Program Notes: Graduate Alumni

May 08 2019

APAM

Songjian Shi MS’12 works in program management at Ford Motor Company and is responsible for the development of a new Ford vehicle.

Biomedical Engineering

Jeremy Cohen MS’05 writes: “After graduating with an MS in 2005, I spent three years working as a product development engineer in the medical device industry before returning to Columbia for my MBA in 2008. Since completing my MBA in 2010, I have worked as a strategy consultant in the life sciences industry. In 2016, I left Deloitte and started a boutique consultancy—Solstice Strategy Group. I now live in Minneapolis with my wife, Diana, and daughter, Samara (Samara is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her baby brother later this year). I’d welcome the opportunity to connect with fellow alums in the Midwest.”

Chemical Engineering

Herman Bieber MS’53, EngScD’62 writes: “After a long career teaching and at Exxon Research, and 60 years in the same house, I bit the bullet and moved to Lantern Hill in New Providence, NJ, an amazing twoyear-old senior living complex. All the buildings are connected, so weather is never a problem. It has two restaurants, a great indoor pool and jacuzzi, and my indoor garage is only a few steps away. And it is near Newark Airport and New York City, so I can easily keep traveling and maintain most of my former activities, but no longer have to clean the house or cook! When I can no longer drive, there are more activities available here than you can imagine. And it is easier to maintain a healthy exercise regime than having to drive to the Y. All of my former students and classmates are welcome to drop by to see how rewarding life after 80 can be!”

Napoleon Stavropoulos MS’56 is retired.

Louise Vivona-Miller MS’85 writes: “Since retirement, I’ve been serving on the board of the Friends of Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, where I am a field guide leading student and family groups on tours of Wing Island. Nature, history, and geology are some of the intersecting aspects of my talks.”

Ge Si MS’17 is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and the Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Ziheng Hua MS’17 is an associate scientist at AMGEN.

Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

Robert Tan MPhil’81, PhD’81 writes: “After one and a half year’s working experience in Manhattan, I went back to my home country and began the teaching career at National Taiwan University in 1982. The professional work included many areas of structural engineering and earthquake engineering. Retired in 2016 and became the professor emeritus in civil engineering.”

Petronilo Alarcon MS’82 writes: “Upon graduation with a master's degree in structural engineering in 1982, I started as a structural engineer with U.S. Filigree Wideslab, Inc. in the Tampa Bay area designing medium-rise office and residential buildings. I relocated to the Philadelphia area in late 1985 to join Walker Parking Consultants, Inc. as a senior design engineer for the next 10 years. In 1995, I joined a startup company, Timothy Haahs and Associates, Inc. (TimHaahs) as a principal and vice president of engineering, remaining in the parking design and consultancy business. We started as a very small firm of six working at the house garage of the company founder, Timothy Haahs, and grew into a midsize firm with 50 people after 10 years. After 23 years of working in our Philadelphia office, I relocated to our Atlanta office based in Alpharetta, Georgia in late 2018.

Martial Elie-Pierre MS’88 writes: "I contributed to the timely completion of the 2nd Avenue subway. I’m currently working on the East Side Access ($11 Billion) Program as the PMO lead analytics group. My son, who graduated from NYU as a computer science engineer, is currently working for Oracle as a junior software engineer. My daughter, who will graduate in May 2019 from NYU majoring in economics and finance, has already signed off with Microsoft as a cloud specialist and will start in July 2019. I am in good spirits, proud of my accomplishments thus far, and working around the clock to deliver the East Side Access program by the due date."

Si-Shen Feng EngScD’88 graduated from Peking University, got his Master of Engineering from Tsinghau University, and then got his EngScD from Columbia University. He joined National University of Singapore in 1996. His research interests include design of chemical vessels, viscoelastic fluid mechanics, cellular and molecular biomechanics, molecular biomaterials, pharmaceutical nanotechnology, and nanomedicine. He is involved in the editorial board of Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine and International Journal of Nanomedicine. He is a former associate editor of Biomaterials (2007–2014). He has published 163 research articles in the SCI journals, which have attracted 11,314 citations with 69.41 cites per article and h-Index 58. His Google Scholar citations have reached 16,551 with h-Index 68 (as of December 16, 2018).

