Kapasi – UCSB Hynes Wood Award

Excerpt from the RMCOE News article "Recognizing Excellence in Leadership, Service, and Research"

Computer engineering senior Nikhil Kapasi has been named a co-recipient of The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering’s Hynes-Wood Award, which recognizes graduating students for outstanding contributions to student activities and helping others with professional growth and development.

Kapasi shares the award with mechanical engineering senior Ava Smith. The recipients will also be honored during the college’s Commencement, which will take place at 9 AM on Friday, June 12, on the Commencement Green.

The Hynes-Wood Award is named for Jacqueline Hynes, the former assistant dean for academic programs in engineering, and the late Roger Wood, a beloved electrical and computer engineering professor and former associate dean for academic affairs.

Kapasi said that his UCSB experience reshaped how he viewed engineering and community.

“I came into college unsure if I even wanted to continue on the engineering path,” Kapasi said. “Engineering felt homogenous in a lot of ways, and I wasn’t sure if I could fit in.” 

That perspective changed after arriving at UCSB.

“During my first year at UCSB, I met so many passionate students and mentors who helped me see engineering differently,” he said. “They showed me that engineering was really about bringing people together to work on problems and ideas they care deeply about.”

Kapasi said that those experiences inspired him to help create the same welcoming environment for other students.

“What motivates me to improve campus culture is the chance to help create that same feeling for other students, to make engineering feel less isolating and more like a community where people are supported, encouraged, and excited to grow together,” he said.

Kapasi has served as an officer in UCSB IEEE, the student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and co-founded a club supporting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit that has raised more than $300 million for childhood cancer. He has also worked as an undergraduate learning assistant for ten computer science classes, and conducted undergraduate research for three years in computer hardware with electrical and computer engineering professor and chair Luke Theogarajan as well as computer science education research with computer science professor and vice chair, Diba Mirza. 

Kapasi says that undergraduate research has become one of the defining aspects of his UCSB experience.
“I have been lucky to see students go through the same process I did, starting out a little unsure of themselves and gradually growing into excited, capable, and confident engineers,” Kapasi said. “What I am most proud of is being able to play even a small role in that growth.” Following graduation, Kapasi will continue at UCSB to pursue master’s degrees in both computer engineering and technology management through the Engineering + Technology Management Fellowship program.

Kapasi credited Theogarajan and MIrza, as well as Yoga Isukapalli, and Forrest Brewer for helping shape his growth as both an engineer and mentor.

“To me, earning an engineering degree from UCSB means carrying forward the name of a school that taught me how to solve hard problems, work with talented people, and contribute to something bigger than myself,” Kapasi said.

 RMCOE News "Recognizing Excellence in Leadership, Service, and Research" (full article)