Speakers

Dr. Zavaleta was born and raised in McAllen, Texas, a small town on the border with Mexico. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Incarnate Word, a small private university in San Antonio. After graduating, she started in the Medical Physics graduate program at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio where she focused on utilizing radioactive nanoparticles for the treatment of ovarian cancer. She was the first in her family to obtain a Ph.D. She began a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University where she dedicated the majority of her time developing a new Raman imaging strategy for cancer detection. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California in the department of Biomedical Engineering. Her lab focuses on providing physicians with better molecular imaging tools to improve cancer detection.

Juli is one of the most respected leaders within the Viterbi Admissions and Student Engagement Office. She organizes and plans important events and programming for master's students, and serves as the cornerstone for all initiatives that inspire and are inspired by students.

Danielle White is a 3rd year Materials Science PhD student in the Hodge Materials Research Group at the University of Southern California. She researches the mechanical behavior of optical thin films, which have aerospace and defense applications. Outside of the lab environment, she is passionate about advocacy and likes to paint, dance, hike, and EAT

Diamond is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at USC. She enjoys creating solutions that predict and combat the needs of the future. Diamond is a BS graduate of North Carolina A&T State University. She is interested in utilizing computational modeling to combat disabling disorders and in bridging the disparity between marginalized communities and academia.

Cami oversees the graduate recruitment activities for students entering the doctoral and master's programs on campus at USC.

Harper Stewart is a 3rd year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. She is advised by Dr. Jill McNitt-Gray in the USC Biomechanics Research lab. She is originally from Rochester, NY and graduated with a B.S. in BME from Bucknell University. Her research focuses on the control and dynamics of human movement. She works with a variety of coaches, athletes, and patients to find ways to improve performance and prevent injury using full body biomechanics.

Hello! My name is Raymi Ramirez and I am a first year graduate student at UCLA. I am in the Physics and Biology in Medicine Program here as well as a molecular imaging lab. I am now studying the immunological landscape in hopes to use combination treatments to adverse cancer. In my free time I am reading a book or surfing!

Currently pursuing my MS in Computer Science at the University of Southern California and preparing myself for Ph.D. programs. I am a research scientist in Time Series Analysis at the Information Science Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Yolanda Gil & Dr. Emmanuel Johnson. Outside of research, I spend a considerable amount of time writing code to solve problems & engaging in entrepreneurial ventures (Catalyst Robotics). I also have powerful conversations around health (FitToCode) & engage in community activities in Thomson, GA. I earned a BS in Computer Science from Claflin University where I focused on various research projects & software engineering.

Abhilash has a background in Data Science and currently works as a Data Engineer for a Transportation startup company - Virgin Hyperloop in Los Angeles. He recently graduated with a Masters in Data Science from USC. He is from Chennai, India and did his undergraduate in Computer Science.

Adan De La Cruz's fascination with Aerospace & Defense has led him to pursue the industry for eight years, in which time he has worked on projects ranging from commercial aircraft to ground missile defense systems. His passion for people and talent development drove him to “leave” his technical role behind and become the current Supplier Quality Manager at Marvin Engineering. Adan earned his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from CPP and his M.S. in Systems Engineering from UCLA. He is the current Treasurer for SHPE-LA where he provides financial oversight and strategy. He also operates a small business with his fiancée.

Dr. Alina Garcia Taormina is currently a Microelectronics Principal Materials Process Engineer in the Space Systems sector at Northrop Grumman in Manhattan Beach, CA. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Loyola Marymount University in 2016 and continued on to pursue a Ph.D. in Materials Science as a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow at USC in the Hodge Materials Research Group. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in Materials Science from USC in 2018 and 2021, respectively.

Brian Leto is a highly skilled project manager and civil engineer with a strong record of successful projects and satisfied clients. He is adept at coordinating with technical and managerial professionals throughout every project stage. Brian is a strong multi-tasker who functions well in a fast-paced environment.

