The ME Department has a new initiative to reform its graduate program. The reformed graduate program allows the Department to enhance the professional development of our 3rd- and 4th-year ME Ph.D. and 2nd-year Master’s students and help them pursue diverse post-graduation careers, including academic, non-academic positions entrepreneurial career paths. The Department hosts a student-centric seminar series as part of this initiative. In the seminar, several graduate students are invited to give 3-min elevator pitches on their research projects to ME alumni from industries, startups, and national labs, assuming an audience of non-experts in their fields. Each elevator pitch talk addresses three key questions in 3 min: (1) what real-life problem your research addresses, (2) how you solve it in a unique way, and (3) what impact it would have on society. Graduate students and their advisors are invited to participate in this exciting event.
March 24, 5:00 – 6:00 pm, In-person meeting at 2505 GGB
Topic: “Biosystems and Thermal Sciences”
Student Speakers
Júlio Ferreira (Kaviany Lab): Júlio is a fourth year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2016 and his MS in Mechanical Engineering with focus in multiphase flow with condensation from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2018. His current research focuses on multiphase flow with phase-change with emphasis in theoretical modeling of boiling.
Jamie Ferris (Sienko Lab): Jamie is a doctoral candidate in Mechanical Engineering and is enrolled in the MIDAS Graduate Data Science Certificate Program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She received her B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and B.A. in Philosophy from Santa Clara University in 2019 during which time she also ran Division 1 cross country and track and field. As a graduate student, her research blends her experiences as an engineer and an athlete as she works to develop data-driven wearable technologies for the improvement of athletic training and precision health. She received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2021, the SCU Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Senior Award in 2019, the SCU Engineering Senior Design Presentation Award and Engineering Ethics Prize in 2019, and the SCU Sourisseau Prize for an Outstanding Senior in Philosophy in 2019. She is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma.
Amin Reihani (Reddy Lab): Amin is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He obtained his Ph.D. (Dec 2021) and M.S.E in mechanical engineering, and M.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology. His recent research in thermal and energy science focuses on understanding energy transport, conversion and storage in devices and materials at the nano- to macro-scale.
Nadab Wubshet (Liu Lab): Nadab is a 4th year Mechanical engineering PhD candidate working in the Liu Lab at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering and BA in Mathematics with a minor in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018, and Augustana University in 2017, respectively. His current research focuses on mechanobiology, synthetic cells, and microfluidics for single cell studies. During his PhD training, he received NIH Microfluidics in Biomedical Science Training Program fellowship in 2019, and Robert M. Caddell Memorial Award for Research in 2022.
Christian Argenti (Shih Lab): Christian is a PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan (UM), Ann Arbor, USA. He currently works in Biomedical Manufacturing and Design Lab at UM guided by Professor Albert Shih. Christian received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017 and his Masters of Science in Engineering at UM in 2020. Christian worked at General Motors from 2017-2019 before returning to pursue his graduate studies at UM. His current research interests include cardiovascular and neurointerventional devices.
Andrew Stephens (Kurabayashi Lab): Andrew is a PhD Candidate in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Michigan. His research advisor is Prof. Katsuo Kurabayashi. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois in 2015, M.S.E in Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan in 2017, then worked for Intel before returning to Michigan to complete his PhD in January 2020.
Andrew’s research focuses on scalable micro-fabrication methods of microfluidic immunoassays for pre-clinical biomedical research. He is particularly interested in emerging personalized approaches to immunomodulatory drug therapy and is deploying his technology in the areas of sepsis and cancer immunotherapy through collaboration with Michigan Medicine. Andrew is an awardee of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF), has authored one first-author and co-authored three peer-reviewed papers, served as Entrepreneurial Lead for an NSF I-Corps team, and serves as Chair of Peer Mentorship for the UofM Mechanical Engineering Graduate Council.
Sajedeh Esfahani (Fu Lab)
Safa Jabri (Sienko Lab): Safa is a doctoral candidate in the Mechanical Engineering graduate program at the Rackham School of Engineering as well as a student in the MIDAS graduate Data Science certificate program. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she received a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2019.
Safa is interested in the use of technology to further the accessibility and the quality of healthcare. As a member of the Sienko Research Group, her research focuses on the use of wearables to quantify movement in the context of balance and gait rehabilitation. Previously, she contributed to projects related to the design of lower-limb prosthetics, upper-limb exoskeletons, and breastfeeding assistive devices. She received the MIT 2.72 Precision Design Award in 2019, the Jameel-Toyota scholarship (2015-2019), and the MIT Momentum Program Prize in 2016.
Guest Alumni: Rob Nidetz (LNF User Liason), Greg Sommer (CEO, Sandstone Diagnostics, Inc)
Zoom Link: https://umich.zoom.us/j/93715343398 (Passcode: MEGrad2022)