction in general.
Ashton Pihl (he/him) Ashton is an incoming Ph.D. student in the Baker Coastal Lab within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interests focus on wave turbulence interactions in the nearshore, especially vorticity generation by breaking waves. He has held leadership roles in community environmental justice organizations and hopes to engage in university and community partnerships that support sustainable coastal management throughout his time at Stanford. Outside of research, you can find him playing hockey, reading Czech literature, and writing about music.
Connor Ding (he/him) I am an incoming Ph.D. student and currently an M.S. student in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Previously, I was at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where I earned my B.S. in Psychological & Brain Sciences and Mathematics. I am working on research projects related to data compression and diffusion models with Professor Tsachy Weissman after finding his course on information theory unexpectedly fascinating. Thus, my current research focuses on information theory, exploring both its theoretical foundations and diverse applications, including: Generative modeling of discrete data using information-theoretic approaches. Image compression leveraging implicit neural representations and Gaussian Splatting, and statistical estimation for enhanced sampling and inference efficiency. Outside of school, I like to be active through weight-lifting, running, cycling, and swimming. Also, I'm a big Arsenal fan (COYG!).
Dayna Jackson (she/her) Dayna Jackson is an incoming Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student that has previously focused on turbulence, and sUAS modeling. She graduated from Howard University with a bachelor's degree in Physics. Dayna’s research aspirations consist of advancing environmental monitoring and disaster relief technologies by optimizing drone-based data collection methods. During her undergraduate years, she conducted research at Howard's Laboratory for Applied Fluid and Thermal Engineering Research under the mentorship of Dr. Sonya Smith and Dr. Anaiya Reliford. In her free time, Dayna enjoys participating in community service projects, photography, and watching movies.
Diana Popescu (she/her) Hi! My name is Diana Popescu and I am a first year CS Ph.D. student. My research has been focusing on the intersection of AI and Education. On campus I am hoping to be involved with SERIO and German Student Association (in an effort to practice my German). During my free time I love baking, reading and hiking.
Dominik Buhl (he/him) Hey, I am Dominik. I am part of the Electrical Engineering department and work on quantum optics. I thoroughly enjoy my skiing instructor activities during the winter time and I am always down for mountain related or team sports.
Elizabeth "Beth" Westfall (she/her) I am Elizabeth Westfall, an incoming Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. I earned a B.S. in both Aerospace Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Virginia (UVA) in 2024, then went on to complete an M.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering‚ where I studied the hydrodynamics of fish schooling. My research at Stanford will focus on experimental bio-inspired fluid dynamics. Beyond my work in the lab, I served on UVA‚ as Graduate Student Council and directed the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair. In my free time, I enjoy reading and exploring the outdoors. During my Ph.D., I also hope to learn to play a musical instrument!
Heather Phillips (she/her) Heather Phillips is an incoming Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Her research interests center on advancing novel fabrication techniques and computational tools for low-power electronics, particularly in the context of sustainable, scalable semiconductor technologies. Throughout her undergraduate years, she led multiple mentorship and outreach initiatives to support underrepresented students in STEM and co-authored several peer-reviewed papers on optical interrogation, design education, and atomic layer deposition. Outside the lab, Heather enjoys hiking, reading, running, and cooking delicious food.
Janet Teng (she/her) My name is Janet Teng. I am an incoming Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. I earned my bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. My research interests broadly encompass soft materials, fluid mechanics, and transport phenomena. At MIT, I served as a class of 2025 representative on the Undergraduate Student Advisory Board, providing student feedback to the Chemical Engineering department. Additionally, I mentor community college and high school students through the Micro Nano Technology Education Center. Outside the lab, I enjoy swimming and weightlifting.
Oluwapelumi Egunjobi (she/her) Oluwapelumi Egunjobi is a Nigerian national pursuing a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at Stanford University, with a focus on sustainable construction practices that integrate climate resilience and human well-being in low- and middle-income countries. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, where she cultivated her interest in interdisciplinary academic research and systems thinking. Beyond her academic work, Oluwapelumi is deeply committed to promoting inclusion in STEM. She has served as an executive member of IEEE Women in Engineering at the University of Ibadan and is a core team member of The Emerge Youth Innovation Initiative (formerly the Africa Students Network), an organisation dedicated to fostering human capital development and advancing equity for young people of colour. In her free time, she enjoys exploring new places as a tourist and spending quality time with friends and family.
Puyang Huang (he/him) I am Puyang Huang from the Department of Electrical Engineering. My research focuses on non-volatile memory and hardware-based computing-in-memory applications. During my undergraduate studies, I served as Deputy Director of the Art & Entertainment Department in the Student Union, where I organized and hosted events such as the Freshman Welcome Party and Campus Singing Competition. In my free time, I enjoy working out, watching basketball games, and cooking Chinese food.
Tianming Yang (he/him) I am Tianming Yang from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. My academic journey has focused on exploring the circuit-level mechanisms of the cerebellum in online movement correction. During my time in the UGVR program at Stanford, I also contributed to the development of optical clearing agents for live animals. This summer, I will be joining the Ph.D. program in Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University, where I look forward to exploring how materials-based approaches can advance our understanding of neural systems. In my free time, I enjoy watching sunsets by the sea and indulging in fries at the pier.
William Millsaps (he/him) I am a Materials Science and Engineering student working in the subfield of transmission electron microscopy. I like to work in a multidisciplinary space; TEM is great because it requires one to be well-versed in physics, electronics, mechanics, computer science, and more. For the past three years, I have focused on technique development, improving computational methods and developing equipment. In the future, I hope to also take on long-term projects involving specific materials systems. Though research is my focus, I am passionate about accessible learning tools. My past projects include ronchigram dot com and the Nanofabbed Atlas of Fourier Transforms, which help learners of all backgrounds explore science and engineering. My long-time hobbies include playing cooperative games, (trying to) solve puzzles, reading Asimov, and hanging out outdoors (with a kite, if there‚ is enough wind).