IEOR Class of 2025

Message from the Chair
Student Speakers
Departmental Awards
Student Spotlights

Photos

Congratulations From IEOR Chair, Alper Atamturk

Dear Class of 2025,

Congratulations on your graduation! I am delighted to celebrate this incredible milestone with all of our graduating students. This year, the IEOR department will award degrees upon 375 outstanding graduatuating students: 16 Analytics Bachelor of Arts, 47 IEOR Bachelor of Science, 86 Master's of Engineering, 136 Master's of Analytics, 12 Master's of Science, and 15 PhD degrees. You will join a distinguished community of over 5,000 IEOR alumni who are making meaningful contributions across industry, government, and academia worldwide.

As Cal alumni, you represent the excellence for which UC Berkeley is globally renowned. I hope you take pride in this achievement and know that our faculty, staff, and your family and friends share in that pride.

Your unique journey to this point has been nothing short of remarkable, shaped by both challenges and triumphs. Throughout your time here, you’ve navigated a rigorous curriculum, tackled complex systems, and explored the ethical dimensions of our field. You’ve mastered advanced methodologies, optimization techniques, and analytical tools with resilience, creativity, and determination.

As you move forward, carry with you not only your technical expertise but also your ability to think critically, adapt to change, and lead with purpose. Embrace the interdisciplinary and human-centered nature of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Seek collaboration across disciplines, challenge conventional thinking, and remain committed to the values of inclusivity, sustainability, and ethical leadership.

While this chapter of your Berkeley IEOR story concludes, a new one begins as a lifelong member of our vibrant alumni community. As the only IEOR department in the UC system, we are proud to count you among an elite group of UC graduates with exceptional analytical acumen and problem-solving capabilities. Our alumni network is a powerful resource and a strong community, and we are here to support you as you grow. We invite you to join our Alumni LinkedIn page, stay engaged on social media, and share your career milestones with us. We eagerly anticipate reconnecting at upcoming alumni events and encourage you to drop in whenever possible. Remember, your connection with the university and its alumni network is a valuable asset that can significantly contribute to your professional growth.

You leave Berkeley equipped with the knowledge, skills, and passion to shape a future we can only begin to imagine. I am excited to see where your journey takes you.

Congratulations, and Go Bears!

Sincerely,
Alper Atamturk
Professor and Department Chair,
Berkeley IEOR

Student Speakers

Paige Destiny Lyles, UC Berkeley Engineering Student Speaker

Paige Destiny Lyles

B.S.’23 CEE, MEng’25 IEOR

Good Afternoon – Esteemed Faculty
Honored Guests
Proud Family and Friends
and most importantly – my fellow sleep deprived – and highly caffeinated – graduating class of 2025!

It’s surreal to be here today with all of you.
Not just because of the all-nighters, grueling problem sets and debugging marathons we’ve endured — But because, at least for me, this is not my first commencement here at Cal.

Graduates
do you remember your first time being on the Berkeley campus after receiving your acceptance?
I do!

I remember standing in front of sather gate, posing for a picture; grinning ear to ear.
proudly donning my Berkelium sweatshirt. The atomic number 97 clearly visible
97. the same last two digits on my old school ID.

Destiny?
Maybe.

What if I told you, that just two years prior, I had been rejected from this very school?
I was told “No”
I had failed

It was my mother’s words that gave me the courage to try again.

Be
like
water

To be like water, is to be dynamic and ever-changing.

To circumvent obstacles that obstruct your path,
Because a stream does not simply stop when it reaches a boulder.
It changes course, finding a new way around.

So – I did just that

I found another path
as a community college student.

I studied through the long summer days that turned into dark winter nights.

And just two years later, on a warm March afternoon, the fruits of my labor manifested into an acceptance letter to the #1 civil engineering program in the country.

Being like water doesn’t just mean navigating obstacles—it means evolving with your environment.
In undergrad, the immense resources at Cal exposed me to new possibilities.

From construction club to research
And consulting to entrepreneurship
I could feel the horizon expanding
When I felt a current pulling me into a new direction,
I didn't resist it, I indulged, embraced
followed my curiosity,
took a risk

And in 2024 I applied to the Master of Engineering program in industrial engineering and operations research — a department that was new to me, and one I was excited to explore

Just as water bends and shifts to carve out new paths, we must allow ourselves the flexibility to change course. In doing so, I find myself here — today —with all of you.
In conjunction with a world class education, the most valuable thing we will take with us from UC Berkeley are the memories made, experiences had, and lessons learned from the amazing people we have met here along the way.

There's a zulu proverb: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu

Which translates to: A person is a person because of other people.

