Podcast Episodes

Jake Tebbe graduated from the University of Washington in 2022 with a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering. During his time at the UW, his research focused on protein design for applications in cardiac regeneration. He also served as the Undergraduate Lead for the UW Bioengineers Without Borders Capnography Team and the Vice President of Community Engagement for the Biomedical Engineering Society at UW. He currently works in health IT at Epic Systems and plans to attend medical school this year to become a physician scientist studying congenital heart disease.

Dr. Steven Hwang is originally from Dublin, Ohio. He graduated from The Ohio State University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering. He then moved to the University of Washington for a Master’s in Industrial Engineering before completing his PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2020. During his time in graduate school, his research focused on Driver Take-Over Time Modeling during Control Handoffs in Semi-Autonomous Vehicles. In other words, his research aimed to model systems like Tesla AutoPilot and the time required for drivers to regain control of the vehicle when AutoPilot fails. He has also been an involved member of the UW community as the Founder and President of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society at UW. He has also been involved in several mentorship initiatives, including his role as a mentor in the EDUC 401 course at UW. He currently works as a Data & Applied Scientist at Microsoft for the Azure Global Capacity Team. He has previously worked at other notable companies, including IBM, Nike, and Intel. In his free time, Steven loves gaming, reading, and spending time with his friends.

Yoshi graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering in 2018. During his time at UW Bioengineering, he worked under Dr. Herbert Sauro to develop a biological kinetic network model that simulates resource intake and energy output as a metabolic system. He currently serves as the Vice President of SoundBio Lab, which is a nonprofit biology makerspace that aims to advance science equity by providing resources and education to the greater Seattle area. They host workshops, events, and high school outreach initiatives across Seattle. Additionally, he has helped put together events like the Central Sound Regional Science and Engineering Fair as the outgoing assistant fair director this year. He has also served on student groups like UW iGEM and recently judged at the international iGEM Competition.

Dr. Prybutok is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at the UW Department of Chemical Engineering. She’s passionate about engineering education and pursued both computational engineering research and engineering education initiatives during her PhD at Northwestern. Her graduate research focused on agent-based modeling for cell-based therapies in solid tumors, while her focus on education led to her co-founding the anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ARDEI) committee at Northwestern. Through this committee, she developed workshops for faculty that integrated concepts of ARDEI and social justice into the curriculum and coursework. She currently serves on the DEI committee in the UW Chemical Engineering department, where she helps organize workshops for Chemical Engineering faculty in inclusive teaching practices and universal design for learning.

In this episode, we interview a very special (and very familiar) guest! We have one of our own podcast co-hosts, Suchi Gopal, on this episode. This episode will cover her own journey to engineering and how she ultimately decided to pursue bioengineering. We also discuss some of the other passions she pursued throughout her college experience at the University of Washington, including her passions for advocacy and teaching. Finally, we explore how she has used her bioengineering education in her current role as a Consultant at West Monroe.

With the start of the school year, many of you may be settling into new classes and environments; perhaps even starting college for the first time! We wanted to record a special episode and provide you with a list of resources, events, and programs that may be helpful as you navigate a new environment in your classes and extracurriculars. We hope that these resources and programs will be helpful for informing and inspiring your career decisions over the upcoming school year, as well as in the more distant future. You can find the full list of resources and programs on our website www.innovatorinsights.com! We maintain an up-to-date resource page with both K-12 and undergraduate opportunities in engineering and STEM. Please let us know if you would like us to record a Part 2 by reaching out to us - we hope you find these resources helpful!

Professor Andrew Davidson is currently an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. Prior to becoming a professor at UW, Professor Davidson worked as the Director of Engineering at Philips Interactive Media in Los Angeles and the Director of New Media Applications at Microware Systems Corporation in Santa Monica. He has also taught classes in the UW School of Art + Art History + Design and at Roosevelt High School, where he taught computer science courses and started their computer science program. Professor Davidson is also passionate about teaching and has chaired multiple initiatives such as the HCDE Alternative Spring Break at UW.

Dr. Morgansen is a current Professor and Chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She is the principal investigator of the Nonlinear Dynamics and Control Lab, where her research interests encompass nonlinear systems where sensing and actuation are integrated, stability in switched systems with delay, and incorporation of operational constraints such as communication delays in control of multi-vehicle systems. Dr. Morgansen also chairs a state committee on space and satellites. Apart from her research and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Morgansen also serves as the Director of the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium and serves on the AIAA Higher Education Committee. She's extremely passionate about connecting communities with the ability and resources to access education, especially in STEM.

Dr. Moritz is  an Associate Professor in the departments of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Rehabilitation Medicine, and Physiology & Biophysics. He was named an Allen Distinguished Investigator and appointed to the Christopher & Dana Reeve International Consortium on Spinal Cord Repair. Dr. Moritz serves as the Co-Director for the Center for Neurotechnology, a former NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC). Dr. Moritz directs the Restorative Technologies Laboratory (RTL) which focuses on developing technologies to treat paralysis due to spinal cord injury. Current research in the lab includes a multi-site clinical trial of spinal stimulation to restore hand function for people with spinal cord injury, stimulation to improve walking for children with cerebral palsy, and optogenetic stimulation to guide neuroplasticity and recovery in the injured spinal cord of animals.

Dr. Archis Ghate is currently the Associate Chair of the Industrial & Systems Engineering Department at UW and is also a College of Engineering Professor of Healthcare Operations Research. His work focuses on theory, models, and algorithms for optimization under uncertainty. He has received the NSF CAREER award and the award for Excellence in Teaching Operations Research from the Institute of Industrial Engineers. His doctoral students have also won the Dantzig dissertation prize and the Bonder scholarship from INFORMS, among other competitive awards/fellowships from the University of Washington. 

Dr. Rania Hussein is an associate teaching Professor, and the Founder and Director of the Remote Hub Lab (RHLab) at UWECE. Her research focuses on embedded systems, IoT, image processing, and engineering education. Dr. Hussein is a senior IEEE member and a senior research scientist at the UW ECE Sensors, Energy, and Automation Lab (SEAL). She has over 10 years of work experience in higher education teaching courses in computer engineering and computer science at all levels with a strong teaching portfolio backed with high ratings from her students in course evaluations. Before joining UW, she was a research engineer at the Walt Disney Company. Additionally Dr. Hussein has a solid experience in leadership serving as a board member or executive director to non-profits to promote diversity and the social/educational development of women and youth. She has experience in starting new initiatives as well as marketing, fundraising, and public relations. She founded MAPS Many Cultures One Community, which played an instrumental role in promoting the first night final exam at UW-Bothell that Dr. Hussein and her colleagues held in Spring 2017 and led to the building of the SB-5166 Bill in Washington State.

Dr. Brian Polagye is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center, a collaboration between the University of Washington, Oregon State University, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His research focuses on marine renewable energy conversion and its environmental effects, with the ultimate goal of developing cost-effective, sustainable approaches.