Lefki Avdi MS’99 writes: “I started my professional career as an engineer, quickly jumped into the corporate finance industry, and 20 years later—driven by a genuine interest in people—I explored the broader HR sector, acquired related professional certifications, and today I am a member of the BoD of AIMS International Hellas, leading the talent management service line, and the HR Director of McCann Advertising Company in Athens. Through talent management I am fortunate to share my passion to unlock people’s talents, enable a ‘know yourself approach,’ bring to light new career development paths, and inspire professionals to improve the world around them through themselves.”

William “Bill” Hart MS’05 writes: “After two decades as a professional engineer in industry, I earned a 2005 master’s from Columbia Civil Engineering’s Construction Engineering and Management program. I then spent 10 years as vice-president at a large consulting firm before forming my own successful forensic engineering practice in 2015, Hart Engineering, where I continue to provide my engineering opinion in expert reports as well as by testimony in the courtroom. I provide services for a variety of clients in a variety of matters including construction disputes/construction defects, property damage, personal injury, and accident reconstruction. I am a licensed professional engineer in multiple states and a board certified forensic engineer. I have also enjoyed helping to educate future engineers and construction industry professionals in the Construction Engineering and Management program and the School of Professional Studies by serving as an adjunct professor of engineering since 2005, teaching E4131: Principles of Construction Techniques.”

Anna Lopez MS’12 writes: “I wrote a best-selling book, Intuitive Birth (sold on Amazon), and started my own business, Mind Body Babie, helping women achieve a natural pregnancy and birth by following their instincts without fear, anxiety, or doubt no matter what obstacles come their way.

Nickolaus Sundholm MS’17 writes: “Upon graduation, I continued my position as a senior engineer at Thornton Tomasetti. My recent work has predominantly focused on projects located in the Middle East, completing projects in both Baku, Azerbaijan, and Doha, Qatar. Quickly after I left Columbia, I was allowed the opportunity to work on site in Doha, Qatar, where I oversaw the design and construction of the Al Thumama Stadium, which will hold the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Outside of work, I have been actively engaged in educational outreach programs within professional societies such as CTBUH and SEONY.”

Portrait of Si-Shen Feng.

Si-Shen Feng EngScD’88

William Hart with his family.

William “Bill” Hart MS’05

Portrait of Nickolaus Sundholm.

Nickolaus Sundholm MS’17

Computer Science

Mariola Strahlberg Kind MS’76 writes: "Leaving my successful 25-year corporate career at Bell Laboratories and Telecom Italia behind was not easy but well worth it. I earned a Master’s of Science in acupuncture with honors from Tri-State College of Acupuncture in NYC and opened my private family practice. Over the years, I witnessed struggles that many children have in their lives and decided to do something about it. I went back to school and studied many alternative modalities, such as movement, color and sound therapies, and many others. I opened Shining Mountain Center for Peaceful Childhood, Inc., where children are approached individually and allowed to achieve their unique potential. In 2017, I published a book, The Five Star Program: A Step-by-step Teachers’ Guide to Innovative Classroom Strategies that Awaken Students’ Unique Potential and offer workshops for teachers on a regular basis. To learn more about my work, please visit: shiningmtnforkids.com and korczakusa.com.”

