Alumni Notes

Alumni Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science Alumni Updates Notes

1994 Derek Kranig (EE) is in his 17th year with IPG Photonics (formerly Innovative Laser Technologies) in Minneapolis, Minn. as a principal electrical engineer in the Standard Products Group. He and his wife Brianne welcomed their fourth child Kynlee on April 12, 2022. Kynlee joins her older sisters Kendall (6) and Kenzie (4) and big brother Kallum (3) in a very chaotic household!

DEREK KRANIG

2003 Joshua Sample (EE) manages a sales firm and real estate investment company in San Jose, Calif. He and his amazing wife, Jodi, provide shuttle services to tae kwon do, swim team and church events for their children Jacob (7) and Abigail (5).

2010 Matt Leigh (ME) continues to work as a freelance music producer in Nashville, Tenn. He recently married his best friend, Katy, on April 2, 2022. Rachael McKay (ISyE) is a senior manager of Strategy (Global Operations, Logistics & Distribution) at Levi Strauss & Co. She was married in Kas, Turkey September 2022.

2011 Josh Lubawy (EE) works as principal engineer at Cue Health. He and his wife Ashley were thrilled to welcome their first child, Isaac John Lubawy, on February 26, 2021.

Emmett Perl (EE) is a process development engineer at Antora Energy, a company working on renewable energy storage using thermal batteries. Antora recently completed its Series A funding round of over $30 million led by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Chris Sacca's LowerCarbon Capital. He and his fiancé were married in September 2022.

MATT LEIGH

Chase Tushaus (ISyE) and his wife Julia continue to love living in San Diego. Tushaus runs a family business and Julia counsels teenagers at a local Catholic high school. Away from work, they are active in giving back to the community but enjoy a good night out imagining what the '80s must have been like. He currently leads the ShileyMarcos School of Engineering and Computer Science Alumni Council and sits on USD’s Alumni Board as their philanthropy task force chair. After giving in to Julia's wish for a dog, he now has an inseparable bond with his Carolina dog, Gouda.

2012 Chayne Johnson (ISyE) works as a senior vendor manager at Autodesk. She married a fellow USD grad, Kyle DeNuccio, in August 2019 and currently lives in San Francisco by the beach.

Jenna Rohrbacker (ME) was recently appointed manager of systems engineering at Northrop Grumman Space Systems. She is a manager of the Pathways Rotational Program, which allows junior level engineers the opportunity to rotate through different engineering disciplines every year. She works out of the Azusa campus and currently resides in Orange, Calif.

CHASE TUSHAUS

2014 Sophie Fallon (ME) works as a director of project development with Onyx Renewables developing large

scale solar and battery storage energy projects. She and her fiance (Evan Karkazis, '13 applied mathematics) were married Fall 2022.

Philip Hoskinson (ME) recently broke-ground on his 6th rental property in the greater San Diego area.

2016 Mike Bagian (ME) is pursuing an MBA from Ohio State's Fisher College of Business and is expected to graduate in Spring 2023. He began his career in consulting this summer as a summer associate for McKinsey and Company. Bagian recently married fellow Torero Lauren Riley (class of 2017) and they are looking forward to their future together.

Danford Jooste (EE) and climbing partner Nick Ehman completed a oneday linkup of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite, then decided to go for the Triple Crown — a challenge involving about 7,000 vertical feet of rock climbing and miles of hiking in between climbing points. The team became the seventh team in the history of the Triple Crown to complete the challenge.

Chris Szczur (ME) currently lives with fellow alum Sean Shrag-Toso '14 (ME) in Encinitas and is working as a senior mechanical engineer at NOVO Engineering in Vista, Calif. In his free time, he typically enjoys the outdoors, surfing, rock climbing or working on projects in the garage. This past year he rebuilt a 1970s Honda CB450 motorcycle, built a small camper van and has started a surfboard-shaping business.

2017 Jasmine Garcia (ISyE) recently celebrated four years at Abbott Vascular. In the last few months, she transitioned from an R&D quality role to an industrial engineer position within the Business Excellence group supporting divisional continuous improvement efforts. On the side, she continues to work as a freelance music, wedding and portrait photographer through Jasmine Denisse Photo.

Mia Kim (CS) works as a solutions engineer for IntelligenceBank Ltd. in Irvine, Calif. She is enjoying the Southern California sun and looks forward to her professional growth every day.

MIKE BAGIAN

DANFORD JOOSTE Rachel Lloyd (ISyE) works as an associate consultant at ZS Associates.

Brandon Prussak (EE) works as manager, Operations Program Management, at Viasat. He has since completed his MS in engineering from Purdue University and is completing an MBA from Indiana University Bloomington in 2022. Pierce Salamack (EE) and Christine Keane (ISyE) are engaged to be married at the Immaculata in Spring 2023. Keane is a manufacturing planner II at General Atomics. Salamack is an electrical estimator for Rudolph and Sletten Construction and is a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer.

Nicholas (Nick) Watson (ME) graduated with his MSE in Biomedical Engineering from UT Austin in December 2021. He has accepted a remote technical sales position at MKS Instruments/Spectra-Physics and resides in Austin, Texas.

2018 Andrew Booth (EE) works as an electrical engineer III at Inovio Pharmaceuticals. He and his wife were thrilled to welcome their first child, Waverly Drew Booth, on February 16, 2021.

Devyn Bryant (ME) is pursuing an entrepreneurial opportunity with Chick fil-A. He and his wife were overjoyed to welcome their first child, Eva Joy Bryant, on Sept. 12, 2021.

Michelle Fabian (ME) is currently working as a root cause analysis engineer at ASML. She has just purchased her first home in Pacific Beach and is now finally trying to learn how to surf.

DEVYN BRYANT

Sam Lange (ME) started a new job in early 2022 as an unmanned aircraft systems engineer, supporting the Federal Aviation Administration.

2019 Rafael Brennand (ME) works as a technical analyst at Google. He recently moved to the Bay Area for work and is restoring a 1972 MG B in his spare time.

Maaron Tesfaye (ME) recently pivoted into the technology sector after working in the biomedical industry for three years. She currently works as a technical product manager at Branded Research, a software company and emerging leader in the market research and consumer insights space. She and fellow USD alumnus, Nick Bea ('17 real estate), got married this fall in Coronado. Jeffrey Webb (ME) is an engineering project manager for Hartman Engineering in Visalia, Calif. He and his wife welcomed their first child in April 2022.

2020 Arica Christensen (ISyE) works as a senior data scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton in San Diego. She volunteers for The Animal Pad as a vetting coordinator, where she adopted her first dog, Theo! Christensen remains involved at USD where she is a chapter advisor for her sorority Gamma Phi Beta.

Matteo Hernandez (ME) is a product manager at iCIMS. He relocated to New York City to work more closely with his team and take in the art and culture.

Andrew Jones (EE) works as an electrical design engineer at Boeing. He is pursuing a Master’s degree in Space Operations from EmbryRiddle Aeronautical University.

2021 Patrick Bonner (ME) started graduate school at UC San Diego in Fall 2022. He owns a small business, Pat's Puzzles, where he makes laser cut wooden gifts and other items. Brandon DalPorto (CS) is pursuing a master's in computer science engineering at UC San Diego, conducting research on computer security topics such as side effect modeling in Google Chrome's JIT Compiler and Ransomware prevention.

Abdulaziz Ghuloum (EE) is currently completing an MSc degree in materials science and engineering at Queen Mary University of London, focusing on renewable energy, energy storage and nanotechnology.

Alexander Ramirez (EE and Physics) has been working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a graduate engineering intern. He is thrilled to begin his pursuit of a PhD in physics in Fall 2022 at the California Institute of Technology.

Daniella Walter (ME) is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UC Santa Barbara. She is an NSF NRT fellow in the Data Driven Biology program, and her research interests are focused within mechanobiology and aiming to understand the effects of mechanical forces within biological systems.

RAFAEL BRENNAND

MAARON TESFAYE MATTEO HERNANDEZ

DANIELLA WALTER

Graduate Alumni Updates

2018 Abimbola "Boe" Esan (MS cybersecurity engineering) is an instructional support analyst for the Learning Design Center at the University of San Diego.

Richard Rositas (MS Cybersecurity Engineering) is a fellow cybersecurity engineer at Cubic Corporation, and since graduating has held positions as a director, IT and cybersecurity for Emolbi, an Aerospace Defense company, Satellite Communications Architect for the Naval Intelligence Warfare Center (NIWC), and as lead cybersecurity engineer for the Enterprise Ground Corps, U.S. Space Force. Rositas is a recent addition to the cadre at USD as an adjunct professor. He is one of 1,354 people in the world to have accomplished the pinnacle of ISC2 certifications with the CISSP-ISSMP.

2022 Rania Bota (MS cybersecurity engineering) continues to work in Global Village Language and Cultural Solutions. After graduation from USD, she is applying for new job opportunities and also planning to enroll in a PhD program.

Birindwa Lunja (MS Cybersecurity Engineering) is the CEO of BLD Forensics, LLC, a company that provides forensic services based in California.

To submit Alumni Notes for I3@USD, which is published every fall, please email elurkis@sandiego.edu. What was challenging for you while you were at USD and how

did you manage that challenge?

Making Connecting to our Gulf Coast Country Alumni Connections

Stretching myself to meet my professors’ expectations. Everyone at USD expects students to show their best in every assignment, project, etc. With all the resources that were given to me by the school, I was able to accomplish what was expected of me, and I am thankful to my professors for teaching me how to think creatively and step out of my comfort zone. — Mae Al Shanafey, ISyE '21, MBA '23, Saudi Arabia

What did you like best about your time at USD?

While there are many things I liked about my time at USD, one of the things I appreciated the most was the sense of community. Even though I was far from my actual hometown, the small class sizes where I got to know my professors and classmates well helped me feel at home. I also liked how USD focused a lot on extracurricular activity. One of my favorite experiences was when we got to go on a Torero Trek that was organized by the Career Development Center at USD to visit Solar Turbines and gain insight into the company’s operations. Additionally, there were activities organized by the Outdoors Adventure Club where we got to go on group hikes and explore San Diego over the weekend. Finally, I like how the university made a conscious effort to be inclusive when promoting religious tolerance by recognizing various religious celebrations. — Fakhera Al Memari, EE '22, United Arab Emirates