Difference between revisions of "Team:MIT/Team"

Ayesha is a rising sophomore majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, although she finds practically every discipline at MIT interesting. From iGEM, she hopes to gain wet lab experience of substance and a context in which to think about the endless possibilities of synthetic biology. She is particularly excited about the intersection of synthetic biology, computer science, and neuroscience. Beyond academics, Ayesha enjoys singing, photographing, being outdoors, and perusing Wikipedia.

Nick is a rising junior in the Biology department at UMass Amherst. At school, he works with electroconductive bacteria called Geobacter for biosensing applications. He is excited to be living in Cambridge and working at MIT over the summer, especially for synthetic biology. Nick hopes to develop new methods of metabolic wiring between multiple bacteria to create a highly integrated consortium with unique intercellular properties. He is currently working on achieving the world record for the tastiest stir-fry containing the most ingredients, and is also a shoe-in for the most likely to drop a beat while working in lab.

Molly Brennan is a rising sophomore at MIT majoring in Chemical-Biological Engineering or Biological Engineering. She became interested in synthetic biology after learning about the field through Lemelson-MIT in high school. iGEM seemed like the perfect way to begin contributing to the field of synthetic biology. She hopes that this project will reduce reliance on nonrenewable resources, such as those composed of methane. In the future, she hopes to further explore the medical applications of biological engineering and synthetic biology. In her free time, she enjoys dancing in MIT's DanceTroupe and sailing.

Marjorie Buss is a rising sophomore at MIT majoring in Chemical-Biological Engineering and minoring in Math. She is very excited about iGEM’s project this year because of its potential to contribute to alternative energy technology. She is also excited to learn about modeling metabolic systems and about synthetic biology, and to gain wet lab experience. Her previous experiences include working in a chemical engineering lab at MIT during her freshman year, and interning in a thermal coatings and contamination engineering lab at NASA Goddard last summer. Outside of iGEM, Marjorie is a member of MIT’s lightweight rowing team, and holds leadership positions in MIT’s energy club in Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority. She also enjoys running, playing tennis, reading, and being texted random things.

Ryan Chung is a rising Sophomore in Computational Biology at MIT. He is excited to work with the iGEM team as there are many opportunities to learn the cutting edge techniques associated with synthetic biology and hopes to apply some of his previous Computer Science knowledge for the project. He is interested in this project in particular because of the interesting applications of biofuels. In his free time he enjoys going out, staying in, chasing Canadian Geese and beatboxing battles in lab.

Alyssa is a freshman studying Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (she doesn't really know what she's doing with her life). She had minimal biology experience in high school but has been excited about synthetic biology ever since she was given a tour around a biohack-space in London and learnt about the possibilities for "hacking" real living organisms, such as growing human chins on the backs of mice or maybe even mouse chins on the backs of humans. She is looking forward to applying mathematical computery techniques to the project and maybe picking up a few squishy lab skills too. Outside of iGEM Alyssa enjoys bobbing her head to electronic music and scavenging for free food.

Jesse Gibson is a rising sophomore in course 6-7: computer science and molecular biology. He became interested in engineering after participating on his high school robotics team and decided to explore synthetic biology as an interesting application of engineering to complex, micro-scale systems. He is particularly interested in the intersection of technology and biology as well as the design of genetic circuitry to emulate logical input-output systems. In his free time, he enjoys reading, biking, and playing Super Smash Bros. (Melee, of course).

Wendi Guraziu is a rising sophomore in the Biology department at MIT. She got hooked on bio in high school and learned about iGEM and synthetic biology in her high school bio and biotechnology classes. She is very excited about the potential of synthetic biology to improve quality and efficiency for the huge number of possible applications in both home and industrial settings. Wendi loves to travel and go on long walks, try tasty foods from every country Italy to Iraq, cheer on her Chicago Blackhawks, and dance like nobody's watching even when everybody's watching. Outside of iGEM, she is involved in Society of Women Engineers and her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega.

Nathan is a junior at MIT studying molecular biology and computer science. He came to MIT to study biology and is often asked how the two fields of his major work together. There are all sorts of great reasons to study biology and computer science, but he really just added it to his major for fun (he’s a believer that one ought to enjoy life, even work). He finds great joy in creating, whether it’s building a complex program up from simple keywords or an interesting biological system. His interest in these two fields led him to be captured by iGEM’s clever poster about programming life. Despite being interested in learning very many things, he’s focusing on biology because he hopes to use his biology and computer and any other sort of knowledge to heal people. On top of MIT and research, Nathan is very involved in his church; he served a two year church mission in Germany and would love it if you would speak German with him. He also enjoys sailing, hiking, learning everything, and wishes he knew robotics.

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Lyla Atta is a rising junior in Biological Engineering. She is very interested in cellular biology and biochemistry, and especially interested in applications of these areas to neurobiology. At some point in the far (or near?) future she wishes to find science-based answers to questions that were previously thought to be philosophical: what is thinking, understanding and learning? How do all these processes occur in systems that are made up of mere chemicals. Lyla was part of the 2014 MIT iGEM team. It was the first time she had the opportunity to get some laboratory experience (which she was in dire need of, having never worked in a lab before). She is now working with some of her fellow 2014 iGEM team members on a spin-off project while mentoring this year's iGEM. Outside science-related things, Lyla is very interested in education policy and enjoys outdoor activities.

Erik Ersland is a Junior majoring in Biological Engineering. Erik is participating in iGEM because it offers a good opportunity to contribute useful work to the scientific and engineering community and because it provides training and perspective that will help him continue to contribute in the future. Previous experience includes two summers interning at Clearwater Analytics as a software developer and numerous garage based projects. He is interested in research that will improve human quality of life, namely technologies with applications in regenerative medicine. Hobbies outside of iGEM include learning about new things, cooking (often for groups), sewing (things like plushies), and mechanical projects.

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Viirj Kan is a graduate student and researcher at the MIT Media Lab in the Tangible Media Group. Her research involves the development of interactive, material systems that enable humans to interact with digital and biochemical information. Currently she is working on organic materials that can be tuned, programmed and controlled for architectural, human-computer interaction, and biocompatible applications. Prior to MIT, Viirj was involved in a number of user experience and industrial design projects from consulting with early stage startups, to conducting human-robot interaction research at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Design at Art Center College of Design.

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