Brian has held key roles, including California design team resource manager, project manager, engineer in responsible charge, design leader, quality assurance/quality control, task leader, and project engineer for water and wastewater projects for federal, municipal, and industrial clients.

Brian holds a bachelor's degree in environmental engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Christina is a Los Angeles native and first encountered engineering through the MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement) program in 8th grade. She graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Civil Engineering Building Science and Construction Management (respectively). While attending USC she was a Viterbi Freshman Academy Coach, Historian of Society for Women Engineers, and President of the Viterbi Graduate Student Association (VGSA). Just before her undergraduate graduation she started working for the City of Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment (LASAN), a masters degree and 8 years later she is still part of the LASAN team. While graduating from the University of Southern California amid the 2011 financial crisis, she found part time work with LA Sanitation and Environment. Her career with LASAN has evolved since then and now as a licensed professional engineer she is an Environmental Engineer. Her professional portfolio has included many different sorts of work, everything from biosolids management, regulation, legislation advocacy, and program outreach, to project management for a renewable energy demonstration project. Currently, she is one of the project managers for Hyperion 2035 taking lead on LASAN’s recycled water outreach, and the Hyperion Advanced Water Purification Facility (a Progressive Design Build project). She also currently serves on the Executive Board for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Los Angeles.

Chris Abad earned his graduate engineering degree from UC Berkeley and pursued development and customer-facing roles in engineering afterwards. Last year, Chris earned his MBA from UCLA and is now in product management and strategic marketing in digital health.

Hector E. Perez received the B.S. from the California State University-Northridge and the M.S.E. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, in Mechanical Engineering, and the Ph.D. in Systems Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley. His work includes battery modeling, estimation, control, and experiments. He is currently the Director of Battery Technology at Romeo Power, Inc. Dr. Perez has received various awards for his work and contributions to the community. He has participated in various leadership, outreach/mentoring activities at the local, regional, and national level including co-founding the Bay Area GPS and advising the founding committee of the SoCal GPS.

An award-winning Social Innovator, a Computer Engineer and an Advocate of Technology for Social Good; Jaya aspires to work at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Social Impact to effect change in society.

Education: Physics, B.S. (San Francisco State University) ASTE, M.S. (USC)

Current Spacecraft RF and Communications Engineer at Millennium Space Systems

Interests: Human spaceflight, space engineering, physics, R&D, cooking, games, outdoors

I am a second semester student in the M.S. in Computer Science degree track at USC. Prior to joining USC I worked in industry for 4 years as an application and data engineer at General Mills. I served as a co-lead on the Michigan State Recruiting team at General Mills recruiting and hiring IT interns and new graduates. As a senior data engineer at General Mills I was a team technical lead and worked on building data pipelines in the Google Cloud Platform. In my free time I love to play soccer and hike in the hills!

Kiran is a first-year graduate student at USC Viterbi School of Engineering pursuing her Masters in Engineering Management with specialization in Supply Chain and Operations. She did her Undergrad in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from University of Mumbai. She has over 4 years of work experience working as a Sales and Business Development Professional in Siemens India. She serves as an ISE Senator in Viterbi Graduate Student Associations (VGSA) and is a Graduate Student Ambassador at USC Viterbi. She enjoys petting and hanging out with the goodest bois and gurls there are.

Lakshmi Ramesh is a member of Crowe’s Financial Crime Analytics & Technology team, and is one of the firm’s Financial Crimes analytics subject matter experts. Lakshmi focuses on using emerging technologies to build and optimize anti money laundering (AML) models and influence risk strategy. She has several years of experience working with clients on various AML technology projects including transaction monitoring scenario development, crypto-focused customer due diligence (CDD) model analysis, and name matching algorithm engineering. She works with clients ranging from late stage, venture-backed fintech icompanies, to large, multi-national financial institutions. Prior to joining Crowe, Lakshmi’s experience included building machine learning based credit risk models at Goldman Sachs. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Pure Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley and in May 2022, will complete her Masters in Financial Engineering at the University of Southern California. Her thesis is titled “A Nascent Framework for Cryptocurrency Specific Transaction Monitoring Models.”

