UC Santa Barbara computer engineering senior Lily Chen and chemical engineering senior Anika Jena have each been awarded a highly competitive graduate fellowship from Tau Beta Pi, the world’s largest engineering society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the U.S. 

They are among the 31 engineering students selected globally from a pool of 453 applicants for the distinction, which recognizes exceptional scholarship, leadership, service, and promise of future contributions to the engineering profession. Fellowship recipients receive a $10,000 stipend supplement to support their advanced study.

“I am honored to receive the most distinguished fellowship in engineering,” said Jena, who also received the university’s 2026 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. “I am proud to represent UC Santa Barbara in the select Tau Beta Pi Fellow cohort, which spans all engineering disciplines and institutions.”

Jena’s research journey at UCSB began in her first year, when she worked in laboratory research and development at a Santa Barbara molecular diagnostics startup. Eager to delve into the physics underlying the molecular interactions she encountered at the lab, she went on to join the lab of then-chemical engineering assistant professor Sho Takatori, where she investigated active matter physics, phase separation dynamics, and polymer nematics in reconstituted cytoskeleton models. Her research in the Takatori lab resulted in two publications, including a 2025 first-author publication in Soft Matter. 

Most recently, she has conducted research in the lab of physics professor Deborah Fygenson, where she engineered DNA nanotubes and nanostars to self-assemble into complex molecular architectures. Jena’s work springboards the development of DNA suprastructure-based nanomachines and molecular sensors. She is finalizing another first-author publication to disseminate this work to the soft-matter community. 

Her work has earned national recognition, including a 2024 Congressional Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship in science, engineering, and mathematics in America, as well as an Eli Lilly Travel Award, which supported her presentation at the American Chemical Society’s 2025 meeting in Washington, D.C. Recently, she also received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, one of the most competitive honors for graduate research and study in STEM.

Following her graduation from UCSB, Jena will pursue a PhD in chemical engineering at Stanford University, where she will study advanced functional polymeric materials. She has been awarded a Stanford Graduate Fellowship, the university’s highest honor for incoming doctoral students. As part of her research, Jena plans to investigate self-assembling, self-healing, biocompatible, and stimuli-responsive composite materials. With the aim of solving imminent problems in health, sustainability, and human advancement, she will develop materials for biologically integrated machines such as soft robotics, nanodevices, and brain computer interfaces.

“My fellowships will enable me to pursue independent, cross-disciplinary research beyond the scope of existing laboratory grants,” she said. “My fellowships also give me the flexibility to deepen my  understanding of the physical principles underlying condensed, active, and self-assembling soft-matter systems.”

Jena said that her research foundations and scholarly development at UCSB were shaped by the incredible support of her professors in the Chemical Engineering and Materials departments. 
 
“The Chemical Engineering Department emphasizes a multi-scale understanding of chemical and fluid systems, from molecular interactions to large-scale processes,” said Jena, who leads the university’s Polymer Science Journal Club, which organizes monthly seminars to showcase interdisciplinary campus research in polymer physics, chemistry, material characterization, and engineering. “My research experiences have been equally transformative. Supported by the sincere and intense mentorship of my research advisors at UCSB, I have experienced the thrill of unpacking black box problems in science and engineering through the design, execution, and analysis of experiments in collaboration with theorists and experimentalists across disciplines.”

Chen, who will also serve as the student speaker at the college’s commencement ceremony, said that receiving the Tau Beta Pi fellowship is especially meaningful because it reflects how far she has come since first choosing engineering.

“I grew up looking up to my parents, who have both built successful careers in business, and for a long time I assumed I would follow a similar path,” Chen said. “However, I ultimately pivoted to engineering when applying to college because I loved problem-solving and wanted to develop the ability to think critically about complex systems.”

When she first arrived at UCSB, Chen said that she barely understood what computer engineering entailed. Then, she became involved in undergraduate research, working in the labs of electrical and computer engineering professors Mahnoosh Alizadeh and Jason Marden, applying data-driven modeling and optimal control to industrial refrigeration systems. Now, she is close to submitting her first first-author research paper in optimal control of industrial processes. 

“To me, this fellowship is a testament not only to my academic growth, but also to the support, mentorship, and community that made that growth possible,” said Chen, who served as president of the Tau Beta Pi CA Sigma Chapter, worked as a campus tour guide, and led the solar team for Engineers Without Borders. “My peers, professors, and mentors at UCSB helped empower me to become someone I could not have imagined becoming when I first started. I am deeply grateful to represent UCSB Engineering and the Tau Beta Pi CA Sigma Chapter through this national honor.”

Chen will remain at UCSB next fall to continue her graduate studies through the BS/MS program in electrical and computer engineering, with a focus on controls and machine learning. She said that she chose to continue at the university because of the mentorship, the research community, and the technical foundation she has found here, especially in control systems, optimization, and data-driven decision-making.

“What motivates me most is the potential for controls and machine learning to improve not only emerging technologies, but also traditional industries that are essential to everyday life and have enormous opportunities for gains in efficiency, reliability, and sustainability,” Chen said.

She said that UCSB has also helped her to develop as a scholar by surrounding her with mentors who pushed her to think more critically, investigate more deeply, and communicate technical ideas clearly.

“I have learned that good research is not just about getting results,” Chen said. “It is about understanding the problem, telling a cohesive story with data, and contributing something meaningful to the field.”

Tau Beta Pi was formed in 1885, and membership into the honor society represents the highest honor to be obtained by an engineering student and is awarded on the basis of high scholarship and exemplary character. This year’s awards bring the total number of fellowships granted to 1,892 since the program’s inception in 1929, totaling more than $9.2 million in stipends.