BME Seminar Series—Alumni Panel Career Advice

The Department of Biomedical Engineering will be hosting alumni to discuss their career paths and to answer any questions.

Panelists include:

• Sophia Pilipchuk (BME ’12): After receiving an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Illinois Tech in 2012, Pilipchuk entered a Ph.D. program in BME at the University of Michigan. Her research work focused on the design and development of polymer scaffolds for the regeneration of bone-ligament interfaces using three-dimensional printing and micropatterning in combination with gene therapy. As a graduate student, she became interested in patent law and worked as a tech transfer fellow at the Michigan's Office of Technology Transfer, focusing on the evaluation of invention disclosures. After completing her doctoral dissertation, she spent a year as a biomedical innovation fellow in the pediatric surgery section of the University of Michigan Hospital System focusing on the development of pediatric medical devices as part of the Michigan Pediatric Device Consortium. Since 2018 she have been working in a law firm focusing on patent prosecution. In 2020 she became a registered patent agent permitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in patent-related matters.
• April Wanagas (BME/M.ENG. CHE ’17): Wanagas is a manager in the management consulting practice at Credera and is currently leading an international program implementation for a Fortune 200 brand. Her primary experience is in agile software delivery, process improvement, and project management. Prior to joining Credera, Wanagas worked for W.W. Grainger, building the foundations of a strategic workforce management practice within their technology organization and transforming their campus recruiting programs. She graduated from Illinois Tech as a multi-sport student-athlete in 2017 with an M.ENG in chemical engineering and a B.S. in biomedical engineering.