Dr. Maribel Jaquez received the B.S. degree from the University of California (UC), Irvine in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. She received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley both in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Jaquez is currently a Senior Principal Materials & Processes Engineer at the Northrop Grumman Corporation. Her work focuses on material characterization, selection and optimization for various engineering applications. Maribel has been involved in numerous outreach and mentoring events, including co-founding the first Bay Area Graduate Pathways to STEM (GPS) conference in 2015 and advising the committee for the first SoCal GPS conference in 2020.

Marlyn graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a B.S in Aerospace Engineering. After graduation, she joined The Aerospace Corporation as a Dynamic Environment Engineer in June 2020. Marlyn evaluates shock, vibration, and acoustic environments developed by contractors for components and subsystems. Marlyn is highly involved in outreach programs that promote STEM education and tutors first generation students from kindergarten-college. In undergrad, she was the Treasurer of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the UpperClassmen Representative of the Undergraduate Missiles Ballistics & Rocketry Association. With this experience she hopes to create engaging events that bring mentorship and professional growth as the Director of Events for SHPE OC.

Matt Clower is a Sustainability Engineer at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he works to integrate Disney's environmental commitments into global new development projects. His core focuses include engineering analysis of sustainable design solutions, developing sustainable design standards, and supporting future goal setting. Matt got his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from UC Merced, and his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in UC Irvine. His graduate research focused on low-temperature solid oxide fuel cell systems and how they can be leveraged for carbon sequestration and integrate with renewable energy systems for seasonal energy storage.

Minerva is the Civil Engineering Manager at Walt Disney Imagineering. Her theme park infrastructure career has taken her around the world, from Shanghai to Paris, Hong Kong and back to Anaheim through Orlando. Minerva obtained a her BS in Civil Engineering at Cal State University Northridge and her MS in Civil Engineering (Structures) at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. She is a proud mother of many, including her 3 kids, civil engineering professor husband and her entire team at Disney. Minerva is driven by sustainability and the push towards a more inclusive and forward thinking approach to infrastructure projects around the world.

Niraj is pursuing a Master of Science in Product Development Engineering. His graduate program focuses on the intersection between industrial engineering and mechanical engineering in the context of managing projects of any size. He is also a research lead at the Center for Advanced Manufacturing. He and his team are working on a flexible robot cell that can assemble satellites. In his free time, he likes to play soccer (goalie), explore the city with his friends, and do volunteer work.

Nora Li has a background in business and worked as analyst for KPMG and EY. She chose to pursue her engineering degree because she needs a deeper academic training to perform better in her field of operation.

Olufikunayo Famutimi graduated with a M.S in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California in May 2021 and with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering in May 2020. She is currently a Mechanical Design and Analysis Engineer in the Product Design team for Space Electronics. In this role, she supports the packaging and design of satellite electronics and associated structures. Prior, she interned at Honeybee Robotics as a Mechanical Engineer, at Boeing China Lake as a F/A-18 Flight Test Engineer and at Boeing St. Louis as an EA-18 Software Integrator. Olufikunayo Famutimi is highly passionate about launch vehicles for human space flight and is working towards developing technical expertise in the design, production, integration and test of space launch vehicles and other aerospace products.

She is currently serving as a board member in one of Boeing BRGs and is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In her free time, she loves reading, listening to spoken word poetry, and engaging in outdoor activities like hiking, camping, and sightseeing.

As the Nanophotonics and Plasmonics Group Lead within Northrop Grumman's NG Next’s Basic Research, Dr. Philip Hon leads a group of multidisciplinary Research Scientist in conducting use-inspired, scientifically fundamental research. The team investigates light matter interaction in the nanoscale regime, which have revealed unique absorption, scattering, and transmission characteristics. Recently published work includes optical coatings for radiative cooling, broadband planar optics, and optimized nanophotonic devices using global optimization algorithms. He is the NG program manager of an AFRL Seedlings for Disruptive Capabilities Program. He also held a visiting researcher appointment at Caltech and USC and is a part-time lecturer at UCLA.