We are a product of the community of people that build us up:

the staff and educators who impact our learning, the family and friends who support us, the mentors and peers that guide us

In turn, as we now advance past this chapter in our lives, let us now take what we have learned and invest it back into our communities. Into people.

When I look into the crowd, I see my remarkable classmates – engineers who will build a brighter future.

The engineers that will design the medical devices that save lives.
The Clean energy systems that power cities
The Sustainable materials that reduce carbon footprints
The Supply Chains that influence global economies.
The Transit systems that connect the world.

Because being an engineer isn’t just about solving technical problems—it’s about solving human ones.
It’s about adapting, evolving, and showing up - with purpose in an unpredictable and ever changing world.

Now – When we leave Berkeley, we won’t always have all the answers—but we will have the mindset, the resilience, and the community that shaped us.

As we stand on the edge of this moment, I want to leave with this:
It’s okay to feel uncertain.
It’s okay to change course.

What matters is that we keep moving—growing, evolving, just. like.water does.
Because all rivers—no matter how winding or rocky, — they all find their way to the sea.
Today, we celebrate reaching this shore.
The future is in our hands.

So GO. Design boldly. Lead with compassion. And carve out your own extraordinary path.

Congratulations, Class of 2025. Fiat Lux and Go Bears

Jelo Francisco, IEOR Commencement Speaker

Jelo Francisco

B.S. '24 IEOR, MS IEOR '25

Good afternoon to our loving and dedicated family and friends, our wonderful faculty, our dedicated admin staff, and everyone here celebrating with us in front of our iconic and beloved Campanile. Thank you to the student services team for such a wonderful program. First, I would like to congratulate each of the curious, ambitious, and limitless graduates of the class of 2025!

We should all be proud of graduating from THE number 1 public university in the world, no matter what our sister school might say.

Today, I have the honor of speaking on behalf of a graduating class that has not only endured rigorous academics and false tsunami warnings, but has grown together through the unpredictable, the imperfect, and the deeply human experience that is Berkeley. And let me just acknowledge that this is probably the only time I’ve seen every part of IEOR gathered here together: from the BS in IEOR grads, the BA in ORMS grads, the MEng cohort, the MAnalytics cohort, and of course, my 9-people-strong Master of Science class. I feel that this rare moment truly reflects the diversity of paths we’ve taken, and the shared pride we hold in being part of this department.

As engineers, we’ve been taught to seek order in complexity, to solve problems with precision and planning. But the universe had other plans. We were reminded, repeatedly, that life doesn’t
always follow a neat formula. From the moment we passed through Sather Gate for the first
time, we unknowingly enrolled in a masterclass led by an unpredictable professor named
Murphy. You might know him from his infamous law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go
wrong."

And for us in IEOR, we definitely lived these words: in the form of simulation outputs that didn’t make sense, solvers that failed at the last iteration, or constraints that were just a little too tight.
We’ve waited hours for code to run, only to realize we were using the wrong index the whole time. We've stared at optimization models on whiteboards like they were modern abstract art, hoping the next cup of coffee would make it all click. But through it all, we persisted. We learned not just to model systems, but to adapt when those systems broke down.

And it’s in those moments–those unexpected hiccups–that Berkeley truly shaped us. We learned to navigate chaos, adapt our plans, think creatively under pressure; and, most importantly, embrace uncertainty rather than fear it.

Looking around here today, I can’t help but recall the unique moments beyond the classroom that shaped our experiences. Late-night popcorn chicken runs became essential bonding rituals;
study groups turned to hours-long yap sessions turned to lifelong friendships.

We cheered
together at the Big Game, we mourned the closing of Moffitt and took refuge in the Etcheverry
breakout rooms, and we hiked up the fire trails to catch a sunset view, reminding us why we fell in love with Berkeley in the first place. These memories might seem small, but they carried us
through our most challenging days and brought joy to our everyday struggles.

And as we move forward in our battles with unpredictability–whether it’s managing tech products in San Francisco, optimizing supply chains in Boston, or navigating the chaos of Wall Street in New York–that ability to manage uncertainty will be one of our greatest strengths.

To our families, mentors, and friends: your support was our greatest source of strength through every unexpected challenge. When everything did go wrong, you've helped us stand firm as the ground beneath us shifted.

And to my fellow graduates, today is not just an end; it’s a launch into a future full not just of
uncertainties, but of possibilities as well. With the resilience, adaptability, and courage we've
cultivated here at Berkeley, let’s step boldly into the unpredictable.

Congratulations, Class of 2025! Let’s show Murphy what Berkeley IEOR can do.