James T. Lap MS’87 left Wall Street in 1987 to assume the directorship of the computer center at City Tech-CUNY in its current home at the MetroTech Center in downtown Brooklyn. There he designed a student information management system (SIMS). SIMS was developed in 1990 and adopted by many campuses. He also managed the office automation department, which was then promoting PCs. He had started this department in 1986 by acquiring PCs and conducting workshops for all City Tech administrators, faculty and staff. He began replacing dumb terminals with PCs in all offices and made sure that their five different software programs – word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, and communication – worked together, since this was before the development of MS Office Suite. In addition to teaching computer science, since 2003, he has been the director of the Evening and Summer Sessions Office, overseeing approximately 1,200 adjunct faculty in 32 academic departments, using Access database to manage workload, payment rate, absentee and teacher substitute records.

Peter Thermos MS’01 is the president and CTO of Palindrome Technologies, an applied cyber security research and analysis company. He writes: “We are one of the few labs in the United States that have worked with all major wireless carriers on 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) fourth generation (4G) and the upcoming fifth generation (5G) wireless communication systems. Our applied research team is comprised of Columbia graduates and focuses on core infrastructure and consumer technologies that have direct societal impact. Our work impacts billions of netizens every day and involves security, reliability, performance, and scalability design and analysis of emerging technologies (e.g., edge computing, SDN/NFV, 5G, Blockchains, IoT). Our team also collaborates with academic research labs including Internet Real-Time (IRT) lab at Columbia University and Center for Security, Reliability, and Trust (SnT) at the University of Luxemburg. We are always looking for talented students who like breaking code and working on challenging technical problems.”

Howard Zhu MS’02 is now the head of APAC analytics product line at MSCI. Howard is based in Hong Kong. After graduating from Columbia University, Howard spent 7 years in the US before going to HK. The year 2019 marks the 10th year for Howard in HK.

Gokhan Gelisen MS’06 writes: “Dear friends and family, it has been a while since the last time I visited the Lion’s Cave. It has been a while, but it is not distant. Meanwhile, we have been busy building the Construction Management Program at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul. Our program is mainly focused on project, facility, risk, contract, and tender management; estimating and planning; project and cost control; dispute and conflict resolution; building information modeling and sustainability. Most of our students are full-time professionals with planning, architecture, design, engineering, and construction backgrounds. Our instructors often bring their on-site work experience to the classes. Please kindly let me know if you ever pass by Istanbul, and I will be happy to be your free tour guide. Have a wonderful 2019, and onward to 2020!”

Sumanth Naropanth MS’06 founded a startup called Deep Armor, offering consulting services in information security for Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile and Cloud Solutions. Sumanth works with software and hardware product vendors to help them build and ship secure solutions. Sumanth was the finalist at the India IoT Congress’ Thought Leadership Awards, and a global finalist at the IoT Security Foundation’s Security Champions Awards in 2018. After graduating from Columbia University, Sumanth lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for almost seven years. Sumanth explores the California outdoors over the weekends and has summited Mt. Whitney and Mt. Shasta, in addition to several other high-altitude peaks in the Eastern Sierras. Sumanth moved back to Bangalore, India, his hometown, toward the end of 2012, where he lives now with his wife, two kids, parents, and a large extended family.

Pranay Dharmale MS’11 writes: “2018 was a big year for me professionally as well as personally. After spending 7+ years in the hedge-fund industry, I started a new role in software engineering at Bloomberg LP in fall ’18. I prioritized my physical well-being in 2018 and went from never having run long distances to qualifying for the 2019 NYC Marathon by running 10+ races.”

Bo Yin MS’15 started an AI financial company in Shenzhen, China.

Fei Liu MS’15 served in a few successful companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Pinterest. He was one of the founding members of AWS Amazon Machine Learning as a service, was a NLP tools engineer at Apple, and was a leading engineer for localization and machine learning at Pinterest. Particularly, the localization and machine learning project that Fei led made tens of millions of impacts on the billions of Pinterest users across the globe and boosted the online metrics by a phenomenal amount. Fei also actively participated in the Columbia mentor program and successfully mentored two summer interns from the Columbia Center for Career Education.

Di Ruan MS’16 writes: “After graduation in 2016, I joined Google New York office as Software Engineer. I got married in the following year and became a father at the end of 2018. Life is good!”

