Published June 04, 2025
By : Staff Writer
Yazmin Feliz, Ph.D., is currently a lead mentor and instructor at the Northeast I-Corps Hub. She leads training sessions for NSF I-Corps teams on customer discovery and innovation.
As a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University Medical Center, Dr. Feliz specialized in the development of medical imaging solutions and supporting translational research.
She earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics of Computation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University.
In addition, she holds certifications in supply chain management and project management.
Growing up in the Bronx with an immigrant mother from the Dominican Republic, Feliz told a Career Communications Group magazine that she was deeply aware of the sacrifices her mother made to provide her with opportunities for success.
Young Yazmin attended her first science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workshop in sixth grade and worked diligently to obtain full scholarships for both her undergraduate and graduate studies.
During college, she took on leadership roles in various projects and was introduced to research in 2008.
She co-authored her first publication and received awards at the RPI Undergraduate Research Symposium and the Cornell Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation Conference.
Feliz emphasized the importance of having someone believe in you to achieve your goals and encourages building a supportive network.
She began her Ph.D. studies as a GEM Fellow and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in 2016.
She went on to launch a startup, aiming to provide a more user-friendly and economical imaging system for remote patient monitoring.
Her groundbreaking work led to the development of the first handheld ultrasound machine capable of producing low-cost 3D sonograms, earning her a feature on the cover of Hispanic Engineer magazine in the spring of 2022.
After completing her postdoctoral studies in biomedical engineering at Columbia University Medical Center, where she focused on creating affordable medical ultrasound imaging technology, Feliz secured $460,000 from the Schmidt Family Foundation to develop low-cost ultrasound prototypes.
She also established her own company to further her research in this field.
A recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP), Feliz is dedicated to advancing technology from the laboratory to the market.
At Columbia University, she played a key role in supporting the commercialization efforts of early-stage companies in collaboration with Columbia Tech Ventures.
Additionally, she served as an adjunct instructor for the Columbia Start Me Up Bootcamp and as the chief of staff at an investment group dedicated to diversifying startup capital.
Moreover, she was part of the investor panel for PitchForce, where she offers valuable advice and networking opportunities to entrepreneurs.
Her professional background includes leading consumer product reformulations and managing product lifecycles at pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies in both the United States and Latin America.
Her startup aims to provide a more user-friendly and economical imaging system that users can operate comfortably at home.
