Yazmin Feliz's parents were originally from the Dominican Republic, but she was born in the U.S.A., grew up in the Bronx, NY, and obtained full scholarships to attend university. Please join us for the 44th episode of the High-Tech Sunday podcast at 3:00 PM EST as we sit down with her to discuss "Blazing Your Own Path" in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2012, Yazmin went on to work at a Fortune 100 company, where she focused on learning about the product supply chain life cycle and how innovations from research projects were ultimately commercialized and distributed. Yazmin has seven years of experience in project management and professional certifications. She also led consumer product reformulations, quality recalls, product lifecycle management, and research and development projects.
Yazmin has been involved in the entrepreneurship landscape since she began graduate studies with a National GEM Consortium Fellowship in 2015 at Columbia University. The National GEM Consortium Graduate Fellowships in Science, Engineering, and STEM fields promote the participation of underrepresented groups in post-graduate science and engineering education and the technical workforce.
In 2016, Yazmin also won a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and is a 2017 Innovative Teaching Fellow. She earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia in 2017.
Upon embarking on her Ph.D., Yazmin worked to solve one of the most pressing problems in global healthcare—inaccessibility to affordable medical imaging used to diagnose and treat conditions ranging from pregnancy complications to cardiovascular malignancies.
Yazmin's research won $460,000 funding from the Schmidt Family Foundation to develop low-cost ultrasound prototypes. Throughout her Ph.D., she cultivated an environment where students from various engineering disciplines could join her team and benefit from mentor-mentee relationships focused on meeting their learning goals and driving personal fulfillment. Yazmin mentored students each semester as part of her research team. She provided technical guidance through regular meetings to help them work collaboratively to meet project goals. She believes that mentorship can support experiences in research and open students to a future in academia or entrepreneurship they may not have previously considered.
In 2020, Yazmin completed her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, with a focus on developing life-saving and low-cost ultrasound diagnostics imaging technology. She is the leading Ph.D. for the Open- Source Portable Ultrasound project. The project's goal is to introduce a portable open-source medical ultrasound that addresses the needs of global users.
Yazmin is considered a subject matter expert in 3D printing low-cost technology for use point-of-care in developing regions. She recently completed the regional and National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, focusing on customer discovery and technology derived in academic lab settings.
In addition, Yazmin is launching her startup, Ultrasonos, distributing the first-ever imaging system that generates 3D sonograms for under $300 in materials cost. This innovation is paving the way for ultra-affordable modalities to enter the ultrasound market and be used in remote patient management, especially during COVID-19 when patients can monitor their health at home via telemedicine consults to avoid trips to the hospital.
High-Tech Sunday's weekly program is produced by and for Career Communications Group's community of alumni and professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, thought leaders, and aspiring students, to bring a robust discussion around technological advancements and achievements based on universal moral principles.
The one-hour podcasts are streamed every Sunday. They can be accessed through the Women of Color Facebook and CCG YouTube pages, in addition to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean, TuneIn, and Spotify.
Career Communications Group (CCG) is celebrating the first anniversary of their podcast, "High-Tech Sunday." The podcast features 44 episodes with topics such as choosing a career in STEM, inspiration, mentoring, professional and personal development, and more. In its inaugural year, "High-Tech Sunday" has attracted hundreds of CCG alumni, BEYA winners, and WOC STEM Award winners and continues to expand its reach.