Ten-Seng Guh MS’17 writes: “2018 was a big year. In January, started a new job as a senior software engineer at ASML, the leading photolithography machine manufacturer providing machines to all of the leading semiconductor chip fabs in the world, including TSMC (producer of iPhone chips), Samsung, Intel, and Micron. Also welcomed the birth of our second child and first son, Brendan Daehan Rocky Guh, on August 1. Last, in September we moved into our lovely new townhouse in Rye Brook, NY.”

Qipeng Chen MS’18 is a software engineer at Google.

Alon Grinshpoon MS’18 writes: "After graduating the MS in computer science program, I launched a startup company focusing on augmented reality (AR) called echoAR. The company created a cloud platform for AR apps that provides tools and server-side infrastructure to help developers & creators build better AR apps and grow their businesses. echoAR is now backed by Techstars and received grants from Y Combinator and NYC Media Lab. It became one of the first startups to reside at NYC's RLab, the first city-funded VR/AR innovation center. echoAR was named one of the Top 25 finalist in Sir Richard Branson's Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) 2019. I presented at top conferences & events such as AWE USA, NYVR, AWE TLV, ARKit NYC, and more. I recently sat down with The Hill to discuss the future of AR and 5G. Columbia Engineering helped me grow as a computer scientist, entrepreneur, and professional in AR.”

Gabriel Ryan MS’18 writes: “I returned to Columbia University shortly after finishing my MS to start my PhD in computer science, in which I am studying applications of machine learning to solving problems in cyber security.”

Portrait of Sumanth Naropanth.

Sumanth Naropanth MS’06

Selfie of Gokhan Gelisen and a group of friends.

Gokhan Gelisen MS’06

Pranay Dharmale holding a medal after a race.

Pranay Dharmale MS’11

Ten-Seng Guh with wife, daughter and son.

Ten-Seng Guh MS’17

Earth and Environmental Engineering

Sheldon Weinig MS’53, EngScD’55 writes: "After a short academic career, I founded Materials Research Corporation supplying materials and equipment to the semiconductor/computer industries. MRC went public, was exchange listed and then acquired by Sony. I remained for five years as vice-chair of engineering and manufacturing for Sony, left and accepted adjunct roles at Columbia and SUNY Stonybrook. I will complete 25 years of pro bono teaching at both schools this spring. Based on technical contributions to semiconductor materials I was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering and France awarded me the Order of the Legion of Honor. I served two terms as a member of President Reagan’s Board of Advisors for Private Sector Initiative and was a member of US-Japan Scientific Exchange Committee. I have honorary degrees from a number of universities, and recently published a book titled, Rule Breaker: An Entrepreneur’s Manifesto.”

Suzanne Bell MS’82 writes: “After getting my MS in chemical metallurgy (now part of the EEE department), I practiced engineering for 3 years, then went to law school at Stanford, and have been a technology and intellectual property lawyer ever since. After decades as a partner at technology law firm Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto, I recently joined DC-based firm Covington and Burling as a partner in Palo Alto to help grow their technology practice. My husband and I have lived in Palo Alto since moving here for Stanford. We have 3 daughters, the youngest of whom is a senior in environmental engineering at Columbia!”

Sharon Collins MS’99 writes: “I am an environmental engineer turned high school mathematics teacher. I currently teach at New Heights Academy Charter School in Harlem. As a Math for America Master Teacher and the OneGoal Program Director at New Heights Academy, I always seek to challenge myself and provide opportunities for higher education to my low socioeconomic status students. During the summer of 2018 I was interviewed by Chalkbeat.org for their "How I Teach" series, in which they profile the best educators from across the United States. This feature showcased both my forward-thinking teaching as well as my project-based statistics, precalculus and calculus classes. Last year in December I received my National Board Teaching Certification in Adolescent/Young Adult Mathematics. I am one of ninety-eight new National Board Certified Teachers in New York State.”

