Dr. Ga-Young Kelly Suh (aka, Kelly) is a founder of CardioVascular Research Club, and actively mentoring students to execute researches including medical device design with aid of 3D printing, computational modeling of challenging cases in heart or vessels, and other applications such as ventricular assist device since she joined CSULB as an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Also, Dr. Suh is joint affiliated as an adjunct professor of Vascular Surgery at Stanford University for collaborative researches with physicians and industries.
Dr. Suh’s research focuses on application of computational analysis to human data relevant to endovascular surgery with medical devices. Her research employs a multidisciplinary approach to recruit patients, manage clinical trials, acquire medical images, and develop tools to extract measurement for vascular surgeons and device manufacturers. She has worked with medical device companies including Medtronic, Terumo, Bentley, and W. L. Gore & Associates.
Annie Dinh graduated Spring 2021 with her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She conducted research on Kawasaki Disease and was the head of the Kawasaki Disease Team up until her completion of her undergrad journey. Her latest research was on Kawasaki Disease’s effect on the coronary arteries, but past research included analyzing articles dealing with Fontan Procedure, coarctation of the aorta, and congenital heart defects. Annie is currently attending a Master’s program of BME at UCI, starting Fall 2021. She will be working with Professors Yoonjin Won, Wendy Liu, and Scott Atwood on identifying cells using Machine Learning methods for her BME Master’s project/thesis.
Amara Nakamura graduated Spring 2021 with her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Her particular interests intersect biomechanics and technology with applications for physical rehabilitation, injury prevention, physical/mental health, and medical diagnoses in clinical settings. Her research with her team and Dr. Ga-Young Suh allowed her to explore the complex study of neurological diseases through patient modeling, simulations, and computational blood flow analysis of the cerebral region. Amara worked as a private math tutor alongside her CVRC research and schooling. Amara is currently attending a Bridge to PhD program as a BME Bridge Scholar and Research Assistant at Columbia University. She will be working with Professor Qi Wang on utilizing experimental and theoretical approaches to investigate how the brain extracts information about the outside world through the electrical activity of neurons. Her future goals include pursuing a PhD in BME after and continuing to work in research settings to contribute to patients’ holistic wellness worldwide. Amara’s interests outside of academia include soccer, yoga, surfing, poetry, podcasts, and spending as much time in the outdoors as possible.
Kasra Farahbod is currently in his fourth year as a BME student at CSULB. He is currently one of two members of the Cerebro Team, and his role entails patient modeling and simulation via SimVascular. His interest in neurological diseases led his desire to focus on open-source softwares SimVascular, ParaView, and ITK-SNAP to model patient data. With analyzation of results, he hopes to understand effects of elevated pressure and stress in the body, and in turn discover alternate theories to better justify patient behavior during analyzation of neurological diseases.
Jessica Blair graduated Spring 2021 with her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She was a member of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) and National Society of Leadership and Success. Her research began into cardiovascular diseases, where she began to focus on valve replacement via different surgical techniques, and analyzation of hemodynamic parameters in the heart. She teamed up with Dr. Ga-Young Kelly Suh in 2019 to analyze aortic valve replacement in patients who had received Tricuspid valves (Edwards Lifesciences) and Bicuspid valves (St. Jude Medical), observing the effects of these replacements. Jessica’s latest research used programs such as SimVascular and ITK-SNAP for patient-specific computational modeling of aorta, left ventricle, and coronary arteries, and ParaView to observe wall shear stress and pressure changes in these models, as well as deformation of the strut and ring of the valve during different cardiac cycles. She also used MATLAB to analyze the results from the modeling. From this research, she learned of the effects that wall shear stress and pressure have on the heart, specifically the left ventricle, aorta, and coronary arteries. Her hopes were to further this research to analyze leaflet degeneration, possibly taking these results and generating design techniques via SolidWorks. She is currently working at a company as motivated and patient focus as she is, applying what she’s learned as an Engineer I at Edwards Lifesciences. During her undergrad, she also helped coach AYSO teams and was an instructional student assistant (ISA) for a class at CSULB. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer, exercising, going to the beach, and enjoying time with family, friends, and her dog, Jazmine.
Diana Gonzalez graduated Spring 2021 with her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. Her primary areas of interest include bioelectronics and computer programming. She was a part of the Cardiovascular Engineering and Device Innovation (CEDI) Lab where she worked under the direction of Dr. Ga-Young Kelly Suh on developing educational tools to assist in the teaching of cardiovascular biomechanics and the progression of cardiovascular pathologies via lumped parameter modeling. Additionally, she assumed the role of lead software engineer in a multi-disciplinary assistive device development based project whose team is composed of students from CSULB, SJSU and CSUF. Diana’s research interest came about from the exploration of pacemakers; she spent several months studying pacing hardware and rate detection methods before deciding to shift towards cardiovascular modeling with the objective of eventually studying biological and electronic interfaces. Her additional interests in physiological signal processing combined with her experience in electronics have resulted in a passion for working with implantable therapeutic or diagnostic devices. As a graduate, Diana is looking forward to joining the medical device industry to begin a career in device design and development.
