Yazmin grew up in Bronx, NY to a single mother. Through persistence and hard work, Yazmin obtained full-scholarships to attend undergraduate and graduate programs at leading universities. During college, she became involved in STEM and took on leadership roles in projects in varying areas of engineering. Yazmin went on to work at a fortune 100 company and geared her focus towards learning about the product supply chain life-cycle and how innovations such as the research projects she worked on, were ultimately commercialized and distributed to the end user. Throughout her work in industry and academia, Yazmin has utilized the engineering mindset to develop solutions to global healthcare problems.
After graduating from Columbia University’s mechanical engineering master’s program in May 2017, Yazmin became an NSF fellow in the Creative Machines Lab, under the direction of Dr. Hod Lipson. She recently completed her PhD in mechanical engineering with a special interest in developing life-saving and low-cost ultrasound diagnostics imaging technology. Yazmin is leading the Open-Source Portable Ultrasound project which is driven by a growing interest in intelligent, affordable, and complete point-of-care diagnostic imaging. This technology will be the first-ever imaging system that generates 3D sonograms for under $300 USD in materials cost, paving the way for ultra-affordable modalities to enter the ultrasound market.