2016 Guest Speakers
Mikaylah Gross
Mikaylah is currently a Senior at IUPUI, studying Computer Science & Informatics with a minor in Information Technology. After she graduates, she plans to pursue human factors and accessibility at either Roche Diagnostics or Google.
So far, Mikaylah has worked at several companies, including BitWise Fellows as a Senior Web Designer, WHS Build the Rock as a Web Master, and eImagine Technology Group as a Mobile Software Engineering Intern. Mikaylah also has worked as a Student Mentor and Curriculum Design Assistant for a piloted high school technology initiative, and has worked with Roche Diagnostics as a Diabetic Care Investigation Unit Intern. Mikaylah has earned a multitude of awards, including CIT Women of the Year, Cox Scholar, Honors student, Deans list recipient, NCWIT Aspiration Award winner, etc.
Currently, she is working on two research teams, studying medical data visualization, the impacts of social media, new solutions for military technology, and the creation of adaptive technology. Starting May 2016, Mikaylah will return to Roche Diagnostics as a Human Factors Engineering Intern, helping to create user interfaces of new diabetic meters in their research and development department. When she is not studying or working, Mikaylah enjoys tutoring and teaching programming, logic, and design concepts to high school and college students.
Giselle Flores
Giselle graduated from Ben Davis High School in June of 2015 and is currently a freshman at IUPUI, studying Industrial Engineering. At Ben Davis, Giselle competed on the Ben Davis High School FIRST and VEX Robotics teams, and volunteered with the elementary school WIRES program. She also took numerous Project Lead the Way (PLTW) engineering courses while at Ben Davis. While enrolled in a full course load at IUPUI, Giselle has also been active in organizations both related to engineering as well as her extracurricular interests. Upon graduation, Giselle anticipates becoming a professional industrial engineer.
Hannah Roper
Hannah is from Cicero, Indiana. She is currently majoring in Informatics with a specialization in Cyber Security and a minor in Forensic Science at IUPUI. She became interested in technology and computing in elementary school when learned how to make PowerPoints. In high school she competed in competitions and enjoyed seeing how PowerPoint slides could interact with an audience.
After completing her undergraduate education, Hannah plans to attend graduate school and earn her Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction. In the meantime, Hannah helps to teach Girl Scout Technology Workshops at the School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI. She also works with Little Bits, Finch Robots, Wearable Technology, Virtual Reality, and much more! She feels that the STEM field is becoming important field because there are so many different applications for it now. Hannah is passionate about increasing representation of women in the STEM field.
2015 Past Guest Speakers
Astronaut K. Megan McArthur
Dr. McArthur received her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles in 1993 and her Ph.D. in Oceanography from University of California, San Diego in 2002.
At the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dr. McArthur conducted graduate research in nearshore underwater acoustic propagation and digital signal processing. Her research focused on determining geoacoustic models to describe very shallow water waveguides using measured transmission loss data in a genetic algorithm inversion technique. She served as Chief Scientist during at-sea data collection operations, and has planned and led diving operations during sea-floor instrument deployments and sediment-sample collections. While at Scripps, she participated in a range of in-water instrument testing, deployment, maintenance and recovery, and collection of marine plants, animals, and sediment. During this time, she also volunteered at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, conducting educational demonstrations for the public from inside a 70,000 gallon exhibit tank of the California Kelp Forest.
Dr. McArthur was selected as a mission specialist by NASA in July 2000 and reported for training in August 2000. Following the completion of two years of training and evaluation, she was assigned to the Astronaut Office Shuttle Operations Branch working technical issues on shuttle systems in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL). Dr. McArthur then served as the Crew Support Astronaut for the Expedition 9 Crew during their six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. She also worked in the Space Station and Space Shuttle Mission Control Centers as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM). Dr. McArthur served aboard STS-125, the final Space Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission successfully extended and improved the observatory’s capabilities through 2014. In completing her first space mission, she has logged almost 13 days in space.
She was born in 1971 in Honolulu, Hawaii, considers California to be her home state and is married with one child. Her parents Don and Kit McArthur, reside in San Jose, California. Dr. McArthur enjoys activities such as SCUBA diving, backpacking, and cooking.
Michelle Cox
Michelle Cox grew up in Indiana and received her Bachelors of Science degree in Biological Engineering from Purdue University in May of 2014. She currently works in downtown Indianapolis as an engineer in the Bioproduct Research & Development division for Eli Lilly and Company, a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company. Her role is dedicated to the design and implementation of high throughput robotic processes for lab scale protein preparation and analysis.
In the summer of 2013, Ms. Cox interned at Eli Lilly in the pilot plant where they manufacture medicine that will be used in clinical trials. During her process engineering internship, she worked to optimize a filtration unit operation designed to remove viruses – an improvement that reduced cycle time and cost for the unit operation at Lilly’s manufacturing site in Kinsale, Ireland.
While at Purdue, she conducted research in the Pharmacy department under Dr. Tonglei Li on a project that involved the crystallization of chemotherapeutic medicine for enhanced drug delivery and imaging capabilities. She also discovered and isolated a novel mycobacteriophage while doing research in Purdue’s Biotechnology department.
In her spare time, Ms. Cox maintains her involvement on Purdue’s campus as an Industrial Contact for Purdue’s Women in Engineering Program and is an active member of Lilly’s campus recruiting team. She also enjoys a good book and spending time with her big fluffy dog, Jax.
Are you interested in speaking at this year's Space Day event?
Contact - Ben Davis High School Astronomy Club
Mon-Fri 9am - 3pm
317-840-4229
tucks@student.wayne.k12.in.us
You can also send us a request by submitting this form:
