Team
Principal Investigator
Smitha Rao, PhD (MTU, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Google Scholar)
To make an appointment, use Google Appointment Scheduling
Student recruitment: Currently not recruiting
Team members
Undergraduate Students
Maggie Voice (BME)
James Traynor
Carter Rodzik
Graduate Students
Doctoral
Victoria Elena Santillan (Fulbright Scholar)
Shehan Wijesinghe (Co-advised by Dr. Rupali Datta, BioSci)
Rourke Sylvain (Co-advised by Dr. Yixin Liu, ChemEng)
Erican Santiago (Co-advised by Dr. Sangyoon Han, BioMed)
Vedant Buwa (Co-advisor, Advised by Dr. Marina Tanasova, ChemSci)
Verdict Vera (Co-advised by Dr. Yixin Liu, ChemEng)
Will Braun
Accelerated Masters
Collaborators
Dr. Rupali Dutta, Biological Sciences, MTU
Dr. Caroline Gwaltney, Physical Therapy, CMU/MTU
Dr.John Jaszczak, Physics, MTU
Dr. Sriram Malladi, ME-EM, MTU
Dr. Christopher Middlebrook, MTU
Dr. Adrienne Minerick, ChemEng, MTU
Dr. Rupak Rajachar, Bioengineering, Univ. of Washington
Dr. Marina Tanasova, Chemistry, MTU
External Collaborators
Dr. Borys Hrinczenko, Department of Oncology and Hematology (MSU)
Dr. Steve Durbin (Univ. of Hawaii)
Dr. Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao
Dr. Amit Jaiswal (IIT, Mandi, India)
Previous Members
High School
Hannah Oommen (Houghton High School)
Rohan Sarkar, West Orange High School, West Orange, NJ, USA (Cornell University)
Onat Yapici, Eyuboglu High School in Istanbul, Turkey
Maggie Wang, Houghton High School, Houghton, MI, USA
Cody Tuftee, Wisconsin, USA
REU Participants
Camila Padilla
Lexie Gasco (Graduate student, MTU)
Wendy Leisner (Biochemistry Pre-Professional, LSSU)
Tanner Marvets (Medical College of Georgia)
Kathleen Pakenas (Heusser) (Stellantis Chrysler)
Christina Noel (Foote Fellow Honors Pre-Medical Student at University of Miami)
Jaydan Crawford (Senior Civil Engineering Scholar at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering)
Maddie Steinhauser (Engineer Co-op at SMEUSA)
Chioma Nwabudike (2023)
Sydney Douglas (2019)
Undergraduate
Micaela Geborkoff (BioSci)
Jenna Jorns
Will Braun (PhD student, MTU)
Megan Owen
Nick Arnold (MBA student, MTU)
Ramsey Forton (UOP Honeywell)
Elsa Huckels (MPO, UW)
Lauren McIntyre (Intern, Boston Scientific)
Maddie Steinhauser (Engineer Co-op at SMEUSA)
Logan Rose (Intern, Stryker)
Madeline English (Graduate student, Texas A&M)
Bella Kanasty (Graduate student, MTU)
Misael Cruz (Stryker)
Cheyenne Scott
Ben Agnello (Abbott)
Pavitra Attanayake (College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University)
Kat Miller (Electrical Engineer, KION North America)
Emily Downs (nee Nelson)
Mitchell Connon (Medical College of Wisconsin)
Abigail Martin (Merz Aesthetics)
Carmen Muehlfeld
Garek Dyszel
Trevor Dunlap (Clinical Specialist, Abbott)
Thomas Kirby
Matthew Colaianne
Kristine Fink (EMIT Technologies)
Brennan Vogl (Doctoral student, MTU, Biomedical Engineering)
Ryan Bancroft
Joshua Geschke (Stellantis)
Carolynn Que (Class of 2018, MTU, Regeneron)
Jennifer Hannon (Class of 2018. Greenheck, Schofield, WI)
Meghan Friske (Class of 2018)
Stephania Vaglica (Class of 2017)
Graduate
Nastaran Alinezhad (2016, Virginia Tech)
Praharsh Madapalli Veetil (2017, Baxter International Inc, Chicago )
Nema Taherkhani (2016, UTD)
Emma Davis (Accelerated Masters, 2018)
Noah Doyle (Accelerated Masters, 2018)
Brigitta Hammond (2018)
Suhel Shaikh (2019)
Carolynn Que (Scientist I, Immunologix Laboratories)
Stephanie Bule (R & D Biologist, Abbott Laboratories)
Alex Fetner (2021)
Samerender Nagam Hanumantharao (2020, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School)
Srinivas Kannan (2021, Cryosa)
Lydia Ragel-Wilson (Accelerated Masters, 2023)
Jared Martini (Accelerated Masters, 2023. PhD student, Univ. of Minnesota)
Vedant Buwa (2023, PhD student, MTU)
Cole Hebert (2024)
Laura Lyons (2024)
Enterprise Team
Spring 2024
H-STEM
Award: HSTEM Enterprise was awarded the "2024 Champions of Organization" by CTech Manufacturing.
