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Meet the Siebel Scholars

Vikram AggarwalJohns Hopkins University, Bioengineering, Class of 2011

By day, Vikram Aggarwal is figuring out how to translate brain signals into control of an upper-limb prosthesis. When he leaves the lab, his focus turns to the medical device startup he co-founded to measure central venous pressure in a non-invasive manner.

As a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Vikram’s neuroengineering research is funded by a $30 million grant from DARPA. This grant tasked several universities with developing a fully neurally controlled upper-limb prosthesis that functions like a regular arm, with signals from the brain controlling the limb using thought alone. Vikram’s work focuses on developing the algorithms that translate the brain’s neural activity to direct control of the hand and fingers of the mechanical arm.

While he enjoys cutting-edge research and tackling problems that lead to impactful solutions, Vikram’s long-term plans are to move into the private sector. Through his medical device startup, he has gained hands-on business experience – patenting the use of ultrasound to measure the pressure in the veins, undergoing clinical trials, and winning several business plan competitions which provided seed funding for the company’s operations and growth.

Vikram received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, where he gained over two years of industry experience as part of their co-op program. He also holds a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

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Lucas SmithUniversity of California, San Diego, Bioengineering, Class of 2011

As an Air Force officer, Lucas Smith coordinated operational logistics to deploy thousands of troops and tons of cargo out of Washington state’s McChord Air Force Base. As a Ph.D. candidate in Bioengineering at UC San Diego, he applies similar leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills to his “bench to bedside” research on cerebral palsy muscles to translate his lab work into patient therapies.

Lucas is developing therapeutic targets in order to design a novel drug therapy for cerebral palsy. Through UCSD’s “Med-into-Grad” program, he works in collaboration with the Rady Children’s Hospital, and interacts with patients and families to learn first-hand what problems they’re facing in order to address them in the lab. Based on his conversations with cerebral palsy patients, Lucas decided to research treatments to address their concerns about the impact that periodic spasms have on their mobility, rather than researching the root cause of the spasms themselves. He obtains muscle biopsy samples from patients at the Children’s Hospital to measure single cell mechanics, determine which genes regulate different muscles, how they adapt to neurological inputs, and why they react in certain ways.

After completing his Ph.D. program, Lucas plans to continue his academic research in a post-doctoral position in muscle physiology. Future plans also include his spring 2011 wedding to fiancée Lindsay, a medical student.

Lucas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.

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Arvind IyengarStanford University, Business, Class of 2011

Arvind Iyengar’s career path took an unusual course, thanks to a reality TV show called “Dream Job.” Then a McKinsey consultant, Arvind was selected from 10,000 participants, made the cut to first 50 and then 18 contestants, and was ultimately selected by the viewing audience as one of two finalists. Though the judges selected him as the runner-up, the show opened doors to his dream job – working in the sports industry at ESPN Star, Asia’s largest sports broadcaster and content provider.

Arvind spent a year in Singapore on the flagship show “SportsCenter,” where his popular sports column for the website led to an on-air position hosting a segment on sports statistics. While he enjoyed his experience as a sports writer and presenter, he wanted to leverage his love of sports and his entrepreneurial interests, and hone his burgeoning management skills. To help him accomplish this next goal of launching his own business, he enrolled in Stanford’s MBA program in the fall of 2010.

Now in his final year of his MBA, Arvind remains engrossed in the sports world. This past summer, he interned in New York City for the National Basketball Association, and launched his own sports analytics startup (http://f1ratings.com/) which uses multivariable regression models to rank Formula 1 drivers independent of their car.

After completing his studies, Arvind plans to focus on F1 Ratings to offer tools that measure and value performance in sports – particularly in sports like cricket and Formula 1 racing, which currently lack analytics. Longer term, he hopes to improve India’s sports infrastructure – from building playing fields to establishing competitive leagues – to develop more athletes as role models. In addition to his MBA, Arvind holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

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Li Tsun MooreStanford University, Computer Science, Class of 2001

By the age of 15, Li Tsun Moore had lived in five different countries across four continents. His parents wanted their children to experience cultures other than their Seattle neighborhood, so during his adolescence, Li and his sister did home stays with families in France, Ecuador, China, and Japan, staying with each family for one to two years.

This international theme re-emerged during Li’s first project as a Software Engineer at Google in 2001. If you’ve used Google from a different country, you can thank Li and the volunteer translators who helped internationalize the search engine’s homepage to be available in multiple languages.

Currently, Li is focused on Google’s infrastructure, working on Bigtable – distributed databases that query differently from traditional databases in order to simplify performance and add scalability for Google’s applications. When searching on Google, or using any of the Google applications, Li’s work allows billions of users to access the stored data quickly. Whatever he’s working on, Li says he’s happiest when he’s learning and can see the benefits to users, whether they are internal or external.

Outside the office, Li enjoys endurance sports – such as swimming, biking, and running in any combination. He’s completed several triathlons, half marathons, and 10K runs.

Li received both his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and his Master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.

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Joyce PanStanford University, Computer Science, Class of 2008

Joyce Pan arrived at Stanford prepared to study engineering – she loved math and logic puzzles – but she wasn’t ready to give up her interest in the arts. So Joyce looked for coursework in which she’d be able to follow all those passions. Now, with two Computer Science degrees focusing on graphics as well as a minor in Studio Art, she is able to combine the creativity of computer programming with the visual creativity of filmmaking and storytelling.

