UCSD - University of California - San Diego

09/18/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/18/2026 10:29

UC San Diego Engineering Graduate Students Named Siebel Scholars

Published Date

September 18, 2026

Article Content

Three engineering graduate students at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have been named 2027 Siebel Scholars. The Siebel Scholars program recognizes the most talented students in the world's leading graduate schools of business, computer science, bioengineering and energy science. Each scholar receives a $35,000 award toward their final year of study.

These scholars were selected based on their outstanding academic performance and leadership. Through their research, they are advancing computational tools for evolutionary biology; using pulses of light to improve biological imaging and cut the energy cost of storing data; and developing tools to enable targeted microbiome interventions.

The Siebel Scholars are all part of UC San Diego's Institute of Engineering in Medicine, which brings together researchers from UC San Diego's Schools of Medicine, Skaggs School of Pharmacy, and the Jacobs School of Engineering to translate creative ideas into clinical medicine and novel products that will transform patient care and well-being.

"These outstanding graduate students are applying engineering and computer science principles in inventive ways to improve human health, with far ranging positive impacts across emerging industries," said Albert P. Pisano, dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and special adviser to the chancellor. "Their work demonstrates a few of the key roles that engineers and computer scientists play in driving advances in healthcare. Congratulations to this year's recipients, and thank you to the Siebel Scholars Foundation."

The 2027 Siebel Scholars are:

Shayesteh Arasti

Arasti is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on developing scalable and mathematically rigorous algorithms for phylogenetic inference, with a particular emphasis on phylogenetic networks - the data structures that capture complex evolutionary events such as horizontal gene transfer, hybridization, and admixture. Arasti, who is co-advised by Professors Siavash Mirarab and Vineet Bafna, has authored seven peer-reviewed publications. Her work has been presented at top computational biology conferences, including RECOMB and WABI. Arasti is a two-time recipient of the Warren Alpert Computational Biology and Al Network Fellowship. In addition to research, she actively mentors undergraduate researchers, showing consistent commitment to supporting underrepresented students in STEM. Arasti plans to ultimately lead her own research group advancing computational tools for evolutionary biology.

Muhammad Waleed Khalid

Khalid is a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering at UC San Diego, advised by Professor Abdoulaye Ndao. His research sits at the intersection of nanophotonics, ultrafast magnetism, and machine learning, using shaped pulses of light to write magnetic information aimed at cutting the energy cost of storing and moving data as AI infrastructure scales. Writing at these scales demands precise wavefront control, which led him to co-develop a single-shot deep-learning method for wavefront correction, now used well beyond his own experiments, including for imaging deeper into living tissue. His publications include an Editor's Suggestion in Physical Review B, two first-author papers in Nature Communications, and work in Light: Science & Applications. His work has been selected for a Highlighted Talk and multiple postdeadline papers at CLEO, and he is the 2026 recipient of UC San Diego's Sheldon Schultz Prize. He hopes to advance physics-informed imaging and optical memory from the laboratory into American manufacturing.

Yuhan (Sherlyn) Weng

Weng is a Ph.D. candidate in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at UC San Diego, co-advised by Professors Karsten Zengler and Rob Knight. Her research focuses on computational microbiome science, developing tools that help move the field from descriptive microbial studies to the rational design of targeted interventions. She has contributed to 17 manuscripts across the human gut, skin, soil, and marine microbiomes. Beyond research, she co-designed UC San Diego's first Physician-Scientist Bioinformatics Bootcamp and has brought hands-on bioinformatics workshops to over 120 young girls, expanding access to computational biology for physician-scientists and the next generation of women in science. Her work has been supported by the Rita L. Atkinson Graduate Fellowship and recognized with the Association for Women in Science Spark Award. Her long-term goal is to advance precision microbiome therapeutics toward practical, widely accessible use.

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