MS in ISE Analytics, incoming Poly Business Analytics Intern

Andre Kovach is a candidate in the Future Technical Leader program at Northrop Grumman, currently working on Digital Transformation efforts and integrated microwave photonics for precise positioning and timekeeping at the Space Park campus in Redondo Beach. He obtained his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. in Chemical Engineering at USC in 2021, 2017, and 2014, respectively. His doctoral research focused on fabricating silica microtoroids functionalized with novel nanomaterials for enhanced nonlinear optics. His research interests lie at the intersection of nanomaterial synthesis and integrated photonic device fabrication and testing.

Dr. Deniz Armani is a Director of Engineering with SMP Engineering, Inc. in Glendale, CA. He received his Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Caltech in 2005 and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000. Prior to his current position at SMP Engineering Inc., he worked for Glenair, Inc., HRL Laboratories, Xponent and Raytheon.

Samantha McBirney (she/her) is an engineer at RAND and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School with a background in biomedical applications, emerging technologies, and laser physics. At RAND, her work has focused on emerging technologies, medical readiness, medical logistics, and international drug policy, with interests reaching into national security, biotechnology, and public health. McBirney received her M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California and her B.S. in bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently working on her MSc in Global Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

My name is AJ, and I'm a PhD student in electrical engineering at UCLA as well as the current president of the UCLA chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). My research focuses on creating equitable speech recognition technology for applications in educational settings. I've also completed internships at several major companies.

Bryon Tjanaka is a PhD student in the ICAROS Lab at USC advised by Stefanos Nikolaidis. Bryon researches robotics and AI, particularly applications of quality diversity optimization to reinforcement learning and human-robot collaboration. Bryon is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a USC Graduate School Fellow. Previously, Bryon studied at UC Irvine, where he worked with the indylab and the Mobley Lab and graduated summa cum laude. Concurrent with his research, Bryon serves as webmaster for the Viterbi Graduate Student Association, and he has interned at Google for several summers. During high school, Bryon won the VEX Robotics World Championship with Team 86868.

Connor is a PhD student in Environmental Engineering supervised by Dr. Adam Smith. He obtained his B.S in Environmental Science and B.A. in Biological Sciences at the University of Chicago. A hometown native of Schaumburg, Illinois, Connor enjoys practicing gymnastics and acrobatics, as well as practicing microbiology at home by fermenting foods.

David Johnson is a 2nd year PhD student in Materials Science in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. He is a student in Professor Wade Zeno’s lab looking at interactions at the protein-lipid interface using synthetic lipid membranes using various microscopy methods, more specifically studying intrinsically disordered proteins as they relate to membrane curvature. He has served as a Department Senator in the Viterbi Graduate Student Association for two years and is the current president of the USC chapter of the Materials Research Society. He also received his B.S. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Materials Engineering in 2020.

Elana Helou is a second-year student in the Astronautical Engineering (ASTE) PhD Program at University of Southern California. She is advised by Dr. Joseph Wang, and her research focuses on plasma-dust-spacesuit interactions on the lunar surface. She completed her MS in ASTE at USC in December 2021 and graduated from Smith College in May 2020.

Farbod Amirghasemi is a Ph.D. student in biomedical Engineering at the Biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California. His research is to develop point-of-care biosensors for low-resource settings. Development of point-of-care biosensors became more popular after the recent pandemic affecting society. Farbod is implementing electrochemical techniques and utilizing low-cost materials for biosensor fabrication. Farbod also serves as the vice president of programs for VGSA.

Jason is a first-year MS in Analytics graduate student at the University of Southern California graduating in May 2023. With an undergraduate background in business analytics, he had internships with a global rideshare company and a leading consulting firm. He is passionate about utilizing data science to solve engineering and management problems, and the rigorous mathematical modeling and computational methods tools taught in the program will be a great help for his goal.

Kylie is a PhD student at USC and is co-advised by Drs. Andrea Armani and Jerry Lee. Her research focuses on novel biological materials, specifically the development of a novel hydrogel that can be dynamically tuned to better mimic the viscoelastic changes present in human pancreatic cancer tumors. Her project goal is to better understand the biophysical cues that govern pancreatic cancer progression by growing organoids in this dynamic matrix and measuring the oncogenic exosome release. Kylie serves as the President of the USC Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) as well as Ambassador for WiSE within the Viterbi Graduate Student Assocation.

Leona is an MS in Analytics graduate student at USC. She has a background in Data Analytics and she will work as a data analyst in a gaming company- Zynga. She is from China and she got her bachelor's degree in Business Analytics, Information Systems, and Operation management from Indiana University Bloomington.

Lucia is a PhD student in Materials Science at USC. She is conducts research in lipid biophysics, focusing primarily on giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV) membrane dynamics and transmembrane protein localization and functionality in GUVs under the guidance of Professor Noah Malmstadt. Other professional interests include microfluidics, protein biochemistry, and immunology.

Max R. Lien is a third-year PhD candidate in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Southern California and a NASA Space Technology Graduate Researcher. He received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. Max’s research interest is in investigating optical and electronic devices for applications in Earth science and remote sensing, with an emphasis on imaging spectroscopy.

Mohamad is a Ph.D. student supervised by Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerber. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the American University of Beirut in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Mohamad joined USC in Fall 2019 to pursue his Ph.D. degree in the area of informatics and human building interactions and a masters' degree in computer science. His research focuses on the effect of the built environment on the health and well-being of people, more specifically he is interested in understanding the influence of indoor environmental parameters on the stress level of office workers.

Morgan believes that graduate programs advance a person's ability to become a mentor and a leader for other students, researchers, and professionals. He also believes that collaboration in both industry and research is very important, especially since large-scale research projects today are becoming heavily multidisciplinary in fields.

Nripsuta Saxena is in the Computer Science PhD program who works on problems in the field of algorithmic fairness. She has also served in the VGSA as a DEI senator since Fall 2020.

Patrick is a Ph.D. student co-supervised by Dr. Burcin Becerik-Gerber and Dr. Lucio Soibelman. He earned his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the State University of Santa Cruz, in Brazil, and his Master's degree in Construction Management from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Patrick joined USC in the Fall 2020 to pursue his PhD in Civil Engineering with emphasis in Human-Building Interaction and Building Information Modeling. Patrick enjoys reading, watching soccer games, and traveling.

Patrick Saris is an organic materials chemist interested in the interaction of light and matter. He received his B.S. in chemistry from UC San Diego under the mentorship of Bill Trogler and PhD in chemistry from USC, advised by Mark Thompson. His doctoral work focused on the structure-color relationships of luminescent materials for organic light emitting diodes. He is now a postdoctoral scholar in the Armani lab at USC, continuing to design luminescent compounds for bio-sensing and telecommunications applications.

Prashant Prasad is a M.S. graduate student in Astronautical Engineering (ASTE) in USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering graduating this May 2022! He is a researcher/engineer at Liquid Propulsion Laboratories (LPL) where he designs, manufactures, and tests liquid propulsion technologies. He is also the representative ASTE Department Senator within the Viterbi Graduate Student Association (VGSA) which promotes interaction among the graduate engineering students by hosting various academic and social activities and strives to address their needs and concerns. In his free time, Prashant likes to volunteer with children teaching them about STEM and hanging out with friends making lifetime memories throughout his journey.

