IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2016 - 14

Emission Tomography department as a
Her family was very technically orisoftware product development specialist
ented. "In my family, if it's not math,
in the field of neurology. Imas says she
then it's science or medicine or engineerleft GE Healthcare because she
ing," Imas says. "I never queshad always enjoyed teaching
tioned that one day I would
over the years-during
enter a science-related
[Teaching]
her post doc, teaching
field as well. So, when
was always
classes at Marquette
it was time to start
something I enjoyed
part time, and while
college and choose
and never thought
at GE Healthcare, as
a career, it was a
an adjunct professor
n at ura l decision
of as work but rather
at MSOE.
to for me to go into
as a sharing of
" Te a c h i n g w a s
engineering. I visited
knowledge and
natural for me," Imas
many nearby universiexperience.
explains. "It was always
ties while I was in high
something I enjoyed and
school, and MSOE really
never thought of as work but
stood out with its outstanding
rather as a sharing of knowledge and
engineering programs."
experience. I thought that eventually I
Imas started at MSOE in computer
wanted to do it full time. And so when
engineering but switched to biomedical
the opportunity to join MSOE presented
engineering within the first year because
itself, I took it. It was a great feeling
she found the field fascinating and
coming back to MSOE as a professor and
impactful. She appreciated that the biogiving back to the university that had
medical field offers many opportunities
contributed so much to my successes. It
to work on the cutting-edge of medical
was also a good decision for my family,
science, developing state-of-the-art techgiving me more time and flexibility to
nology for diagnosis, monitoring, and
spend time with my two daughters and
treatment of diseases. She graduated in
my husband."
1999 with her undergraduate degree and
She rejoined MSOE as a full-time faccompleted her Ph.D. degree in biomediulty member in 2009 and has her own
cal engineering and functional imaging
consulting company iBioTekk, assisting
at Marquette University and the Medical
medical device startups in the develCollege of Wisconsin in 2004.
opment of advanced digital signal and
image processing algorithms and data
It's a good time to get into
Making Professional Transitions
analysis of various biological signals.
the biomedical fields
Her Ph.D. research centered on brain
function, electrophysiology, and the science of anesthesiology. Through the
Olga Imas is an associate professor of
Outreach with IEEE/WIE
application of advanced signal processbiomedical engineering at the MilImas participates in many different
ing methodologies to electrowaukee School of Engineering
outreach efforts, like spearheading
encephalogram signals, she
(MSOE) in the Electrical
the science, technology, engineering,
studied the mechanisms by
Engineering and Computand math (STEM) workshop for high
which general anesthetics
er Science Department.
school girls at the 2015 IEEE USA
produce unconsciousness.
She came to the United
Annual Meeting, chairing the IEEE
Imas then completed a
States at age 16 with her
Women in Engineering (WIE) Section
three-year postdoctoral felfamily from the former
in Milwaukee since 2010 (except for
lowship at the Medical ColSoviet Union in the early
2011-2012), and being involved with
lege of Wisconsin, continuing
1990s. Due to family circummany other MSOE/IEEE events. She
Olga Imas
in the same research field. Her
stances, they came at a time
invites IEEE Members to attend the
research culminated in more than 20
when many others did and settled in
presentations of MSOE senior design
peer-reviewed abstract and full-length
the city where they had family in Milprojects in a professional setting and
publications.
waukee, Wisconsin.
holds poster competitions, career fairs,
Upon completion of the postdoctoral
and career panels. She also serves on
fellowship, she joined the GE Healthcare
the organization committee that plans
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2016.2535739
Computed Tomography and Positron
the annual Great Lakes Biomedical
Date of publication: 9 May 2016
She mingled with techies at events like
SXSW and TEDxVienna, with artists at
museums and art schools and with policy makers in Washington, D.C. Through
having these conversations, she was able
to question her work in different contexts and from different points of view.
Her work-including the examination
of what she was able to do and what she
was unable to do as a biohacker-called
attention to this developing practice, giving the public, she says, "the opportunity
to anticipate and speculate upon a direction before it becomes widespread."
This whirlwind, Dewey-Hagborg
says, was unexpected and great. "The
whole intent at the beginning was to
bring the surveillance issue to light,
to take something invisible and make
it visible," she says. Stranger Visions
accomplished that. She has diverse
groups talking about the ethical,
social, and moral implications of biotechnology, bringing to bear exactly
what Ellen Jorgensen hoped for when
creating Genspace.
-Katianne Williams

Sharing Brain Work
with Girls

o
14

IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE

June 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2016