Leadership and Service Experiences

Here are some highlights of some leadership experiences that have largely shaped my time in grad school.

Founding an undergraduate summer research program at RNEL

In 2020, RNEL established a set of outreach committees dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. I took up leadership of the undergraduate outreach group under the mission of 1) hiring diverse undergrads, especially those from underserved communities with fewer opportunities to have research experiences, 2) re-evaluating the way applicants were considered to account for disadvantaged backgrounds, and 3) structuring the summer research months such that students received a quality experience with measureable outcomes. To accomplish this:

• I presented our research opportunities and gave an introduction to neural engineering to undergrads at local universities (Point Park University, Community College of Allegheny County) and the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
• We additionally evaluated applications based on need, as defined by the availability of neural engineering opportunities at the home institution.
• I designed two grad-student-run workshops per summer (technical and professional development) as well as hosted the weekly undergrad journal club. In addition to completing their individual research projects with their faculty advisors, these workshops and journal clubs provided supplemental education and skills in a friendly, low-stakes environment. Students completed the summer with an oral presentation to the whole lab and an abstract submission to the Biomedical Engineering Society conference and/or Pitt’s undergrad engineering publication Ingenium.

Organizing Brain Bags for the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC) (2021-2023)

After two years as a member of the CNBC, I volunteered to help run the Brain Bag Committee with two other students in September 2021. In this year, we scheduled weekly talks from student members of the CNBC, which was a way for students to practice presenting their work and for others to learn about what their peers work on. The next year, we introduced a hybrid presentation format, which greatly increased participation and facilitated discussions. Feedback of the events indicated a greater sense of community, especially with in-person attendance, and appreciation for the increased accessibility of the talks.

Co-Editor-in-Chief of Ingenium (2020-2021)

Ingenium is an undergraduate engineering journal published by Pitt to showcase the summer research projects completed by Pitt students. As Co-Editor-in-Chief, my responsibilities included screening abstract and manuscript submissions and assigning them to reviewers, making final decisions on which submissions will advance to publication, and working with the publishing team to produce the publication. After my time as Co-Editor-in-Chief, I have continued to review papers as a member of the Graduate Student Review Board.

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