Awards

4/14/2024 Best Workshop Presentation Award, Exploring the Interface of 3D Printing and Bio-Inspired Musculoskeletal Robotics Workshop, RoboSoft 2024, Yichen Zhai

4/2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, Allyson Chen

4/20/2023 Best Poster Challenge, First Place, BASF California Research Alliance Meeting, Yichen Zhai

3/2023 UCSD Sloan Scholar, Allyson Chen

11/3/2022 Best Presentation, Second Place, BASF California Research Alliance Meeting, Yichen Zhai

5/5/2022 Best Presentation, Third Place, BASF California Research Alliance Meeting, Yichen Zhai

8/02/2021 Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Student Paper Competition Runner-Up Winner, Jiayao Yan

6/29/2021 Schmidt Science Fellows Program, UCSD Representative, Jessica Sandoval

6/28/2021 NSF Computing Innovation Fellows (CIFellows), Adriane Minori

5/28/2021 Innovation Challenge Undergraduate Student Presentation Winner - UCSD Project in a Box (PiB) Engineering Education Conference, Ayush Gaggar

"Improved Efficiency and Adaptability of Transmission for Squid-Inspired Robot" by Ayush Gaggar, Michael Ishida, and Michael Tolley

6/1/2020 8th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Award - UCSD Graduate Students' Association (GSA), Jessica Sandoval

3/30/2020 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Honorable Mention, Iman Adibnazari

3/20/2020 UCSD MAE First Year Fellowship, Iman Adibnazari

2/12/2020 UCSD MAE First Year Fellowship, Jiayao (Nancy) Yan

10/2019  UCSD Science Policy Fellowship, Paul Glick

6/7/2019 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC San Diego, Saurabh Jadhav 

4/2019 UC San Diego Interdisciplinary Research Award, Paul Glick

4/2019 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, Michael Ishida

8/7/2018 Jacobs Graduate Student Council Award, Benjamin Shih

7/31/2018 San Diego ARCS Scholarship, Benjamin Shih 

5/11/2018 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, Prof. Michael Tolley

4/26/2018 Best Poster Award Finalist, IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics 2018 

"3D printed resistive soft sensors" by Benjamin Shih, Jason Mayeda, Zhaoyuan Huo, Caleb Christianson, and Michael Tolley 

4/3/2018 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program,  Emily Lathrop

2/21/2018 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Program (YIP) award, Prof. Michael Tolley

"Crab-Inspired Amphibious Legged Robots with Variable Stiffness Shells for Morphological Adaptation "

2/1/2018 Travel Award, MDPI Robotics, Benjamin Shih

1/2018 Jacobs Graduate Student Council Award, Caleb Christianson

10/21/2017 SACNAS Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation in Mechanical Engineering 

"Vertebrate Inspired Soft Robotic Fish with Dielectric Elastomer Actuators" by Luis Ramirez, Caleb Christianson, and Michael T. Tolley

8/30/2017 ASME SMASIS Best Student Paper and  Best Student Hardware Finalist

"Reversible actuation of origami inspired composites using liquid crystal elastomers" by Adriane Minori, Saurabh Jadhav, Qiguang He, Shengqiang Cai, Michael T. Tolley

5/31/2017 Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC San Diego, Benjamin Shih

4/18/2017 Finalists, Outstanding Graduate Student Leader Award, UCSD Graduate Student Association, Caleb Christianson and Benjamin Shih

4/17/2017 NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship, Paul Glick

4/14/2017 Best Poster Award Finalist, SoCal Robotics Symposium, and 

4/20/2017 Best Poster Honorable Mention, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Research Expo

"A Soft Robotic Gripper Capable of In-Hand Manipulation Augmented with Soft Sensor Skin for Tactile Sensing" by Benjamin Shih, Dylan Drotman, Caleb Christianson, Zhaoyuan Huo, Ruffin White, Henrik Christensen, and Michael Tolley 

4/4/2017 Finalist, UC San Diego Grad Slam, Caleb Christianson

3/28/2017 First Place, SPIE Best Student Paper Award, SPIE Smart Structures/NDE 2017

“Fluid electrodes for submersible robotics based on dielectric elastomer actuators” by Caleb Christianson, Nathaniel Goldberg, Shengqiang Cai, and Michael Tolley. 

2/5/2017 Honorable Mention, Physical Sciences and Engineering, California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) Statewide Undergraduate Research Symposium, Esmeralda Ochoa

1/23/2017 Charles C. Hill Fellowship Award, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC San Diego, Tom Kalisky

5/19/2016 IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine Best Paper Award

"Robot Makers: The Future of Digital Rapid Design and Fabrication of Robots" by Nicola Bezzo, Ankur Mehta, Cagdas Onal, and Michael Tolley

4/6/2016 Semifinalist, UC San Diego Grad Slam, Caleb Christianson

1/22/2016 Winner, Popup Design Challenge, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University

"JellyMiu" by Adriane Minori, Adrienne Chang, and Yuka Okina

9/3/2015 Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Conference Travel Award, Alejandra Martinez