4TU.Alumni US Tour - San Francisco, San José, Boston and New York

Location: Dutch Consulate General - 120 Kearny St, San Francisco, CA 94108
Time: 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Format: Mini-talks by alumni, university updates & network borrel

Speakers

During this event, the following alumni will give a presentation.

Vincent Duindam

Vincent Duindam, alumnus of UT - Sr Director of Software Engineering at Intuitive Surgical.

Vincent Duindam received his MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from TU Delft and a PhD in Robotics from the University of Twente. His research involved modeling and control of bipedal walking robots. Following graduation, he spent two years as a postdoc at UC Berkeley focused on robotic applications in the medical space, specifically on steerable flexible needles.

In 2008, Vincent joined Intuitive Surgical as a control engineer to build medical robots in a more applied setting. He worked initially in research projects but then helped bring Intuitive’s Ion robotic bronchoscope from first prototypes through a clinical study to commercial launch. Vincent currently leads the software organization for Intuitive’s Endoluminal business unit.

Twan Kamp

Twan Kamp, alumnus of TU/e - Software Engineering Director, Philips Hue.

Twan Kamp grew up wanting to become an "inventor". When trying to build a robot from parts of a broken video recorder didn't quite work out, he decided to study electrical engineering and computer science at Eindhoven University of Technology to learn the real thing. After an active student life, and gaining experience at IBM Research and ASML, he became a software architect for Philips Hue where he set out to transform a boring light bulb into an exciting product offering wellbeing, security, and entertainment.

Today Philips Hue is the world's leading smart home lighting system, and Twan heads the global software engineering department out of the Bay Area tasked with expanding the Hue ecosystem. Throughout this journey he published 20+ patents, built full-stack engineering teams from scratch, and launched multiple first-of-a-kind products. As an industry expert in the smart home sector, he specializes in designing large scale distributed systems spanning cloud computing, embedded software, networking, and - buzz-word alarm - AI.

Magdalena Preciado Lopez

Magdalena Preciado Lopez, alumna of TUD - Assoc. Director, Cellular Models & Assay Tech., Calico Labs

Magdalena Preciado Lopez  joined Calico in 2017, and today leads the Cellular Models and Assay Technologies group, whose mission is to develop state-of-the-art protein, cell, and tissue-based assay systems to accelerate early research and drug discovery, and to implement novel technologies to measure and manipulate cellular and protein function in vitro and in vivo. In addition to this, Magdalena leads a couple collaborations with internal and external partners to study vascular and renal aging.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Magdalena has pursued her love of science and culture around the world since graduating from high school at the United World College, USA. Her post-secondary education began at Cornell University where she earned a bachelor’s of science in Engineering Physics and was followed by a teaching role in Physics at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar where she discovered her fascination with Biology. From the Middle East, she landed in Europe where she pursued a Erasmus Mundus master’s program in Nanoscience and Molecular Bioengineering at the TU Delft, in the Netherlands and the TU Dresden, in Germany. Her global pursuit of education culminated with a PhD at the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, followed by a brief postdoctoral stay at TU Delft.

After receiving her PhD, Magdalena was awarded the prestigious Rubicon Grant to pursue her postdoctoral studies. She returned to the US as a Visiting Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the laboratory of Dr. Clare M. Waterman, whose work pioneered our understanding of how the cell cytoskeleton generates forces to propel cells forward. During her tenure, Magdalena learned how to “look” at cells using advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques, and she continued to apply her quantitative and programming skills to challenging biological questions.

Pauline Teunissen

Pauline Teunissen, alumna of WUR - Global Application Leader - Grain processing, IFF

Pauline Teunissen completed her Bachelor and Master degree in Food Technology at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and followed that with a Ph.D. in Industrial Microbiology also from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. After her Ph.D. she did an industrial post-doc at Genencor International BV, based in Leiden.

