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Innovation Speaker Series

Get Inspired. Meet Our Speakers!
Learn more about our speakers and their story here.

Innovation Speaker Series 1: How Computer Science is Changing the World

Dr. Michael Reber

Dr. Michael Reber is a senior scientist focusing on the development of the visual system, particularly the formation of the network between the eye and the brain in normal conditions and in eye diseases. One of his current studies focuses on developing virtual reality games/applications to serve as therapeutic tools for the improvement of quality of life in patients with visual deficits.

Dr. Frances Skinner

Dr. Frances Skinner is a senior scientist whose research in computational neuroscience seeks to determine the cellular-based mechanisms underlying the dynamic output of neuronal networks in both healthy and unhealthy scenarios. Her experience in computer science has led her to develop these sophisticated mathematical models in order to answer complex questions about how the brain functions.

Innovation Speaker Series 2: How Engineering is Changing the World​

Sheillah Bagayana

Sheillah holds a biomedical engineering degree from Makererer. In Uganda, Sheillah is the local manager for FREO2 Foundation, a charity research organization to locally advance research and development of a novel low pressure oxygen system. This system provides uninterrupted supply of oxygen to children currently scaling up in South Western Uganada. 

Sheliah is also a co-founder of Shishi International, a start-up with vision to local assemble and manifacture medical devices for neonatal and maternal care. This company has been supported by USADF and Resilient Africa Network to locally manufacture and assemble oxygen splitters in Uganda. 

Jonathan Ng

Jonathan is currently the Product Manager of Waymo, an autonomous driving technology development company and a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. 

Jonathan grew up reading Popular Science magazines and tweaking router settings to reduce lag while playing online video games. After graduating from University of Toronto’s Electrical and Computer Engineering program, he went on to work at various companies in Silicon Valley including Google, Nest, and now Waymo. In his spare time, Jonathan loves to cook and still enjoys the occasional video game. 

Tommy Liu

Tommy Liu is a Robotics Software Engineer  of Waymo, an autonomous driving technology development company and a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. 

Tommy has been hooked on robotics since reading Asimov and watching Transformers as a kid. After graduating from Engineering Science at University of Toronto in 2010, he studied robotics in graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University. Since moving to Silicon Valley, Tommy has led engineering teams at both small start-ups (Anki Inc) and big companies (Waymo Inc) working on robotics and autonomy, and couldn’t be happier about going to work each day solving some of the toughest problems in robotics today.

Check out our Innovation Speaker Series #1

How Programming Can Change the World