Meet the Team!

Evan Azoulay is a Biomedical engineer with a passion for design and rapid prototyping. Born and raised in New York City, Evan enjoys walks through the park, playing fantasy football and Pokémon, and trivia nights with friends. He has a bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering and a Master’s in Translation Medicine from the City College of New York. Before starting his doctoral studies, Evan was an adjunct lecturer in BME at CCNY, who taught the Capstone BioDesign course briefly as well as the Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Business Leadership course for 3 years for the Master’s in Translational Medicine program. He also served as the BioDesign Mentor for 3 years, mentoring a number of MTM and senior design projects to their successful completion in that time.

Evan is currently a PhD Candidate, who joined the Cardoso lab in Spring 2022, to study the effects of atherosclerotic plaque calcifications on the biomechanical environment of coronary arteries. His research involves a combination of computational work using microCT-derived models of human coronaries, as well as experimental work using ApoE-/- mice as a model system for atherosclerosis.

Julen Fernandez is originally from Amorebieta, a small town in the Basque Country, Spain. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at Mondragon Unibertsitatea, where he carried out his 8 month internship at The City College of New York. During this period, he worked on the development of a fiber analysis image processing software, published now as FiberO.

Currently he is pursuing his PhD, focusing on the development of novel ultrasound techniques by combining physics, computational modeling, signal processing and robotics to assess bone quality and structure, with a particular emphasis on studying the mechanical competence of cortical bone.

Outside of his research, Julen enjoys practicing a wide range of sports, with a special passion for soccer, tennis, and surfing.

Elena Encinas Vargas, from Córdoba (Spain), is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at Cardoso Lab. Her research interests comprise the applications of high-frequency ultrasound and artificial intelligence to diagnose vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques and predict plaque rupture risk.  

In June 2023, she graduated from her Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M), Spain, including an exchange year at the University of Maryland (UMD), US. During this time, Elena designed and manufactured a soft robotic hand using fluidic circuitry at the UMD Mechanical Engineering Department, and explored multiple radiomic software tools for mammography analysis at Maimonides Biomedical Research Institute of Córdoba, Spain. She also worked at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), Spain, where she developed a controlled cell-stretching machine to assess cellular response to cardiovascular mechanical forces. In August 2025, she earned her Master's degree in Medical Imaging from Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. As part of this degree, she conducted research at the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in collaboration with Philips Healthcare, where she demonstrated the feasibility of contrast medium dose reduction in cardiac CT imaging, and developed a deep learning technique to quantify coronary calcium in contrast-enhanced scans. After some industry experience, working on multi-task deep learning models, she studied the potential advantages of spectral photon-counting CT for coronary imaging at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France. In September 2025, she joined Cardoso Lab to begin her PhD, aiming to apply advanced technology to enhance cardiovascular disease diagnosis and risk stratification. Outside the lab, you will find her enjoying literature, painting, or stepping outside for a refreshing run with friends. 

Takiyah is a master’s student in Biomedical Engineering at the City College of New York. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of the West Indies, where she completed a year long investigative project on the feasibility of remote photoplethysmography for respiratory rate estimation. Takiyah’s research interests include biomedical imaging and artificial intelligence in the development of computational tools to improve diagnosis and treatment in healthcare.  Currently at Dr. Cardoso’s lab, she is involved in the development of a mouse model to characterize plaque burden and the effects of calcification on WSS. 

Jonathan Martin is a recent graduate of The City College of New York (CCNY) with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering. He has experience in tissue engineering and drug delivery. He previously worked at a summer internship at the Amazon-Columbia SURE program in the Leong Lab at Columbia University working with oral gene delivery in lab mice using nanoparticle formation. He is currently working in the Cardoso lab in CCNY focused on mineralizing pig coronary tissue for creating lab models for mechanics of tissue in atherosclerosis. Jonathan also has experience in CAD softwares (Fusion 360, Solidworks) and use of 3d printers/workshop tools. 

Originally from the Basque Country, I hold a degree in Biomedical Engineering and have a strong vocation for science and knowledge advancement. From an early age, I developed a deep interest in biology and science, and by combining both fields, I have developed a strong interest in how scientific research can drive progress and improve people’s lives.

My appreciation for nature and my curiosity to understand the systems around us have been constant drivers throughout my personal and academic development. I am currently based in New York, motivated by the belief that research is a fundamental pillar of progress. I firmly believe that without innovative projects, science loses its purpose.

My objective here is to grow both personally and professionally by learning from the talented professionals around me, taking full advantage of this opportunity to enrich my expertise and further explore the world of biomedical engineering.

Rober is passionate about science and engineering who is currently beggining an internship at the lab to contribute to the research of Ultrasound applications in order to improve the understanding of the science behind bone diseases. He also enjoys doing sports and having an active and healthy lifestyle in his free time as well as traveling around the world. 

Khadija Kasmi graduated in Biomedical engineering from The City College of New York. She joined the lab in Spring 2024 where her work focuses on image segmentation and three-dimensional reconstruction. Her research interests include medical image processing and the use of computational modeling tools to analyze blood flow and arterial wall mechanics. She likes listening to podcasts and exploring new science and wellness topics. 

Yumna Ahmed is a final year undergraduate biomedical engineering student at the City College of New York. She joined Dr. Cardoso’s lab in Fall 2023 after taking interest in how fluid mechanics principals can be applied to the body. In the lab, she works on understanding atherosclerotic plaque progression better via computational modeling of human coronary vessels. In her free time, she likes to go on walks, try new cafes, read books, and spend time with her family.  

Hello! My name is Domeniko Docaj, and I’m a senior undergraduate student in Biomedical Engineering with a strong passion for hands-on research and engineering design. I enjoy working on projects that require practical, solution-driven thinking, whether it’s Autodesk modeling and 3D printing, computational analysis, wet lab techniques. I’m excited to learn from the lab, build new skills, and continue growing as an engineer. Outside of academics, I work as a bartender and enjoy staying active through sports.