Pauline joined Genencor International in Leiden as a scientist in the R&D organization where she was responsible for biochemical assay development for novel enzyme screenings and has built the foundation for the high throughput screening laboratory in our R&D facility in Leiden, The Netherlands. After 6 years in the R&D organization Pauline took the role of EMEA Regional Applications leader for the Grain Processing business and within that role built up the lab capabilities and the team of scientists. Within this role the main focus was on technical customer support and the development of enzyme and yeast solutions for the carbohydrate processing and fuel ethanol industry.

In 2011, Pauline relocated to Palo Alto, CA, USA to join the R&D organization of Genencor International, by then acquired by Danisco, to head the research group for grain applications and further expanded her responsibilities in 2016 to R&D project portfolio leader for Grain Processing in DuPont (formerly Danisco)

Currently Pauline is Global Applications Director for Grain Processing, Health & Biosciences at IFF and leads the applications teams for Latin America, North America, EMEA and ASPAC. In this role she is responsible for the overall technical product and application development and customer support for the different regions.

Location: San Pedro Square Market - 87 N San Pedro St, San Jose, CA 95110
Time: 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Format: Family friendly lunch with pizza prepared by the alumnus owned Pizza Bocca Lupo

When signing up for this event, please use the 'remarks' field in the form to let us know how many family members you will be bringing with you.

Location: Scores Boston - 166 Canal St, Boston, MA 02114
Time: 5:30pm - 9:00pm
Format: Panel discussion with alumni researchers, university updates & network borrel

Speakers

During this event, alumni researchers will share details about their current work as well as ambitions for the future.

Fabio Izzi

Fabio Izzi began his academic journey in mechanical engineering at Politecnico di Milano. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he moved to TU Delft for the MSc in Biomechanical Design and BioRobotics. For his master’s thesis, he designed a control algorithm for a lower limb exoskeleton that responds to the user’s arm movement. Later, Fabio joined the PhD program at IMPRS-IS, in collaboration with the University of Tübingen. There, he investigated the role of muscle mechanics in fast locomotion and its application to bio-inspired robots. Now in Boston, Fabio is a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University in Professor Song’s lab. His current research involves customizing neuromusculoskeletal models to enhance the development and evaluation of wearable robotic devices.

Mariana Matus

Mariana Matus is CEO and Cofounder of Biobot Analytics, the first company in the world to bring wastewater epidemiology to market. Biobot uses cutting-edge technology to transform sewers into public health observatories, effectively using wastewater data to evaluate and improve the health of communities. Mariana holds a Masters degree in Biotechnology from Wageningen University. She received her PhD from the department of Biological Engineering at MIT in Computational Biology, where she specialized in the emerging field of wastewater epidemiology. In addition to her doctoral studies, Mariana cofounded the MIT Underworlds Smart Sewers Project, leading the vision and funding for an interdisciplinary research project with collaborators from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. This work led to the creation of Biobot Analytics, and set the scientific foundation for Biobot’s wastewater intelligence platform—now serving the CDC and communities across all 50 US states. Mariana plans to expand Biobot’s venture backed platform into communities all over the globe.

Mariana has been recognized for her leadership and entrepreneurial excellence through several awards. In 2020, she was named to the C&EN Trailblazing Women in Chemistry. She made Newsweek’s list of America’s 50 Greatest Disruptors in 2021, and their list of America’s 50 Enterprising Idealists in 2022. Boston Globe named Dr. Matus #8 on their inaugural 50 Tech Power Players list for 2022, and TIME100 NEXT recognized her as a 2022 industry innovator. Most recently, she was named a 2023 Henry Crown Fellow within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.

Jacopo Movilli

Jacopo Movilli is a chemist by training. He is interested in controlling the processes happening at the interface of man-made systems, ranging from biosensors to adaptive materials, in order to modulate their responses and properties across length scales. Jacopo obtained his bachelor’s degree at the University of Siena (Italy), with a joint thesis project conducted at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), and his master’s degree at the University of Padua (Italy). He then moved to the Netherlands to pursue his PhD in molecular biorecognition at the University of Twente, where he developed a universal functionalization strategy to engineer interfaces for DNA detection, as well as an artificial platform to mimic and quantify the dynamic behaviour of influenza viruses. As a postdoc at the University of Groningen, he investigated how nanoscopic changes at the interface of microscopic objects induce the emergence of life-like characteristics such as motility and shape-morphing in artificial systems like liquid crystals (LC).

With his MSCA brightLINK project, he will work at the Universities of Harvard (US) and Padua to design bioinspired macroscopic objects that express propulsion, self-aggregation and communication upon light irradiation. By exploiting photoresponsive molecules embedded in LC-based architectures, brightLINK will help advance the development of soft robotics and intelligent materials that perform work continuously under a constant input of energy

Location: Dutch Consulate General - 666 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10017
Time: 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Format: Panel discussion with alumni researchers, university updates & network borrel

Speakers

At this gathering at the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, four local alumni researchers will share details about their current work as well as ambitions for the future.

Raf Antwerpen (TU/e), PhD Candidate @ Columbia University | Data Science, ML, GIS, Climate | Fulbright Alumnus

Raf Antwerpen received his BSc in Applied Physics from Eindhoven University of Technology in 2017 and two MSc's in Climate Physics and Geophysics from Utrecht University in 2020. During his Master's programme, he visited Columbia University on a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research for his thesis. In 2020, he started his PhD programme at Columbia University. Raf is passionate about tackling challenges in Earth and climate studies. His research focuses on understanding the impact of climate change on glacier and ice sheet melting using machine learning, satellite data, and climate models.

Natalia Iyke (WUR), Senior Research Scientist @ Werewool | PhD, Protein Science

Natalia Iyke is a WUR alumna. She completed the MSc programme in Medical Biotechnology and a PhD in Protein Science with Prof. Renko de Vries. Natalia is dedicated to uncovering novel functional proteins and their potential applications to address urgent societal needs. As a postdoc at Penn State University (USA), Natalia studied proteins originating from marine organisms for use in textiles as a greener alternative for fast fashion. Later she joined Unilever R&D (UK) and worked on enzymes for eco-friendly detergents and packaging.

Upon return to the USA, Natalia supported the Modern Meadow team for two years to utilize recombinant proteins to make vegan leather and just recently joined Werewool to help redesign textiles for the circular economy. In her spare time, Natalia is interested in fashion and ecology, but most of all she loves spending time in nature with her husband and 2-year-old son.

Hung Nguyen (TUD), Postdoctoral Research Scientist @ Earth Science Research Center of Columbia University | Water, climate, society

Hung Nguyen is a water guy. In his research, he seeks to understand the variability and changes in the water cycle at multiple spatial and temporal scales, and apply such understanding to water resources management. Hung holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the National University of Singapore and an MSc from TU Delft in Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resource Management.

Before returning to academia, Hung was an engineer, running water treatment plants in Qatar and Singapore. Having seen the bolts and nuts of water resources systems, and the problems they inherited from a larger scale, he appreciates the importance of systematic planning and operation. That triggered him to pursue a PhD in Engineering Systems and Design, with a focus on water resources management at the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD). Hung is currently a Postdoc research scientist at the Columbia Climate School Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO).

Hauke Sandhaus (UT), PhD Student Information Science @ Cornell Tech | Wicked Design Problems in Human-AI-Interaction

Hauke Sandhaus is a PhD student in Information Science at Cornell Tech, currently researching wicked design problems in Human-AI-Interaction to create an ethical future of automation. Advised by assistant professor Qian Yang and co-advised by associate professor Wendy Ju, Hauke's methods address Design at the Policy and Tech level simultaneously. Prior to his PhD studies, Hauke worked as a UX Design-Technologist at the Volkswagen Group Future Center in Potsdam, Germany. There, he was part of a team that designed an inclusive user experience for fully autonomous vehicles without steering wheels, with a focus on voice interactions. He built both fully functional prototypes and semi-functional WOZ experiences to test the designs.

Hauke has a diverse set of skills, including team leadership, UX design, coding, user research, and hardware prototyping. He holds a Master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction from Bauhaus Universität Weimar (Germany) and a Bachelor's degree in Creative Technology from Universiteit Twente (Netherlands), where he graduated with honors and cum laude respectively.