Dr. Yasemin M. Akay is currently an Intructional and Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston. She received her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey in 1980 and M.S. and Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering from the Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA in 1991 and 1998, respectively.

She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Physiology and Pharmacology Departments, Dartmouth Medical School and at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Boston University, School of Medicine. She was also an assistant editor for the IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Book Series from September 2001 to May 2004 and managing editor for the Wiley Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering from May 2004 till present. Her current research interests include Molecular Neuroengineering, Neural Growth and Neurodegeneration.

Prof. Yasemin P. Kahya received the B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Physics from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, with highest honors in 1980, M.S. degree in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University, Connecticut, USA, in 1981 and Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Bogazici University in 1987.

She has been teaching ever since in the Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering at Bogazici University. Her current research interests are in the areas of biomedical instrumentation, respiratory acoustics and biomedical signal processing applications. She was the program co-chair of IEEE-EMBS 2001 Conference which was held in Istanbul.

Prof. H. Ozcan Gulcur received the B.Sc. and the M.Sc. Degrees in electrical engineering from the Middle East Technical University,Ankara, Turkey, in 1968 and 1970, respectively and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1973.

He is presently associate professor and associate director of the Biomedical, Engineering Institute at the Bogazici University. His research interests include neural networks, physiological system modeling, biological signal processing, medical instrumentation systems, event related brain potentials, passive acoustic imaging, artificial intelligence, nonlinear control.

Ms. Nguyen Tran is the Biomedical Engineering Department Business Administrator at University of Houston. She is a University of Houston Bauer College alum with a BBA degree in Management and Marketing. She has been working at UH since 2003. Ms. Tran served as a faculty affairs analyst in the Provost office, then as an account in the Physics Department before joining the Biomedical Engineering Department.

Ms. Allyson Plosko received her BS in Psychology from Tulane University in 2010. From August 2010 - November 2011, she participated in a research internship at Rice University and in 2012 joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston as the Undergraduate Advisor.

Dr. Andrei Dragomir received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Politehnica University, Bucharest, Romania in 1999 and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece in 2002 and 2006, respectively.

Andrei joined the Harrington Department of Bioengineering at Arizona State University as a postdoctoral researcher in December 2006 and is now a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston.

Katy Hammersmith is currently a visiting researcher at Imperial College London as a Whitaker Foundation International Fellow studying hematopoietic stem cells in zebrafish in the Dallman and Lo Celso labs. She will be returning to the U.S in August to pursue her PhD in biomedical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she plans to conduct immunoengineering research. When not in lab, Katy is always looking for an opportunity to travel and experience new cultures and food. She also enjoys hiking, cooking, and reading in her free time.

Holly Lauridsen is a PhD student working with Dr. Anjelica Gonzalez at Yale University. Holly's research focuses on creating experimental models of the human microvasculature using polymeric biomaterials to better understand the complex biological and mechanical mechanisms that mediate leukocyte migration. Holly attended to the 11th Annual international summer school on biocomplexity and is thrilled to be involved with the summer school once again. Outside of her academic interests, Holly enjoys returning to her home state of Oregon, baking, traveling and photography.

Dr. Volkan Bilgin, MD received his Medical Doctor Degree (MD) from Yeditepe University in 2003, Istanbul-Turkey. Furthermore, He received his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul-Turkey in 2007.

His areas of expertise range from Human Anatomy and Physiology to Pharmacology and Drug applications. His current research interests include Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) detection and diagnosis. He is also involved in diagnosis of stability of plaques in the coronary arteries. Currently he is developing a Continuing Medical Education program at ASU. Furthermore, his research interests also include the study of the importance of the hyoid region in voice quality in humans. Dr. Bilgin joined the Harrington Department of Bioengineering at ASU as a faculty associate in August 2007.

Kristen Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University in New York City. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009. After an engineering co-op experience with St. Jude Medical in Los Angeles, she began her graduate studies at Columbia and joined the Cell and Molecular Biomechanical Lab led by Dr. Christopher Jacobs. Her research interests include bone mechanobiology and mechanisms of mechanotransduction in bone cells that are mediated by the primary cilium. Besides research, she has been active in Columbia’s GradSWE, BioBus, and the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Community Engagement.

Ming Jack Po, Jack is a PhD student in the department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. His research focus areas include cardiac biomechanics, cardiac ultrasound, cardiac MRI, autism spectrum disorder, global health and medical devices. Jack has served on the organizing committee of the 2010 AMA-IEEE Medical Technology Conference and now also serves on the organizing committees of the 2011 AMA-IEEE Medical Technology Conference and the 2011 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

Prior to his PhD studies, he spent time in business strategy and finance roles at Capital One, Fannie Mae, and D. E. Shaw & Co. and was involved in the formation of two venture funded startups. He currently serves on several advisory boards of startups and is a current InSITE fellow and the CTO of the Startup Leadership Program.

Besides his work in health sciences and entrepreneurship, Jack has been very involved with education and is an adjunct professor in the department of Math Education at the City College of New York. In that capacity, he serves on the advisory committee / boards of numerous local and national non-profit and educational institutions. Jack holds a Bachelor degree in Biomedical Engineering and Computer Science and a Masters degree in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University.