Nathan Winkler MS’11 writes: “I am excited to launch Livolt, a business committed to deploying clean distributed power generation in every building in NYC and beyond.”

Natali Pelcman Ganfer MS’12 writes: “I work at the Global Sustainability Office in PepsiCo, driving the implementation of the Sustainability Information Governance program across PepsiCo's three sustainability pillars: Product, People and Planet. I ensure that the right data governance processes are in place and communicated across the organization and implement processes and solutions to achieve sustainability data of quality, accuracy, completeness and transparency. Prior to joining PepsiCo, I have led greenhouse gas and other sustainability data verifications for Fortune 500 companies from a variety of industries reporting to CDP, GRESB, The Climate Registry, California ARB, EU MRV, among others. In the past, I have conducted technical research in the waste management sector for over four years and business strategy research for three years in a start-up environment. I have experience in North American and Latin American markets.”

Electrical Engineering

David Dingott MS’82 is CEO and founder of Sword Diagnostics, a life sciences company that provides many of the largest global pharmaceutical companies with what they value most: faster drug development time. Drug development requires multiple phases of testing and the test development process at each phase can take up to a year. Sword’s proprietary, tailored testing products allow Pharma to obtain sensitive and highly reproducible tests in under one month, saving months for each test development phase. Sword’s tests do not require specialized equipment or procedures, and they seamlessly operate with standard instrumentation commonly in use. Sword’s customers include many of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies.

Sara Dioguardi MS’88 is a principal in the advisory, technology enablement practice at KPMG, LLP, located in Chicago. She focuses on enabling her clients' strategic business transformations by leading the design, development and implementation of large, global technology initiatives.

Hanrijanto Sariowan MS’89 writes: “I am currently with Google as technical program manager in the Google Cloud’s Network Planning team.”

Bennie Yee MS’93 writes: "I’m an engineering infrastructure security consultant - Utility Power, Telecom, Network Interoperability Design; PTC (Positive Train Control, Fiber Optic Telemetry Control Networks, SCADA); AGC Engineering, part of of AECOM at MTA-NYCT at 2 Broadway in New York City. In construction management of building and critical infrastructure engineering, I worked for the last three years at MTA-NYCT as a design project manager to redesign 70-year-old copper-cable signal and station communication and to replace it with a fiber optic telecom network that automates the signal network via computer-based train control (CBTC). At Con Edison of New York, I implemented a state-of-the-art fiber optic network to regulate switching and distribution of electric power to all the boroughs of New York City, to modernize station voice and data communications, and to minimize brownouts and blackouts. I was selected for the Marquis Who's Who in America for 2008 and 2009 and, in August 2018, I received the Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award."

Farouk Ziad Moukaddem MS’16 writes: “I am a software process engineer at the MathWorks in the Boston area. I’m exploring beautiful America, and meeting inspiring people every day.”

Rahul Rana MS’18 writes: “I’ve completed 2.5 years in the US, in NYC. I’m currently working at a really small startup in Brooklyn founded by two Columbia med alumni called Inspiren, and joined them as the first employee.”

Huafeng Shi MS’18 is working at Google in Mountain View.

Industrial Engineering and Operations Research

Nicholas Florio MS’79 writes: “After spending 41 years in the workforce as a manufacturing engineer, an active duty and reserve US Army Officer, and almost 35 years at Deloitte as a principal in the risk and financial advisory practice, I will be retiring come June 1, 2019. For the past 35 years, I have been involved in leading projects from transaction structuring, negotiations, due diligence, intellectual property monetization and financial analysis, to dispute resolution and litigation support within the A&D, real estate, manufacturing, hospitality, and technology industries, and for private equity investors. I look forward to leveraging my experiences as a COO, engineer, military commander and a financial, M&A, turnaround, and risk expert by bringing an integrated viewpoint on operational, financial, risk, talent, and performance improvement issues to C-suites and boards as I enter the next phase of my life. I currently serve on the advisory boards for the Smithsonian Libraries and PeerForward.”