Prathmesh is a MS in Environmental Engineering student at the University of Southern California. He works as a Viterbi Career Ambassador for Viterbi Career connections and also facilitates an affinity group for international students who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community at USC. He is originally from Mumbai, India where he graduated his Bachelor's in Civil Engineering with honors and a minor in Smart Cities and Construction Management from NMIMS, 2021.

I am a third year PhD student at Caltech in the Chemical Engineering. I got my undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley also in Chemical Engineering.

Raymond Yu is a third year Ph.D. student in Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his B.S. in Optics from the University of Rochester in 2019. At USC, he was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and is currently advised by Professor Andrea Armani. His research focus is on optics and integrated photonics for telecommunication and sensing. He is also currently the president of USC student organization, SC Optics and Photonics Engineers (SPIE/Optica).

Runhe Zhu is a Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering at the University of Southern California. He obtained an MS degree in Computer Science at USC in 2020. Prior to joining USC, he obtained a bachelor′s degree in Construction Management from Tianjin University in 2017. His research focuses on understanding human-building interactions during emergencies (e.g., fires, active shooter incidents) and optimizing building design to improve occupant safety. He is also serving as a reviewer for multiple journals and conferences in the field of Civil Engineering.

Sairaj is a MS in Chemical Engineering graduate student at the University of Southern California. He is a researcher at the Narayan lab where he develops novel organic redox couples for flow batteries and builds computational fluid models for electrodes to improve battery performance. He serves as a Senator in the Viterbi Graduate Student Association and volunteers for the K-12 Outreach efforts of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) USC Chapter. He received his B-Tech from the University of Pune, India in 2020 and is deeply passionate about promoting energy sustainability and LGBTQ+ representation in STEM.

Samantha Cohen is a first year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at USC. She is advised by Dr. Dominique Duncan in the Laboratory of Neuroimaging within the Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute. There, she contributes to the Data Archive for the BRAIN Initiative and applies computational tools to neurophysiology data in order to better understand diseases including epilepsy, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder. She also serves as a member of the student committee of USC's Presidential Working Group for sustainability, and is currently focused on solar power expansion. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University in 2021.

Sandra is a first-year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering (BME). She obtained her bachelor’s degree in BME at the Instituto Tecnológico de Merida and is currently part of the Armani Lab at USC.

Sid is a first year PhD student in Computer Science at USC. He is a part of the USC theoretical computer science group, where he works with Vatsal Sharan, Aleksandra Korolova, and David Kempe on theoretical machine learning and algorithmic fairness. He is also a Department of Defense NDSEG fellow.

Soumyaroop is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the USC with a focus on Computer Vision/Deep Learning/Naural Language Processing. He also works as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Information Sciences Institute at USC and previously graduated with a MS from the University of Kansas with a specialization in Computer Vision/ Signal Processing. Soumyaroop also has work experience in signal/image processing with Radar and Seismic data as a Research Developer at the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets and Kansas Geological Survey.

Sulagna is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at USC. She works with Prof. Barath Raghavan in the Networked Systems Laboratory.Her research interests are in Usable Security and Human-Computer Interactions with a focus on building systems whose design choices are informed through descriptive user oriented approaches.

Ulubilge Ulusoy is a 2nd year PhD student in the Astronautical Engineering Department and his advisor is former astronaut Professor Garrett Reisman. He received his B.S. in Astronautical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, in 2018. And he completed his M.S in Astronautical Engineering from USC in 2020. During his masters program he was involved with the operations of USC LPL (Liquid Propulsion Lab) including being the lead of the lab. Currently, he is working for a NASA Space Technology Research Institute (STRI) - Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration (HOME). His research is focusing on human autonomy teaming for deep space habitat operations. Additionally, he is interested in human factors, human spaceflight mission architecture(s), and design & operations of human-rated space vehicles.

Victor is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in biomedical Engineering at the Biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California. His research is to develop point-of-care biosensors for pathogen detection. Development of point-of-care biosensors became more popular after the recent pandemic affecting society. Victor is interested in developing Rapid point-of-care diagnostics.