Featured Spotlight: Nik Belle – Class of 2025

In his own words – interviewed Spring 2025

• Hometown: Tustin, CA
• Year: Senior
• Favorite Course: Distributed Systems (CS171) – Professor Amr El Abbadi
• Senior "Capstone" Project: ECE 189 – GauchoSat
• Student Organization Memberships: Men’s Club Soccer, College of Engineering Honors Program, Technology Management Program, New Venture Program
• Last Book Read: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
• Interesting aside about you: I’m featured as a character on a playing card in the game Magic: The Gathering.

Nik’s Favorite

• Hobbies: Guitar, Surfing, Mountain Biking, Camping
• Band / Performer: Dominic Fike
• TV Show: Seinfeld
• Movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Book / Author: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• Activity: Traveling
• Sport: Soccer
• Geeky Possession: Nexys A7 FPGA

Favorite things about

• CE Program: The breadth of the material. Computer engineering gives you an understanding of how software interacts with hardware, providing an understanding of technology from the ground up.
• UCSB: Probably how friendly all of the people are here. I’ve made amazing friends during my four years at UCSB who I am sure I will keep in contact with for the rest of my life.
• Santa Barbara: It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. It’s right on the ocean and just a 15 minute drive from the mountains.

Nik’s most memorable moments that happened each year

• Freshman Year: Kayak surfing at Campus Point with my roommates
• Sophomore Year: Competed in a hackathon with my friends where we made a music queuing app that queued Freebird no matter what song you typed in
• Junior Year: Performed with my bluegrass band Birchwood in the mountains near campus during sunset
• Senior Year: Went camping in Big Sur without a tent in the middle of January and woke up to a frozen sleeping bag

Nik and Computer Engineering

Why CE as a major? I chose computer engineering because I enjoyed the problem solving aspect of a computer science class I took in high school, but I also wanted to build physical things that interact with the world. The major combines both hardware and software, providing you with the tools to build anything you can imagine.

Why did you select UCSB's CE program? UCSB has a unique computer engineering program that gives each student the freedom to cater the degree to whichever specializations interest them. I chose systems and AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning). The faculty is world renowned, the environment is collaborative, and the research opportunities are fascinating. Also, if you can have all these perks and go to school right on the ocean where it's sunny everyday, it’s not a hard decision.

How did you hear about UCSB's CE program? I heard a lot of good things about the school and engineering program from my high school teachers and family friends.

Prospective students and parents often ask, what can you do with a CE degree? Anything, because the degree teaches you how to problem solve. You can be a software or systems engineer if you like software. You can work in computer architecture if you like hardware. You can even go into an unrelated field like finance. The point is, competitive candidates in any field are clever and I believe the CE degree teaches you how to both critically think and execute complex projects better than any other degree.

The Curriculum

What have you learned that has surprised you the most so far? Taking ECE 157A/B (AI/ML for Design and Test Automation) with Professor Li-C Wang taught me more about life than any other subject, class, or lecture. I’d recommend the course to everyone considering it.

What has your experience been like taking the Math and Physics core classes? I didn’t think they were much harder than high school math and physics classes. If you plan out your schedule well, start assignments early, and go to office hours when you have questions they are manageable and pretty fun.

What has been your most challenging but rewarding course? ECE 153A/253 (Hardware/Software Interfaces). Building real-time systems is complex, but it ended up being one of my favorite courses because of the impact you can have with the skills you learn. You gain an understanding of how embedded systems work, including anything from coffee machines to aircraft.

Are there any specific classes that you are looking forward to? I’m looking forward to taking CS 271 (Distributed Systems) for my Master’s degree because I loved his undergraduate course and found the projects to be the most interesting of all the classes I’ve taken.

Talk about your ECE 189 Capstone experience so far: For my capstone project GauchoSat, I’m working with my team on building a nano satellite that will be sent to space to collect data on how the solar panels that power satellites degrade over time. I was lucky to get an incredibly interesting project, but it’s been an equal challenge figuring out how to build space-grade technology.

What area do you want to specialize in? I’ve specialized my degree in AI/ML because I found the classes I took to be very relevant and engaging. It’s a different way of looking at computing and information retrieval that the world is just now getting used to, so it’s fascinating uncovering new applications for the technology that is rapidly evolving.

Have you done an internship? I did an internship in Software Engineering at Pacific Life in Newport Beach, where I built an application that automated parts of an inefficient quality assurance process. I quickly learned that engineering in industry has a different philosophy than in academia. In most situations, progress is more important than perfection, meaning you build quickly and you iterate. I’ve also been doing Software and Machine Learning Engineering at a startup in Santa Barbara called Quantum EC for the past year. It’s been a great experience working for an early stage startup in the climate tech industry.

Have you had any on-campus research opportunities at UCSB? During my junior year I did research in the Rothman Lab on using machine learning to uncover the genetic mechanisms that lead to tiny organisms called tardigrades surviving extreme conditions. This year I have been doing research in Professor William Wang’s NLP Group, where I’ve been working with Alfonso Amayuelas and Dakota Barnes on designing and evaluating self-evolving LLM agents for complex strategy games.

Have you had any honors at UCSB? I’ve received Engineering Dean’s Honors and was a Harold Frank Scholarship recipient from the Technology Management Department.

Preparation from High School to College

What prepared you the most for studying engineering in college? I played a lot of soccer in high school, which sometimes got difficult to balance with my schoolwork. This taught me how to plan out my work, compartmentalize tasks, and set incremental goals, which I think are the biggest factors of success in college and in life.

Are there any classes that you suggest CE students take before entering UCSB? The classes that prepared me the most for college were AP Physics, Calculus BC, and AP Computer Science A. They require a similar type of thinking to ECE and CS classes, but don’t stress if you haven’t taken them because you’ll start with the basics during freshman year regardless.

Any additional experiences that you would like to share with students to help them prepare for college? The most important thing to know going into college is that you’re going to have a world of opportunities sitting right in front of you. Be curious, ask many questions, talk to professors (not just your own), and try new things every chance you get.

Student Life at UCSB

What is campus life like for CE students? In CE you’ll have a much closer academic community than other majors because it’s a small department. There are a bunch of places to do work like the library, HFH, and outdoor tables all over campus. Outside of academics, there are endless things to do. Surfing, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, freediving, fishing, live music. UCSB has it all.

What is the social scene like on campus, in Isla Vista, and off-campus like for CE students? The social scene is great because it’s whatever you make of it. I’d recommend going to club rush in the Fall because there’s a club for everything. Clubs usually have off-campus events like socials/mixers and you also hear about a lot of things happening by word of mouth. People are generally just friendly here, so you’ll meet interesting people regardless of what you do.

Describe your housing experience frosh to present: I lived in the on-campus dorm San Nicolas my freshman year and it was a lot of fun. You meet new people everyday and there’s always something to do, so I’d highly recommend the on-campus dorms. I lived in an apartment in Isla Vista with some friends during sophomore year, which was quieter and more mellow. Finally, during Junior and Senior year I’ve lived in a 10 person house with my friends from the club soccer team and it’s been the most fun I’ve had during my time at UCSB. I’d recommend moving into a house in Isla Vista with friends and making sure to start looking for leases October – January because housing tends to fill up fast.

After Graduation

What are your “big picture” plans/aspirations after graduation? After finishing my B.S. in Computer Engineering this Spring 2025, I’ll be pursuing my M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSB as part of the BS/MS program, specializing in machine learning and computer architecture. After that, I’m interested in whatever lets me continue learning. Whether it’s working at a big organization, a startup, or starting a venture I hope to build technology that leaves a positive impact on people’s lives.