Meet WPI’s Women in STEM
Laila Abu-Lail
Chemical Engineering Department & CEAE
Dr. Abu-Lail is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at WPI. She teaches the senior laboratory courses “Unit operations in chemical engineering” in which students gain an understanding of the design and optimization of chemical processes. Her research focuses on removing emergent contaminants from water. She was lucky to grow up in a family (having a brother who is a math teacher and 4 sisters that are engineers) that appreciates STEM education, so it was natural that she follows this path. This experience motivates her to inspire and teach young people who are less fortunate especially females. Coming from Jordan, one of the most water-scarce countries in the world, with an extremely limited freshwater supplies, sparked her interest in water treatment.
Francesca Bernardi
Mathematical Sciences
Francesca Bernardi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at WPI. Her research applies mathematical principles to microscopic physical systems in fluid mechanics. She is particularly interested in understanding how particles and solutes are transported in microfluidics. Francesca was born and raised in Italy and moved to the US ten years ago to attend graduate school in North Carolina. She is passionate about STEM research and outreach. While at UNC Chapel Hill, she also received a Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies focusing on equity and justice in STEM. Francesca is the co-founder of Girls Talk Math, a free STEM and media camp for girls and nonbinary high school students hosted at WPI, at UNC Chapel Hill, and at the University of Maryland. In her free time, Francesca enjoys visiting new places and trying new foods, biking, and reading.
Max Chen
Interactive Media and Game Development
Max Chen is a PhD student in computational media at WPI. Her research focuses on the convergence of computing and crafting materials, like transparent film and fabric, along with experimental input methods. You can ask her about her journey in creating a mind-controlled game! Max works with Prof. Gillian Smith (website: http://sokath.com/home/) and Prof. Erin Solovey (website: https://users.wpi.edu/~esolovey/) to make computing accessible and entertaining for all audiences by integrating it with creative practices.
Jeannine Coburn
Biomedical Engineering
I teach courses in the Biomedical Engineering department and run a research lab on Functional Biomaterials. It is hard to pinpoint exactly when my excitement for STEM fields came about; working on cars, doing construction on the family house growing up, and attending a vocational high school all instilled a desire to learn how things work and how to fix them. I found my interest in biomedical research during college from inspirational female professors and never wanted to stop learning and providing STEM experience for young women ever since. I think everyone should have the opportunity to find his or her passion, whatever that may be. Outside of research and teaching, I like to spend time with my daughter camping, hiking, and walking the dogs.
Snehalata Kadam
Physics
Prof. Snehalata Kadam is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Worcester since 2014. Her goal is to create a bridge between diverse disciplines such as Physical and Biological Sciences. Her primary responsibility is not only to create a Physics loving atmosphere especially in female students wherein they can develop their knowledge but also help themselves adapt innovative learning strategies. Her mantra ”Physics Makes You Think”.
Tess Meier & Sreejani (Jani) Chatterjee
Robotics Engineering Department
Tess is a 3rd year PhD student in Robotics Engineering and works on medical robotics! She loves creating robots that help people with injuries or disabilities live more independently. When she’s not in the lab, she loves to sew clothes, read, and be outside! To her, art and science go hand in hand.
Jani is a Ph.D. candidate in the Robotics Engineering department at WPI. Her area of research is Vision-Based Control of Robotic manipulators with a focus on Deep Learning. Aside from Robotics, her passion is World History and she loves reading historical fiction (and non-fiction). Actually, she loves reading in general. She also loves swimming and hiking.”
Prof. Jane Li has been an assistant professor with the Robotics Engineering Department of Worcester Polytechnic Institute since 2017. She received her Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2009 from the University of Victoria in Canada, and her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering in 2014 from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She was a postdoctoral associate with Duke University in 2015-2016. She has extensive experience in human-robot interaction and interfaces for various medical robots for stroke rehabilitation, tele-surgery, and tele-nursing assistance. At WPI, she develops human-robot interfaces and shared autonomy to enable the efficient, intuitive and effortless control of mobile humanoid nursing robots by operators novice to robot teleoperation. She also developed novel experimental paradigms to investigate human vision-motion coordination when using cameras for active perception, to inform the design of human-robot interface and shared autonomy. Her research has been funded by NSF, NIOSH, DEVCOM, and SEMI-FlexTech.
Jessica Rosewitz
Civil, Engineering and Architectural Engineering
Dr. Jessica Rosewitz draws upon a wealth of past experiences to inform her teaching and advising, industry and community engagement, and project-based education, with a focus on continual improvement of engineering education at all levels. She brings together students with local companies to enrich their academic project experiences, and her dedication to early engineering education drives her outreach with local vocational schools, community organizations, and pre-K-12 programs. Her goal is to provide an outstanding practical classroom education with opportunity to solidify understanding of theory. Not to be confused with her other job: she is a mother of two young children, a lifelong soccer lover and player, and a newly minted Kindergarten soccer coach.
Scarlett Shell
Biology and Biotechnology
My research is motivated by two things: my desire to help reduce the impact of infectious diseases on humanity, and my love for understanding how living organisms work. So, my lab studies the inner workings of pathogenic bacteria to better understand how they do things like survive antibiotics and tolerate stressful conditions. Some of my favorite moments are when we make a new discovery and realize we know something that no human has ever known before! When I’m not working, one of my favorite things is spending time outdoors with my kids and my partner.
Donna Taylor
STEM Education Center at WPI