John Armaos MS’88 writes: “After graduation with an MSc degree from Columbia Engineering, I went on to Columbia Economics/Business with an MPhil in Business and Finance. After a brief stint in Wall Street, I returned to my home country and worked in the Investment Management area for 21 years. I resigned 1.5 years ago to battle a serious health problem. This battle is still going on. Wish me well!”

Carol Tyger MS’13 writes: “I am working at a start-up as the director of product management. It is called Apartment Butler, and we provide services such as dog walking and maids to residents of large class A apartment buildings. We secured seed funding in September and are looking for series A funding this year.

Charles Courtiol MS’14 writes: “In September 2013 I met Kelthoum Benabdeljelil MS’15 at the Northwest Corner library while she was walking to her first class at Columbia. I attended the MSFE summer session. I showed her around the spots I liked on campus including the Interchurch cafeteria, where we would have lunch together from time to time. We started dating later in the fall. Four years after graduation we’ve moved together in the UWS. We got married this year in New York City and celebrated the wedding in Morocco, where she’s from, with our friends and family. Kelthoum now works in data science at Criteo, and I’m in equity derivatives at JPMorgan. Columbia didn’t just help in our careers, but shaped our future together.”

Jayanth Rasamsetti MS’14 writes: “I currently run a startup in the deep learning and medical imaging space. Sgmoid's screening algorithms assist radiologists and physicians, increasing reading speed by up to 3x of chest x-rays, breast mammography, bone age assessment. We cover a broad range of modalities including X-ray, MRIs, CT scans, ECGs and tabular data to build screening algorithms (triage) and image reconstruction algorithms. We are on a mission to revolutionize and disrupt healthcare.”

Ying Sun MS’17 writes: “I am working at UBS now.”

Jason Bylsma MS’18 writes: “Following graduation, I continue to lead engineering at the Boston-area tech startup where I am a co-founder. At MultiSensor Scientific we are creating the future of gas leak detection and emissions analytics to help the oil and gas industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2017 we have raised multiple rounds of funding and grown our team from 3 to nearly 20, spanning many domains across hardware and software engineering. Growing from a technical lead to an engineering management role has come with many challenges, and I hope to leverage the Boston entrepreneurial community and Columbia Alumni network for guidance along the way. 2019 is already looking to be a fantastic year and I can’t wait to see what the future brings!”

Patricia Dewi MS’18 writes: “After graduating and working at Roche, San Francisco Bay Area, I decided to come home to Jakarta, as I was offered an associate product manager position for High Medical Value Assay in Roche Diagnostics Indonesia. It was a big move coming back to Asia after eleven years, but I felt that God has a plan for me to have an impact on the healthcare industry here, be closer to family, and better prepare for my wedding this year. I am beyond grateful for last year; besides being officially engaged and an alumna from my dream Ivy League school in New York City, I also managed to explore in total 47 states in the United States, Canada (Montreal and Quebec City) with family, Puerto Rico with friends for graduation trips, and Sumba in Indonesia for my pre-wedding photo shoot, as well as Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka) to witness the amazing autumn foliage. Thank you Columbia University, especially the School of Engineering, for making my dreams came true and discovering my unleashed potential. 2019, I am ready for you!”

Hector Silva MS’18 writes: “After completing the MSFE program, I received an offer to join Transamerica via its Mexican partner Akaan as director of the mandates and solutions area.”

Xupeng Xiong MS’18 writes: “I am currently working in Nanjing, China. I was chosen in the management trainee program of Suning Bank, which is an O2O bank.”

Portrait of Carol Tyger.

Carol Tyger MS’13

Charles Courtiol and Kelthoum Benabdeljelil's wedding in Morocco.