See their video entry for this award here: LinkedIn, Instagram
Spring/Fall 2023
H-STEM
Senior Design Teams
2023/24
Team 1: Body Mounted Sensors (SERC)
Isaac Boldt
Zach Peterson
Hannah Stephans
Caleb Zaborney
2022/23
Team 3: Design of a Method to Characterize the Depletion Mode Medical Device Battery - Phase 2
Cole Hebert
Cameron Karnosky
Kristin King
Kelsey Moyer
William Poster
Team 3 won the following award:
Design Expo 2023: Third place Senior Design, Design Expo 2023
Team 7: Body Mounted Sensors
Ben Agnello
Kelsey Harvath
Elizabeth Kaechele
Nick Niemi
Cody Tuftee
2021/22
Team 10: CDRH is looking to better understand medical device battery performance, specifically in over discharge
Stephanie Arndt
Nathaniel Broetzman
Joshua O'Laughlin
Ashley Welsh
Team 12: Fatigue/Stress Management
Alexandria Actis
Mitchell Connon
Austen Fischer
Wade Schulz
Paige Vruwink
2020/21
Team 4: Product Re-design for Anatomical Diversity
Will Ark
Kaylee Meyers
Jeremy Wales
Alana Young
Team 11: Phase VI Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device Development
Zach Miller
Skylar Pond
Shaina Royer
Erican Santiago
2019/20
Team 13: Phase V Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device
David Atkin (Validation Engineer, Cook Medical)
Kelsey LeMay (Associate Product Development Engineer, Medline ReNewal)
Gabrielle Lohrenz (Process Engineer, Intel Corporation)
Team 13 won the following award
Pavlis Honors College Husky Innovate Innovation Award 2nd Place (Design Expo 2020)
2018/19
Team 11: Universal Driver Gear Train (co-advised)
Yolanda Anderson (Quality Engineer, Sunmed)
Heather Marker
Ryan Connelly
Ethan Odriscoll
Team 12: Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device
Lauren Markham
Lauren Sandy
Sonja Welch
Chad Cannon
Team 12 won the following awards:
Design Expo 2019: Third place-Innovation award
Design Expo 2019: Honorable mention-Senior design
2017/18
Team 5: Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device
Jennifer Hannon
Grace Carey
Marie Wendling
Cal Riutta
2016/17
Team 12: Posture Correction Device with Haptic Feedback for Parkinson's Disease
Team 12 won the following awards
1. Design Expo 2017: Third place-Innovation award
Team 8: Transcatheter Single Ventricle Device (co-advised)
Emma Davis
Kat Frakas
Amanda Gogola
Ami Kling
Team 8 won the following awards
Pavlis Honors College Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship Innovation Award: First Place
Ann Arbor SPARK Design Expo Image Contest: Second Place
Black & Veatch Building a World of Difference® Student Design Awards: Senior Design Awards (based on poster): Third Place
2015/16
Team 5: Pressure-Volume Loop Catheter
Brigitta Hammond
Patrick Wolfer
Mitchell Tahtinen
Sam Richards