Andrew Yang and Jennifer Oettinger Named 2025 Valedictorian and Salutatorian

Andrew Yang BS’25 and Jennifer Oettinger BS’25 have been named Valedictorian and Salutatorian for the Engineering Class of 2025. Andrew, a double major in applied physics and applied mathematics, is this year’s Valedictorian and Illig Award recipient. This year’s Salutatorian, Jennifer, is a computer science major with a minor in applied math and economics. Both graduating seniors will be recognized at the May 19 Columbia Engineering Class Day ceremony.

Valedictorian and Illig Award Winner: Andrew Yang BS’25 

Image

Valedictorian Andrew Yang, a double major in applied physics and applied mathematics, is also the recipient of this year’s Applied Physics Faculty award. His interest lies in the intersection between physics, mathematics, and computation. His research direction has swung wildly from designing LSTMs to searching for periodic singular structures with Xuenan Li, Chu Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics. The majority of his work has been with Simon Billinge, professor of materials science and professor of applied physics and applied mathematics, on designing fast techniques and programs to probe changes in material structure from high-throughput diffraction data. He and Billinge have taken these techniques to beamlines in three continents.

Yang enjoys discussing his work and was the first undergraduate to speak at a Bruker-AXS / MIT Symposium. He also loves outreach and teaching, having been heavily inspired by Michael Mauel's energetic style, Prashant Iyengar's deep dives into lecture material, and Joseph Kraisler's dedication to students. Throughout college, he has taught computer aided design to local high-schoolers with Sinisa Vukelic through the SHAPE program, as well as dynamical systems with Li and machine learning with both Nakul Verma and Billinge to local Columbia students as a TA. Yang will continue his exploration of material structures and behaviors through (neutron) diffraction and machine learning (of interatomic potentials) at Caltech.

Salutatorian: Jennifer Oettinger BS’25

Image

During her time at Columbia, Salutatorian Jennifer Oettinger, who hails from Rochester, Minn., has enjoyed the interdisciplinary approach to education that makes Columbia Engineering unique. Within the Computer Science Department she was a TA for the machine learning and artificial intelligence courses. Additionally, Oettinger conducted research involving deep neural network architectures and large language models with the Complex Resilient Intelligent Systems Lab. She has spent summers interning at the Mayo Clinic and Apple, where she has explored how artificial intelligence can reduce error and optimize critical workflows.

Outside of her academic pursuits, Oettinger has served as a vice president of the Women in Computer Science Club, led a mission for the Columbia Space Initiative, worked as a tour guide for the Engineering Recruitment Committee, volunteered with Columbia Reading Team Math, and enjoyed dancing and choreographing with Orchesis. After graduation, she will intern as a quantitative trader at Jane Street, before returning to Columbia Engineering to pursue graduate studies in computer science.