Keynote Speaker: 
Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and BioEngineering Departments, UCLA
Title of the Speech:
Computational Microscopy, Sensing and Diagnostics for Telemedicine and Global Health Applications
Biography:
Dr. Ozcan is an Associate Professor at UCLA leading the Bio- and Nano-Photonics Laboratory at the Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering Departments. Dr. Ozcan holds 22 issued patents and 15 pending patent applications and is also the author of one book and the co-author of more than 270 peer reviewed research articles.
Dr. Ozcan received several awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), SPIE Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award, SPIE Early Career Achievement Award, ARO Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award and MIT’s TR35 Award for his seminal contributions to near-field and on-chip imaging, and telemedicine based diagnostics.
Dr. Ozcan is also the recipient of the National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award, Popular Science Brilliant 10 Award, Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award. Ozcan is a Fellow of SPIE and a Senior Member of IEEE.
For more information about Dr. Ozcan, his work and team please go to http://innovate.ee.ucla.edu.
Key Note Speaker:
Tala de los Santos, Diagnostic Group Leader, PATH
Title of the Speech:
Addressing market failures through public-private partnerships: developing diagnostics tools for neglected tropical diseases
Biography:
Tala de los Santos is the Diagnostic Group Leader at PATH, an international nonprofit organization that transforms global health though innovation. Ms. de los Santos leads a group of scientists, public health specialists, and business strategists focused on developing and introducing appropriate, affordable, and high-impact diagnostic tests for use in low-resource health facilities all over the world. PATH’s diagnostics portfolio includes innovative diagnostic technologies for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and non-communicable diseases.
Ms. de los Santos brings more than ten years of experience managing technology development and commercialization in public-private partnerships. She has been extensively involved in the each step of the product life cycle including developing market and product requirements during the early feasibility phase, collaborating with R&D to ensure fidelity to the target product profile and timely product launch, and managing supply-chain logistics. Ms. de los Santos holds an MS in human genetics from Stanford University, an MBA from Seattle University, and a BA in biological sciences from Mount Holyoke College.
For more information about Ms. de los Santos’s work go to: http://sites.path.org/dx/.
Key Note Presentation:
Panel Topic: Innovating in Times of Disaster
Speakers:
Desiree Matel-Anderson, J.D., Chief Innovation Advisor/Think Tank Strategic Vision Coordinator, Federal Emergency Management Agency
Willow Brugh, Program Director, Geeks Without Bounds
Biographies:
Desiree (Desi) Matel-Anderson is the Chief Innovation Advisor at FEMA and Think Tank Strategic Vision Coordinator. During her tenure at FEMA, she led the first innovation team down to Hurricane Sandy to provide real-time problem solving in disaster response and recovery. She also runs think tanks nation-wide to cultivate innovation in communities. Desi began her emergency management experience by volunteering in Northern Illinois University’s Office of Emergency Planning followed by working in the Southeast Wisconsin Urban Area Security Initiative and the City of Milwaukee Homeland Security and Emergency Management Office. She has also worked on numerous innovative projects with agencies, communities, organizations and companies throughout her career. In addition to her background in emergency management and innovation, Desi continues to periodically lecture at Harvard and various universities on innovation which includes consulting agencies and countries internationally on innovative practices and infrastructure. Desi attended the National Preparedness Leadership Institute at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and School of Public Health in 2011 and obtained a Juris Doctorate from Northern Illinois University in 2009.
Willow is an organic chat client, spanning a multitude of subcultures and putting like-minded (but differently disciplined) people in touch. This has led to a passion for hacker and maker spaces as places for education and indicators of resiliency in disaster. These places must be nurtured and pushed forward, to take a lead role in creating engaged citizens to take us into the future. She co-founded of Jigsaw Renaissance, a learning and making community in Seattle; co-founded and past director of Space Federation, linking together hacker and maker spaces; and currently direct Geeks Without Bounds, an accelerator for humanitarian projects. In 2013, Willow embark on a new adventure as a research affiliate at Center for Civic Media out of MIT.
Updated 21 Sept 2013