During her undergraduate years, Joyce worked for a Ph.D. lab rendering images to visualize data for physics-based simulations. After graduation, Joyce brought that experience to DreamWorks Animation, where she works closely with artists to develop innovative digital lighting software. As a Technical Director on such films as Monsters vs. Aliens and Shrek Forever After, Joyce serves as a conduit between artists and software developers while also contributing to workflow design and tool implementation. While Joyce focuses on specific software problems on a day-to-day basis, she also enjoys witnessing the overall filmmaking process – from conception to storyboard to production to the final release.

In her spare time, Joyce practices wushu – a performance-based Chinese martial art – and plays violin in a community orchestra in Los Angeles, where she currently resides.

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Get to know our featured Scholars. Click the images to learn more.

With 80 new Siebel Scholars each year, our community is growing fast. To learn about a Scholar, click any name below or search by name.

Name	Year	School	Study	Location
Renee Chan	2005	Chicago Booth School	Business	Boston, MA, United States
Steven Fechheimer	2005	Chicago Booth School	Business	Chicago, IL, United States
Jim McCabe	2005	Chicago Booth School	Business	Springfield, VA, United States
Kirk Ziehm	2005	Chicago Booth School	Business	Park Ridge, IL, United States
Warren Brown	2005	Harvard University Business	Business	Winchester, MA, United States
Rebecca Greenawalt	2005	Harvard University Business	Business	Denver, CO, United States
Bryon Krug	2005	Harvard University Business	Business	Arlington, VA, United States
Jeffrey Liaw	2005	Harvard University Business	Business	San Francisco, CA, United States
Fernando Vigil	2005	Harvard University Business	Business	Boston, MA, United States
Nitzan Gadish	2005	MIT CS	Computer Science	Cambridge, MA, United States
Albert Lin	2005	MIT CS	Computer Science	Stanford, CA, United States
Alp Simsek	2005	MIT CS	Computer Science	Cambridge, MA, United States
Jim Sukha	2005	MIT CS	Computer Science	Cambridge, MA, United States
Aekkaratt Thitimon	2005	MIT CS	Computer Science
Stella Choi-Ray	2005	MIT Sloan	Business	New York, NY, United States
Liesbet Peeters	2005	MIT Sloan	Business
Aaron Raphel	2005	MIT Sloan	Business	Mountain View, CA, United States
Vikram Sahney	2005	MIT Sloan	Business	Seattle, WA, United States
Lia Sareen	2005	MIT Sloan	Business	New York, NY, United States
Michael Baird	2005	Northwestern Kellogg	Business	Reston, VA, United States
Joshua Bennett	2005	Northwestern Kellogg	Business	Evanston, IL, United States
Philip Enan	2005	Northwestern Kellogg	Business	New York, NY, United States
Shannon Hennessy	2005	Northwestern Kellogg	Business	Dallas, TX, United States
Mrs. Ukonwa Ojo	2005	Northwestern Kellogg	Business	Eden Prairie, MN, United States
Puneet Agarwal	2005	Stanford CS	Computer Science
Tracy Lou	2005	Stanford CS	Computer Science	Mountain View, CA, United States
Sriram Sankaranarayanan	2005	Stanford CS	Computer Science
Eric Sirianni	2005	Stanford CS	Computer Science	Cary, NC, United States
Zubin Wang	2005	Stanford CS	Computer Science	Bellevue, WA, United States
Christopher Bradford	2005	Stanford GSB	Business
Virginia DeJesus-Rueff	2005	Stanford GSB	Business	San Francisco, CA, United States
Tennyson Liu	2005	Stanford GSB	Business	Chicago, IL, United States
Alice Woodwark	2005	Stanford GSB	Business
Sam Yagan	2005	Stanford GSB	Business	Chicago, IL, United States
Christian Bell	2005	UC Berkeley CS	Computer Science	San Jose, CA, United States
Owen Cooper	2005	UC Berkeley CS	Computer Science	Oakland, CA, United States
Arel Cordero	2005	UC Berkeley CS	Computer Science	Berkeley, CA, United States
Ana Merino	2005	UC Berkeley CS	Computer Science
Rajesh Nishtala	2005	UC Berkeley CS	Computer Science	San Francisco, CA, United States
Anthony Kaap	2005	UIUC CS	Computer Science	Burbank, CA, United States
Ivan Lee	2005	UIUC CS	Computer Science	Albuquerque, NM, United States
Yogesh Mehta	2005	UIUC CS	Computer Science	Bellevue, WA, United States
Philip Morton	2005	UIUC CS	Computer Science	Omaha, NE, United States
Paul Spyridis	2005	UIUC CS	Computer Science	Chicago, IL, United States
Aditya Agarwal	2004	Carnegie Mellon University CS	Computer Science	San Francisco, CA, United States
Nikhil Bansal	2004	Carnegie Mellon University CS	Computer Science	Yorktown Heights, NY, United States
Jun Gao	2004	Carnegie Mellon University CS	Computer Science	Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Dr. Nicholas Hopper	2004	Carnegie Mellon University CS	Computer Science	Minneapolis, MN, United States
Aleksandar Nanevski	2004	Carnegie Mellon University CS	Computer Science
Jeremy Getson	2004	Chicago Booth School	Business	New York, NY, United States