Who are we?

Helen is a third-year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering and works in the Shen group. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Irvine. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, watching movies, and spending time with friends.

Connie is a third-year Ph.D. student in Bioengineering. She is from St. Paul, MN and received her B.S. in Engineering Sciences at Harvard. Connie is currently working in the Bryers group developing a RNA vaccine against microbial infections. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, reading, piano, and tennis.

Maryelise is a first-year graduate student in Bioengineering. She graduated from MIT with a B.S. in Biological Engineering in June 2010. She is happy to be living in Seattle for the first time and hopes to learn to kayak while in grad school. In her free time she enjoys baking, reading, watching a good romantic comedy, or catching up with friends.

Gina is a second-year Bioengineering Ph.D. student. She studied Biological Engineering at MIT before coming to the UW, but is originally from the Seattle area. In her free time, Gina likes to sail and hike in the summer, ski in the winter, and cook and paint all the time.

Emily is a third-year undergraduate student in the Chemical Engineering department. She is currently working in the Jenekhe group, which conducts research in organic electronic materials and their applications in solar cells, LEDs, and other electronic devices. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, baking, watching movies, hiking, and drinking coffee!

Annie is a sophomore undergraduate in Industrial Engineering at UW. She spent the majority of her life in Taiwan where she attended an international school. In her spare time she likes to hang out with friends, watching movies, and playing online games.

Megan is a second-year Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering. She has worked on a variety of projects from improving a UV water treatment system used in rural Vietnam, to improving the emissions of a wood-fired furnace used to heat your home. She is currently working on the combustion of alternatives to natural gas. In her spare time she enjoys helping out with a children's choir and doing a bit of singing herself, not to mention spending some time outdoors camping and hiking or just going for a walk.

Kristy is a Ph.D. candidate for Bioengineering. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduation, Kristy plans to pursue a career in the development of medical devices. In her spare time, Kristy likes to go rock climbing, hiking, biking, snow boarding, and running. She also enjoys rock music, abstract art, and cooking.

Lauran is currently in the Ph.D. program for Bioengineering and working in the Ratner lab to develop biomaterials that can direct stem cell differentiation for regenerative medicine applications. She is also involved in Biomedical Engineering Society's outreach and industry committees. In her spare time, Lauran likes to wind down by running, baking, or rooting for the Eagles (during the football season).

Julie is a third-year graduate student in Electrical Engineering. She grew up in Florida and received her B.A. in Computer Science and Linguistics from Swarthmore College, in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Her research interests are in language processing and machine learning, especially for applications in education. In her free time, Julie likes biking, running, cooking (and eating!) not-so-healthy vegan food, and exploring the parks of Seattle with her husband and three-year-old son.

Ahlmahz is originally from Los Angeles and grew up in Adelanto, California. She first majored in chemistry and graduated from Victor Valley College in 1996. She returned to school, after a 10-year teaching career abroad, and is currently a first-year PhD student in Electrical Engineering at UW. Her research interests include renewable energy, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and power electronics. Ahlmahz loves traveling, reading, eating chocolate, petting cats, and singing out loud and off key (when nobody is watching, of course).

Kyung is a Ph.D. candidate in Bioengineering, currently working on developing anti-infective biomaterials. She originally hails from California, where she received her B.S. in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Besides working, Kyung also loves cooking & baking, playing the flute, and following European football (a.k.a. soccer).

Sanjana is a senior in Computer Science. She is from Kathmandu, Nepal. Her research interest is on Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and she currently working on enhancing independence and safety for blind and deaf-blind public transit riders. She loves spending her free time with her family and friends, traveling, camping, and being close to nature.

Renuka is a first-year graduate student in Bioengineering. She graduated from MIT with a B.S. in Biological Engineering in 2010 and is originally from Sacramento, CA. Her research interests include immunology and novel drug delivery applications for infectious disease. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, yoga, good music, cooking (but mostly just eating), and hanging out with friends.

Julie is a third-year Ph.D. student in Bioengineering. She received her B.S. in Chemical-Biological Engineering and minors in Biomedical Engineering and East Asian Studies from MIT. Her research in the Pun group involves understanding the intracellular trafficking pathways of non-viral therapeutic delivery systems. Outside of research, she enjoys baking and cooking, traveling, reading, and playing video games.

Hannah is a first-year undergrad studying Civil & Environmental Engineering and Oceanography at UW. She is currently working in a microbial oceanography lab and hopes in the future to work on environmental endeavors related to the oceans. Hannah grew up in the San Juan Islands, and enjoys spending much of her time outdoors hiking, skiing, bird watching, and sailing.

Jessica is a third-year Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering focusing in digital signal processing. She is working on the MobileASL project which allows for real-time sign language video on cell phones. In her free time Jessica takes ballet classes, watch movies, and cheers on the Huskies in football and basketball. GO DAWGS!
Check out her website: http://students.washington.edu/jjtran/

Irene is a senior undergraduate student in the Materials Science & Engineering department. She is originally from Kansas and enjoys traveling, learning about photography, and running through sprinklers in the summer.