WOMEN IN ENGINEERING PRESENTS:

The Journey to Becoming Women Engineers in Colombia

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2023 • 11:00AM - 12:00PM ET

Jointly presented by two extraordinary women engineers, Adriana and Maria Clara, this presentation shares some inspirational stories from their own journey of becoming engineers in Colombia. Through their eyes, we will see how two girls growing up discovered their passion in science and engineering, and how they pursued their dreams despite many challenges. They'll share their stories of the encouragement they received along the way which guided their careers towards becoming leaders in electronics engineering and bioengineering.

SPEAKER BIOS

Adriana Maldonado Franco

Ph.D. Candidate, Universidad de La Sabana

Adriana Maldonado Franco earned her B.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2007. In the same University, she started working when she was an undergraduate student in engineering applied to healthcare in the telemedicine research group. Then, she moved to Argentina for two and half a years and worked at a hospital leading the biomedical engineering laboratory, while taking biomedical engineering courses at Universidad Favaloro. Returning to Colombia, she worked for a local distributor of radiology medical devices and, in 2014, she obtained a M.Sc. degree in Electronics Engineering, with an emphasis in Biomedical Engineering, from the Escuela Colombiana de Ingenieria Julio Garavito.

Currently, Adriana is a candidate for a Ph.D. degree in Biosciences at Universidad de La Sabana. She is also co-leading an initiative to create the first spin-off of the Universidad de La Sabana, iAMed, with the goal of continuing prototype development and technology transfer of several medical solutions that resulted from previous research projects and have been patented by the University. She is passionate about biological signal acquisition and processing as well as the use of machine-learning and artificial intelligence to solve health related issues.

Maria Clara De La Hoz Romo

Ph.D. Candidate, Universidad de La Sabana

Maria Clara is a Bioengineer with a distinguished academic background from Universidad El Bosque, where she graduated with honors. She is a candidate for a Ph.D. degree in Biosciences at Universidad de La Sabana. Her journey in the field of Bioengineering began during her undergraduate years, where Maria Clara actively contributed to the research efforts of the bioimpedance and proteins research groups at Universidad El Bosque. It was during that time that she developed a profound interest in the intersection of engineering and biology. Her academic pursuits led her to the Laboratorio de Genética Molecular Bacteriana research group, where she developed her thesis project titled "Analysis of the mobilization platforms of the mrsA, tetk, and mphC genes of Colombian isolates of Staphylococcus aureus." This project provided her with invaluable exposure to genomics and the intricate world of biological data analysis.

Presently, Maria Clara’s research efforts are focused on the discovery of compounds with anti-infective properties, particularly as potential treatments for acne vulgaris, exploring the fields of metabolomics and transcriptomics. Her passion lies in the omic sciences, biotechnology, and the utilization of advanced biological data processing techniques to combat antimicrobial resistance and health issues