The UC Santa Barbara College of Engineering (COE) will celebrate a record-breaking year during the 2025 Undergraduate Commencement, which begins at 1 PM on Friday, June 13 on Commencement Green. The college has conferred 472 bachelor’s degrees during the 2024-’25 academic year, breaking the previous record of 437 set last year. 

Roughly 30 percent of the degrees were earned by women. The class of 2025 has amassed 199 computer science degrees and 81 degrees in electrical engineering, both departmental records. The college will also award 49 degrees in chemical engineering, 54 in computer engineering, and 89 in mechanical engineering. By posting cumulative grade point averages (GPAs) of 3.98 and above, 17 students will graduate in the top 2.5% of the class and receive highest honors, 29 students with GPAs between 3.94 and 3.97 will graduate with high honors, while 55 students with GPAs between 3.86 and 3.93 will graduate with honors. Another 27 students will graduate as COE Honors Program Scholars for completing an array of requirements, such as a minimum 3.5 GPA and community service hours. 

Student Commencement Speaker
A COE committee selected Niyati Mummidivarapu to represent the college’s class of 2025 as the student commencement speaker. Mummidivarapu, who will receive a bachelor’s degree in computer science, says that she is honored to represent her fellow graduates and help commemorate their accomplishments and perseverance. 

“I’m the first woman in my family to earn an engineering degree. This milestone means a lot to me and my family, especially because my grandmother didn’t receive an education, and my mother had to fight for her education,” said Mummidivarapu, who hopes to inspire her fellow graduates to use their degrees for the common good. “To be walking and speaking at the College of Engineering’s Commencement is important to me and the women in my family.”

In addition to her studies, Mummidivarapu worked as a peer educator in the COE Undergraduate Advising Office, regularly communicating with prospective students and parents during outreach events. She also became involved with undergraduate research through the Computer Science Department’s Early Research Scholars Program. Working for computer science professor Ambuj Singh, she studied graph neural networks, which are crucial for improving and securing applications of essential technologies, such as social media networks and navigation systems. 

“Participating in research taught me that there is more to academia than just learning course material, and that it also involves finding a path that consistently changes,” explained Mummidivarapu, who will next pursue a master’s degree in cybersecurity at Brown University. 

She also expressed gratitude to computer science faculty members Diba Mirza and Ziad Matni for mentoring her during the past four years, and to the faculty and staff working in the COE Undergraduate Advising Office, whom she described as “her biggest supporters at UCSB.” 

Standard Bearers
The college selected one student from each undergraduate degree program, five in all, to serve as a banner carrier and lead the class of 2025 into the ceremony. A prestigious honor, leading the student procession symbolizes the recipients’ commitment to excellence, as evidenced by having one of the highest GPAs in their graduating cohort, and their roles as exemplary representatives of the college. The 2025 COE standard bearers are Changxuan Yang (chemical engineering), Tien Nguyen (computer engineering), Tianle Yu (computer science), Jordan Prescott (electrical engineering), and Selena Deng (mechanical engineering). 

The five standard bearers were also nominated by their departments as Outstanding Seniors, a distinction based on their academic excellence and their involvement in research and other scholarly pursuits. The Computer Science Department nominated three students for the award: Yu, as well as Will Corcoran and Jacob Fingerman. Read about all seven of this year’s Outstanding Seniors here. 

Commencement Speaker
A renowned high-speed semiconductor entrepreneur, commencement speaker Loi Nguyen will share his inspirational story and congratulate the COE’s class of 2025. One of nine children, Nguyen grew up in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

After one year at university, he joined the thousands of “boat people,” who left Vietnam by sea following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. After arriving in the U.S. with limited English and no money, he found work and eventually enrolled in and graduated from a community college. He received a full-scholarship to Cornell University, where he went on to earn his bachelor’s degree and PhD in electrical engineering and became focused on high-speed semiconductors. During his engineering career, he developed ultra high-speed semiconductor devices that enable today’s broadband optical and millimeter wave communications and networking, automotive radar, and radio astronomy. He holds seven U.S. patents and is the author of more than fifty scientific publications.

Nguyen and two colleagues founded Inphi in 2000 to provide high-speed analog, digital signal processing, and optical semiconductor solutions for the cloud and service-provider communications markets. The company was acquired by Marvell Technology, Inc. for $10 billion in 2021. He went on to serve as executive vice president and general manager at Marvell until he retired in April 2025. 

Earlier this year, a generous gift from Nguyen established the Loi and Adele Nguyen Chair in the College of Engineering’s Technology Management Department.