Announcing our 2026 Architecture Diploma Ceremonies’ Undergraduate & Graduate Student Speakers
Each year, Carnegie Mellon Architecture’s graduating students elect a member of both the undergraduate and graduate graduating classes to speak during the diploma ceremony. We’re proud to announce this year’s undergraduate and graduate student speakers.
Undergraduate Speaker: Aayush Saxena, B.Arch ’26
Aayush Saxena’s interests were heavily shaped by his time studying at the Architectural Association in London and working across a wide range of projects in New York, Chicago, and Northern California.
Surrounded by the talented peers and faculty at CMU, he has come to understand architecture as a language, one whose beauty and richness can only be cultivated by learning to speak many others, drawing him toward poetry, history, cinema, and the performing arts.
Following graduation, he plans to join the New York City-based design studio Practice for Architecture and Urbanism.
Graduate Speaker: Suzy (Zekun) Li, PhD-BPD ’25
Suzy Li completed her Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics at Carnegie Mellon Architecture, where her research focuses on “Smart Surfaces” for climate-resilient urban design. Originally from Beijing, her work bridges urban planning, architecture and sustainability.
At Carnegie Mellon, she has taught “Urban Design Media: Emerging Media” and co-instructed “Environmental Systems: Climate & Energy in Buildings.” She received the 2024 CMU Graduate Student Teaching Award and has mentored student work on climate-responsive design.
She earned her Bachelor of Engineering in Urban Planning from Beijing University of Technology and completed both a Master of Urban Design (2013) and a Master of Science in Architecture (2014) at Carnegie Mellon.