About Us

Mission and Values

UCSD MAE Graduate Women strives to promote community and encourage diversity and inclusivity within the MAE Department.

Membership

While our focus is on issues surrounding women, we are not a women-only group! Membership is open to all graduate students and post-docs at UCSD.

MAE Graduate Women group is a non-profit organization. There are no dues required for membership and new members are welcomed with open arms year-round.

Interested in receiving emails about upcoming events? Contact us!

Leadership

President

Albani Olivieri

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the MAE department. My research focuses on developing optimization algorithms for the analysis and transformation of dynamical systems. As president of the MAE Graduate Women group, I am happy to cultivate professional development and a sense of community among women in engineering.

VP Internal

Mayah Carlton

My name is Mayah and I am a first year Masters student in MAE Power and Energy systems. My interests are in fuel cell technology and grid dynamics!

VP Corporate

Jess Healey

My name is Jess Healey and I'm a first year PhD student in MAE! My research focuses on soft robotics and haptics.

Mentorship Coordinator

Shivani Deglurkar

I am a third year PhD student working at the intersection of robotics and materials. My interests include nonlinear wave dynamics of robot collectives, physics modeling, and soft robotics design. I also enjoy singing, baking, and playing soccer!

Secretary

Poh Yin Chong

I am a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, focused on the fundamentals of laser material processing. My work centers on ultrafast laser welding, where I study how to create reliable, high-precision bonds between dissimilar materials like glass and metals.

Outreach

Julia Dominesey

Julia Dominesey is a Ph.D. student studying laser material interaction. Her work seeks to uncover novel materials and geometries for targets to maximize pressure and velocity in direct laser impact. Outside of her studies, she is passionate about climbing, triathlon, and writing.

Treasurer

Karen Whirley

Karen is a third year PhD student in the Contextual Robotics Institute. Her work focuses on design and modeling for soft robots and their applications in surgery.

Social Media/Website Coordinator

Azra Begzadić

My name is Azra Begzadić and I am a second year PhD student in MAE working on safety-critical learning-based control.

Volunteer

Dulce Martinez

Volunteer

Sophia Davila

Volunteer

Zhoujie Yu

Volunteer

Jenny Nicolas

I am a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Materials Science program. My research is multi-disciplinary focusing on understanding lithium metal battery failures, in addition to exploring the relationships between social factors and US solar PV deployment. I am happy to serve as President to foster community in the UCSD MAE Graduate Women group and grow our individual professional strengths.

Faculty Advisor — Tania Morimoto

Tania Morimoto

Tania Morimoto is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. She received the B.S. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering, followed by the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, also in mechanical engineering. At Stanford, she worked with Allison Okamura on designing personalized flexible, continuum robots for surgical applications, as well as on the creation of a low-cost, educational haptic device. She is a recipient of the Hellman Fellowship (2021), the NSF CAREER Award (2022), the Beckman Young Investigator Award (2022), and the ASEE Outstanding New Mechanical Engineering Educator Award (2023).

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