Leila Deeb graduated Spring 2021 with her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. As an involved student of the department, she became a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), and part of Dr. Ga-Young Suh’s cardiovascular research club (CVRC) during her undergrad. Her interest in these fields of study sparked when shadowing a Biomedical Engineer Regional manager for Future Health Biobank of Amman. She created and began her research for CVRC in September of 2019, focusing on 3D stent designing and printing. Leila’s research into articles and applications of stents helped her attain a summer internship position, mentored by Dr. Ga-Young Suh. This led to the continued research of available printers as well relevant software such as SolidWorks, 3D Experience, Artec Studio, Fabpilot, and Chitubox. This inspired her to reach out to major stent companies, such as Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and Bard Medical, forming new connections. As a graduate, Leila would like to continue her stent design research and become a part of a company that promotes and encourages creativity along with critical thinking for such future research ideas. In her free time, Leila enjoys doing solo-travel trips around the world, meeting new people and learning about their culture, religion, and ways of life. This passion for traveling has contributed to her approachable personality and love for socializing and being a part of group activities.
Lara Villanueva is a fifth year BME student at CSULB. She has been apart of the CVRC team since the beginning, and joined with Kasra and Amara to complete patient modeling and simulation via open source programs. They joined together since her research into the brain and its various mechanics such as cognition and cerebrovascular flow correlated with simulation software. Her goal is to work with neuroprosthetic and neurological biomedical devices that focus on treating mental illnesses.
Nia Sanchez graduated Spring 2021 with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering. She was a member of Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), Mathematics Engineering Student Achievement (MESA), Human Factors Ergonomics Society (HFES), Pilipino American Coalitions (PAC), and Beach Engineering Student Success Team (BESST). She joined CVRC’s Cardiovascular Engineering and Device Innovation (CEDI) Lab and has been working with Dr. Ga-Young Kelly Suh since 2019. With her research, Nia utilized patient-specific CT data to create 3D models of artificial valves for bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) and tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) patients. She constructed models of the metallic ring and struts for all 20 cardiac frames (10 frames per cardiac cycle) for further analysis of mechanical stress and shear stress during cardiac pulsation. After completion of the models, Nia extracted geometrical features from the metal struts to characterize the deformation that occurred in each cardiac frame. Nia’s interest in cardiovascular research stems from her goal of expressing the impact that one’s lifestyle choices can have on overall health and longevity. Nia held various leadership positions in affiliated organizations and has planned outreach and community events. As of Summer 2021, Nia is currently interning with Dr. Kalpna Gupta at UCI researching the mechanisms of pain in sickle cell disease (SCD).
Jill Starkey is a sixth year student studying BME at CSULB. Her current goal is to develop a stent design that is adaptable to many circumstances and is able to be used more widely by patients. She is apart of the stent design team, where she is focusing on 3D printing of venous stents using composite materials and modified designs of current marketed stents. She, along with her group, hope to achieve a method that is more personalized for patient needs, becoming a more timely and low cost process focused. Her main academic interest lie in the field of cardiovascular medicine and applicable biomedical devices. Her career goal is to stay involved and focused on research, eventually publicizing her results and analyzation.
Dan Dao is a third year student at CSULB pursing a major in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and a minor in Entrepreneurship. Currently, his goals consist of developing biomedical advancements for this with mobility conditions, and improve existing technologies in that field. He is apart of the stent design team, where his primary activities include analyzation of 3D printers and stent design via SolidWorks. His use of this 3D CAD software will help perfect and analyze different cardiovascular stent design. He has worked as a student intern at KPFF Engineering Consultants since 2018, and helped broaden the future students via his mentorship at FIRST robotics, focusing on mechanical designing.
Alara Blofield is a fourth year BME student at CSULB. She has two Associate Degrees: Natural Sciences and Mathematics, A.A., and Social and Behavioral Sciences, A.A. She hopes to purse a career in medical devices, and is currently part of this CVRC at CSULB. Her main goal is to investigate cardiac medical devices, and she is extremely fond of the cardiovascular system. Her future goal includes graduating within the next few semesters and applying her skills at an internship or research position this upcoming summer.
Kunaal Sarhaya is a current fourth year BME at CSULB. He is currently apart of the TCAR Team, and his goal is to build cardiovascular devices to help improve the lives of patients. This goal can be attained via replacement, stent design, or heart design. Kunaal is planning to graduate within the next few semesters, and is hopeful to find an internship this upcoming summer. In his free time, Kunaal enjoys playing basketball, going to the beach, and spending time with family and friends.
Thao Yen Nguyen is a fourth year BME student at CSULB, expecting to graduate Spring 2022. She joined CVRC in June 2021. In her CVRC training, her current goal is to learn more about the cardiovascular system, Simvascular, ITK-SNAP, and Paraview, to build skills conduct research of cardiovascular devices. She is an international student from Vietnam, and her future goal is to find a good OPT in the US in order to get better job opportunities when she returns to her hometown, as well as challenge to challenge herself. She hopes to help improve patients’ lives in the future. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, spending time with beloved ones, and exploring new food places.
