GradSWE Leadership

2020 GradSWE Board Bio

Natasha McMasters
Director of External Affairs
BME M.Eng.

Natasha  was President of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers before taking on leadership in BU GradSWE. Her generosity has earned her much credibility and support from the team.

Iris Celebi
Director of Internal Affairs
ECE, PhD Candidate

Iris was one of the 20 attendees selected to attend the WE19 National Conference in Anaheim as a representative from the Boston University College of Engineering. Her compassion and and dedication has earned her much respect from her peers. We are lucky to have her serve as the director this year.

Leslie Leung
Secretary

Aspasie Song
Finance Chair

Aspasie has been an active member of SWE ever since she was an undergrad. Her leadership was well admired by her peers, as such, they have elected to take on the role of Vice President. Her numerous efforts include fundraising and custom designs.

Hasini Weerathunge
Women’s Advocacy Chair
BME, PhD Candidate

Hasini  is a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. She was one of the 20 attendees selected to attend the WE19 National Conference in Anaheim as a representative from the Boston University College of Engineering, and has been an active member of SWE ever since. She leads the Coffee & Conversations of BU gradSWE ☕ which addresses common issues of grad life and topics of interest with the BU graduate community. Hasini received her B.S. in Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka where she majored in Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering. After two years in the industry working as a research engineer developing embedded medical devices, Hasini moved to the U.S to pursue her graduate studies. Her research interests include brain-computer interfaces and neuro-engineering applications that enhance the human quality of life. In Stepp Lab for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Engineering, Hasini utilizes auditory & somatosensory motor perturbations of voice and speech to develop computational models of speech motor control for voice and neurologically disordered populations.

Sudiksha Sridhar
Ambassador
BME, PhD Candidate

Sudi is a PhD student in the Biomedical engineering Department at Boston University. She was one of the 20 attendees selected for the WE 19 National Conference in Anaheim as a representative from the Boston University College of Engineering. Since attending this conference, she has served as an active member of SWE. Sudi received her bachelors in technology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar majoring in Chemical Engineering. After graduating with honors, she served as a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She received her Masters’ in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducted research on Mxene based catalysts, using Density Functional Theory (DFT). She now works on Dr. Xue Han’s lab, striving to understand the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation and looking at alternative options such as motor cortex stimulation and audio visual stimulation

Megan Parsons
Diversity & Inclusion Liaison
ECE, Master’s Candidate
@MeganMParsons

Megan was featured in the National GradSWE Graduate Member Spotlight in September, 2019. Megan has been an active member of SWE ever since she began her career transition from molecular and cellular neurobiology to neuroengineering. As soon as she was accepted to the Late Entry Accelerated Program (LEAP) at Boston University in electrical and computer engineering in 2017, she sought ways to become more involved in the organization and make an impact on the engineering community. After attending WE Local San Jose, the resources, support, and camaraderie offered through SWE filled Megan with optimism for the future of women in technology. She was inspired to get involved to ensure that these opportunities and resources could be expanded to best serve the needs of current and future generations of women in engineering. After moving to Boston, Megan served as a member of the WE Local Providence Poster Sub-Committee in 2018 and also volunteered as a judge for the Collegiate Poster Competition.

After completing the ECE prerequisites through LEAP to enter the master’s program at Boston University, Megan was awarded the merit-based Engineering Graduate Scholarship on behalf of the College of Engineering. She was also selected to attend the Academic Leadership for Women Engineers (ALWE) program at the WE19 annual conference, a selective program to empower promising early-career scholars to successfully pursue positions of academic leadership in engineering. 

Thesis Topic: Elucidating EEG Correlates of Brain States

In the laboratory of Dr. Xue Han, Megan is using EEG to research neural signatures involved in pain perception and attention. These neural signatures will be used to train machine learning algorithms to classify brain states. These models will allow her to quantify the effects of treatments or interventions in altering brain states associated with nociception and cognitive performance. Megan’s ultimate goal is to have an academic career in neuroengineering at a research-intensive institution.

Outside of SWE, Megan is a classically trained ballet dancer, and she has also received training in tap, jazz, hip hop, and acrobatics. She enjoys playing classical and jazz piano, and she is currently focused on voice lessons and musical theatre. She is also active in science policy and advocacy, an interest that began in 2010 as a semester school student at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL) in Washington, DC. In her spare time, Megan enjoys designing and building low-cost electronics projects for biomedical applications.

Fun fact: Megan’s award-winning astrophotography has been featured in exhibits and expos!

Jenny Sun
Senior Advisory Member, Co-Founder
Ph.D Candidate, ECE

Evelyn Liu
Senior Advisory Member, Co-Founder
Masters of Engineering, BME

Michelle Sanders, Ph.D.
Faculty Advisor
Assistant Professor, ECE