Charles Courtiol MS’14 and Kelthoum Benabdeljelil MS’15

Patricia Dewi celebrating graduation at Morningside campus.

Patricia Dewi MS’18

Materials Science and Engineering

Lyuwen Fu MS’17 writes: “I am now in the PhD program in APAM.”

Mechanical Engineering

Shimon Lowy MS’63 writes: “As a graduate student at the School of Engineering of Columbia University, I was inspired by a course called Dynamics. This led to a 51-year career in Structural Dynamics. Computers were never mentioned. I spent most of my professional life at the Boeing Space, Military, and Missile divisions and in the Flutter group of the Boeing Commercial division. I have also spent a number of years at Israel Aerospace Industries. My first job upon graduation was also most rightfully unforgettable: my job was doing Structural Dynamic analysis of the Saturn V rocket, which propelled the first man to the moon. We made history! Boeing was responsible for designing the first stage and for integrating all three stages of Saturn V. The work was done with slide rules and with some very ancient IBM computers. My wife and two children are not engineers; they are all lawyers. No slide rules for them.”

Serban Constantinescu MS’77 writes: “Since graduating with an MS in mechanical engineering, I worked in the chemical and steel industries, ending up as manager of corporate engineering for Philip Services Corporation (PSC), a scrap metal processor and preparer (using shredders, magnets, eddy currents, nonferrous spectral separation, balers, shears, chemical analysis, environmental solutions, etc.) for the steel industry furnaces. During this period, I published a number of articles mostly in Chemical Engineering and Plant Engineering. I retired in 2013 and since then, together with my wife, Victoria (DDS, also a Columbia graduate), we try to enjoy our retirement by traveling as often as possible.”

Dinh Lai MS’87 was a professional engineer licensed in New Jersey in 1990. He retired from Lucent Technologies Bell Laboratories in 2001. He received his JD from Rutgers Newark Law School in 2005 and worked as a patent attorney in New Jersey beginning in 2006. He retired in 2015.

Peter Altman MS’90 writes: “I’m happily married and raising two daughters (ages 7 and 9) in Silicon Valley, and working at the intersection of medical devices, biologics, and diagnostic technologies at smaller companies and enjoying each day and its challenges. I get to New York City often but they are short visits.”

Olabisi Boyle MS’91 is currently vice president for Visa Inc.’s Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms. Visit her LinkedIn profile.

Zuhui Chen MS’10 writes: “I worked for the oil and gas industry at TechnipUSA and Aker Solutions. Then, I came back to China and founded my own business in education consulting.”

Kwadwo AduTwum MS’16 writes: "I graduated in 2016 with a Masters of Science degree in mechanical engineering with a prior degree in nuclear engineering. I currently work as a nuclear engineer at Xcel Energy in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My journey to Columbia University started from Ghana, West Africa. The drive to use education for upward mobility kept me on my toes for a convoluted journey that started with study abroad scholarship in Turin, Italy and eventually in the United States. I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to work as a nuclear reactor core design engineer for two years with exposure to nuclear reactor control room operation simulation. I recently took a role as a nuclear probabilistic risk assessment engineer as part of my journey to become a senior nuclear reactor operator. I am glad to have this membership opportunity with other Columbia University alums.”

Yazmin Feliz MS’17 became an NSF fellow in the Creative Machines Lab under the direction of Dr. Hod Lipson upon graduating. She is currently pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering with a special interest in developing life-saving and low-cost ultrasound diagnostics imaging technology. Yazmin is leading the Open-Source Portable Ultrasound project, which is driven by a growing interest in intelligent, affordable, and complete pointof-care diagnostic imaging. The project’s goal is to introduce a portable open-source medical ultrasound that addresses the needs of global users. This technology will be the first-ever imaging system that generates 3D sonograms for under US$300 in materials cost, paving the way for ultra-affordable modalities to enter the ultrasound market.

Portrait of Yazmin Feliz.

Yazmin Feliz MS’17

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