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Women in STEM Episode 36 – Aisha Ayoub, Former Engineer at SpaceX
Interview with Aisha Ayoub, who is a Mechanical Engineer from University of Florida (BSME 2007). She has extensive engineering experience at multiple Fortune 100 companies leading development on automobiles, airplanes, spacecrafts, rockets, operating systems, and most recently augmented/ virtual reality devices (AR/VR). Aisha was part of the core team at SpaceX that delivered industry leading historical firsts such as: the first ever reusable rocket (Falcon) to land and be used for reflight; the first private spacecrafts (Dragon) to dock and berth at the International Space Station (ISS) delivering Cargo and Crew. These launches brought crewed spaceflight back to the USA after nearly a decade. Aisha most recently worked on the next generation of AR/ VR devices at Microsoft in Seattle, where she lives with her husband, Omair, and their 2 precocious children, Orhan (8) and Norah (6).
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Women in STEM Episode 33 – Aileen Huang-Saad, Director of Life Sciences, Health and Engineering at the Roux Institute
Interview with Aileen Huang-Saad, who is the Director of Life Sciences, Health, and Engineering Programs at Northeastern’s Roux Institute (Portland, Maine) and an Associate Professor of Bioengineering. Leveraging her experience with design, entrepreneurship, education research, and industry, she seeks to close the gap between higher education and professional practice. Specifically, she is designing interdisciplinary experiential education life sciences, health, and engineering programs to attract, retain, and advance talent in the state of Maine. These programs are designed to re-imagine how higher education and communities can work together to impact economic and talent development. Dr. Huang-Saad currently serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s Biomedical Engineering Education and is a member of the Maine State Workforce Board and the National Academies’ Roundtable on Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education. She is also an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering Fellow.
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Women in STEM Episode 32 – Heather Shenkman, Interventional Cardiologist
Interview with Heather Shenkman MD, FACC who is an interventional cardiologist in practice in Tarzana, California. She is author of “The Vegan Heart Doctor’s Guide to Reversing Heart Disease, Losing Weight, and Reclaiming Your Life”. While Dr. Shenkman is skilled at performing invasive procedures to open blocked arteries of the heart, she is a strong advocate for a healthy lifestyle, including plant-based eating and regular exercise. She is also an avid athlete, having completed two Ironman triathlons and over 100 endurance events including triathlons, century cycling events, swim meets, and marathons. She is the mother of 4 year-old Ava.
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Women in STEM Episode 31 – Wendy Shimata, VP of Autonomous Systems at Varda Space Industries
Interview with Wendy Shimata, who is currently the Vice President of Autonomous Systems at Varda Space Industries, a small space start-up in Los Angeles focused on in-space manufacturing and commercial reentry. She’s responsible for the technical growth and development of the GNC, software and mission operation teams in an effort towards moving towards autonomous systems architectures and execution. Prior to Varda, she was at SpaceX for 7 years working software on crewed spaceflight programs, and Boeing Satellite Systems working in GNC. In her spare time, she loves exploring new coffee and korean barbeque joints in LA and spending time with her three year old daughter.
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Women in STEM Episode 29 – Nikita Tiwari, Sr Customer Experience Engineer at Intel
Interview with Nikita Tiwari, Sr Customer Experience Engineer at Intel’s Client Computing Group. She brings the most compelling usages to the personal computer working alongside the OEM partners to manage and deliver their experience roadmap and co-engineer differentiated use cases. She has 9+ years of experience in silicon-processor debug, validation, artificial intelligence (AI) applications and automotive image processing unit (IPU). She has received a patent for her work in AI along with several publications. She obtained her Masters in ECE from Portland State University. Nikita chairs the Women at Intel Network (WIN) global (xSite) employee resource group and has held leadership positions in external organizations like Society of Women Engineers, Michigan Council of Women in Technology, TechWomen Mentoring Program, etc. She was recently awarded the 2020 SWE Distinguished New Engineer Award and the 2018 SWE New Emerging Leader award. She is one of the chairs for the SWE@Intel Awards committee. Nikita loves connecting people and helping them leverage from each other. Outside of work, Nikita and her husband enjoy hiking, running and spending time with their daughter Aarya.
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Women in STEM Episode 27 – Meghann Hallock, Lead Physician Assistant, TeamHealth LongHorn Group
Interview with Meghann Hallock, Lead Physician Assistant at TeamHealth LongHorn Group. Currently, she is the Lead APC at St. David’s South Austin & Bastrop Emergency Departments, where she was recently nominated for APC of the year. She has a Masters in Physician Assistant Studies and a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Professions with a Minor in Aging and Adult Life, both from Grand Valley State University. Her Master’s Research Thesis was on “The Timeliness of Antibiotic Administration in Neutropenic Patients at Risk for Sepsis”.
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Women in STEM Episode 26 – Marie Adams, Director of Genomics Core, Van Andel Institute
Interview with Marie Adams who is the Director of Genomics Core at Van Andel Institute and an expert in the latest next-generation sequencing techniques. Marie earned a M.S. in genetics from Iowa State University and also serves as president (2023-2024) of the Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities (ABRF).
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Women in STEM Episode 25 – Kalyani Mallela, Manager of Systems Engineering, Starkey Hearing Technologies
Interview with Kalyani Mallela who is Manager of Systems Engineering at Starkey Hearing Technologies. She has also held multiple positions with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) including president of the Minnesota Section. Kaylani has a Bachelors of Engineering in electronics and communications engineering and Masters of Science in electrical engineering and management of technology.
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Women in STEM Episode 24 – Jennifer Morikawa, Sr Manufacturing Engineer at GM, Past SWE Region Governor
Interview with Jennifer Morikawa, Sr Manufacturing Engineer at General Motors and past SWE Region H Governor.
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Women in STEM Episode 22 – Stacey DelVecchio, Chemical Engineer at Caterpillar, Past SWE President
Interview with Stacey DelVecchio, Chemical Engineer, Additive Manufacturing Product Manager at Caterpillar Inc., Past Society of Women Engineers (SWE) President.