Christian Hernandez is a current fourth year student at CSULB majoring in BME. His hobbies include playing soccer, basketball, and tennis in his free time. He always loves watching soccer and basketball. He likes to go to new food places with his girlfriend every week and maintaining their Instagram of their adventures.
Tessa Boehm is a BME student at CSULB, expecting to graduate Fall 2021. She is fascinated by the use of technology and artificial intelligence for exercise physiology and biomechanics analysis. The CVRC Lab will expand her knowledge of cardiovascular devices and research that can be used for preventative measures. She would love to be a part of a team that works to optimize the health of active individuals – military members, athletes, etc. Coaching basketball has developed in her a passion to help competitive and team-oriented individuals. Gaining experience in cardiovascular health will allow her to better understand how to help keep people healthy while they work toward their goals. Outside of the lab, her hobbies include basketball, hiking and spending time with her family.
Cory Arnold is currently a third year BME student at CSULB. He is currently one of the two members of the Carotid Modeling team, and plans to contribute by adjusting SolidWorks models, creating in vivo accurate SimVascular models, and by 3D printing accurate carotid models for table-top operation testing. Cory is fascinated by cardiovascular medicine that is going to increase the quality and duration of life. In their free time, Cory likes to spend time with family and exercise.
Justin Mel Cortez is a fourth year BME student at CSULB. He is currently a member of the Heart Valve team, where he will continue to perform computational modeling of valve replacement analyses using SimVascular and ITK-SNAP as well as ParaView for other parameters of the heart. Justin was fascinated by the extensive work that Jessica Blair and Nia Sanchez had done previously with their studies and the computational analysis and effects from these programs, so the idea of using computer software to analyze heart data already caught his attention. This along with his passion in providing for the community of healthcare and the biomedical community intrigued him to join Kelly Suh’s CVRC and the Heart Valve team with Thaotho Nguyen. In his free time, Justin enjoys getting his hands dirty by working on his car or producing more music for his Youtube channel: The Noisemaker.
Thaotho Nguyen is a BME student at CSULB, expecting to graduate Spring 2022. She started off shadowing CVRC back in December of 2020 and officially joined the Heart Valve Team in Spring of 2021. She plans to continue the research of utilizing patients’ CT data to model artificial valves for bicuspid and tricuspid aortic valve replacement analyses; using SimVascular, ITK-SNAP, and ParaView. Her career goal is to work within the field of cardiovascular medicine and applicable biomedical devices. Thaotho currently works part-time at Radnet where she collaborates with radiologists to provide high quality outpatient care. Aside from work, she’s a dog mom and a Vietnamese dance teacher. She loves to travel, explore new crafting hobbies, and go on food adventures.
Thao N. V. Nguyen is a senior majoring in BME at CSULB. She is interested in electrophysiology, signal processing and 3-D design. She is under the training process in which she learns to use programs for cardiovascular study and get used to on-going projects in CVRC. She is also in the transition stage of taking over and contributing to Diana and Tess’ circuit analog research. The work in CVRC will help her to build skills on electrical, design and analysis programs such as MATLAB, Arduino, CAD, and so on. Thao would like to join the biomedical industry after graduation, then go back for higher education or additional qualifications if needed.
Kelli Cassacia is a fourth year BME student at CSULB, graduating Spring 2022. She is involved on campus as a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Cardiovascular Research Club (CRVC), and Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). Kelli has been a member of the 3D Printing Team since Fall 2020. After graduation, she anticipates working on the research and development of cardiovascular devices. In her free time, Kelli loves snowboarding, traveling, and reading.
Gabriela Murrieta is a third-year Biomedical Engineering student at CSULB. She is currently pursuing her passion for cardiovascular research under Dr. Ga-Young Kelly Suh’s Cardiovascular Research Club and was conducting research in 3D printed stents. She is also a participant of the LEAP program, where she is helping to develop a project under NextGen Aeronautics’ supervision. Simultaneously, she is an avid member and the historian officer of the Society of Women Engineers on campus. She is aiming to graduate from CSULB with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in May of 2023. Afterward, her academic goal is to pursue either Graduate school in Biomedical Engineering or medical school, all in the hopes of helping as many people as she possibly can. She is a human rights activist and a vegan enthusiast. In her free time, she also enjoys roller skating and creating art.
Jorge Cortes is a senior Biomedical Engineering student at CSULB; his expected graduation is the Fall of 2022. Jorge is currently part of the LVAD Team under Dr. Ga-Young Kelly Suh’s supervision in CVRC. As part of the Research Club, he hopes to learn new skills while exploring his interest in the Cardiovascular Biomedical Engineering field. In his free time, Jorge enjoys mountain biking and 3-D printing various projects.