Members
Noha El-Ghobashy
Chair
Noha El-Ghobashy is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for the Institute for Transformative Technologies (ITT), where she is responsible for ITT’s strategy to amplify the technology-for-development ecosystem by partnering with key stakeholders to develop and scale breakthrough technologies that address global poverty. As a strategic adviser on technology and social impact, her role also includes shaping the thought-leadership and innovation strategies for ITT’s overall portfolio. READ MORE ABOUT NOHA
“The field of engineering is very much about being in service to humanity,” says Noha, who has over 20 years of experience in corporate and nonprofit sectors promoting social and environmental responsibility while advancing core business objectives.
“I became an engineer to help advance human development but, unfortunately, the disadvantaged and underserved communities are often left behind. My work focuses on using the same level of ingenuity, problem-solving skills and investment to ensure these communities’ needs are met and facilitate substantive economic development.”
Prior to ITT, Noha served as Founder and President of Engineering for Change, LLC (E4C), a global alliance of 15 organizations and 1 million+ individuals dedicated to promoting sustainable and accessible technology-based solutions for underserved communities worldwide. She also served as the Executive Director of the ASME Foundation in New York City, focusing on K-16 STEM education, social innovation and sustainable design.
Noha’s diverse professional background has positioned her as a natural connector with networks extending across technology, media, education, policy and global development sectors. She has been invited to stages around the world to share practical advice on ways in which technology and market-based solutions can address varied socioeconomic challenges such as access to adequate housing, electricity, clean water, education and health care.
As Chair of the External Advisory Board of Columbia University's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Noha provides a unique perspective to help shape the department’s curriculum and educational strategy. “Young engineers today are very much interested in the intersection of technology and social and environmental responsibility,” she says. “These interests have propelled me throughout my education and career, so I am thrilled to have the opportunity to help emerging engineers apply their curiosity, skills and interests in this domain.”
Noha earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University and has two U.S. patents related to broadband equipment design. In 2013 she was named the recipient of the American Association of Engineering Societies’ Kenneth Andrew Roe Award and was selected as one of New York Business Journal's Women of Influence. Noha also served as Adjunct Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Wajdi Atallah, PE
Wajdi Atallah is the Principal of SBI Consultants, Inc., a Leadership and Technical Solutions firm based in New York City that provides advisory services on a wide range of development projects throughout the United States, Canada, the Middle East, and the Virgin Islands. At SBI, Wajdi leads project teams to help clients mitigate risk and achieve goals with maximum efficiency. READ MORE ABOUT WAJDI For over 35 years, Wajdi has led complex and challenging construction and project management projects in the private and public sectors, including historic landmarks, hotels, multi-use buildings, transportation hubs, and state-of-the-art research and healthcare facilities. Prior to SBI, Wajdi worked for the George A. Fuller Company as a Project Engineer, Project Scheduler, Cost Engineer, Project Manager, and Superintendent.
“Mechanical engineers are ideally suited for the built environment because our training touches on all systems of a building, including the mechanical, electrical, and structural elements,” he says. “However, successful project management is so much more than interpreting drawings and numbers on a spreadsheet; it involves effective collaboration and communication with colleagues and clients in order to find that unique solution to a problem, implement it, and see it delivered through.”
As a member of the External Advisory Board of Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wajdi informs the board of the built environment’s needs and lobbies for augmenting the engineering curriculum with indispensable communication skills such as writing and presenting. “When you’re out in the real world, you’re not in a lab,” he says. “Engineers need to able to communicate the ideas and issues with confidence, clarity, and conviction in order to help clients understand the relationship between their suggestions and the achievement of their client’s goals.”
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to support the Department of Mechanical Engineering,” Wajdi adds. “It is my way of giving back to Columbia to help further the institution’s mission.”
Wajdi is originally from Lebanon. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. He is a member of the ASCE International and New York Chapters, the Urban Land Institute, and the Grant Monument Association. Wajdi is an adjunct professor at Manhattan College teaching a course on cost estimation
Sean Bradshaw
Sean Bradshaw is the senior fellow of sustainable propulsion for Pratt & Whitney. His primary focus is on the advanced technologies required for sustainable aircraft propulsion systems. This includes developing and maintaining a sustainability strategy across Pratt & Whitney that integrates with RTX. Sean is also engaged in Pratt & Whitney-sponsored university research on advanced technologies related to sustainable propulsion systems, and he supports the development of engineering talent at Pratt & Whitney. Sean is the chairman of the Gas Turbine Association, the chairman of the ASME Committee on Sustainability, the former chairman of the ASME Gas Turbine Technology Group, an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, a member of the ASME Heat Transfer Committee, a member of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and an adjunct professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. Sean is a recipient of the 2023 BEYA Professional Achievement in Industry Award. Sean earned a B.S., an M.S., and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics & Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jasmine Bridges
Jasmine Bridges is a mechanical engineer and advanced manufacturing strategy consultant with extensive experience leading domestic and international teams to implement complex technical programs in the aerospace sector. She develops next generation aerospace parts and guides companies, universities and researchers to successfully mature and transition technology from research and development (R&D) to production while ensuring the sustainability of programs. READ MORE ABOUT JASMINE
Jasmine began her professional career in the energy sector where she researched renewable energy. Subsequently, she transitioned to the aerospace sector as a mechanical and manufacturing engineer for the Boeing Company for more than a decade. At Boeing she worked on design and manufacturing teams for the 737, 787 and P-8 airplane programs. Jasmine also served at the first Industry Fellow to the U.S. Department of Energy where she helped design a national manufacturing infrastructure to spur U.S. advanced manufacturing.
Passionate about inspiring the next generation of engineers, Jasmine has sat on numerous non-profit boards, and has tutored, mentored and taught engineering to high school and graduate university students. She has also consulted to school districts to design engineering curricula.
Jasmine is delighted to be a member of the External Advisory Board of Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “By sharing my industry and production engineering expertise with faculty and students I hope to inspire the next generation of engineers to push the boundaries of engineering, realize their technical goals and make their engineering dreams a reality,” she says. “Engineers are inventors and researchers. Our ideas will improve the lives of people all over the world.”
After earning a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Jasmine received a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Energy Systems from Columbia University where she had the distinct pleasure of doing research under Professor Jeffrey Kysar. Jasmine has received engineering awards including the SME Outstanding Engineer of the Year (OYME) and the Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA). Jasmine was invited by NASA to speak in Grottalgie, Italy to the Trilateral Safety and Mission Assurance Conference (TRISMAC) to introduce an international space audience (NASA, ESA, JAXA) to her methodology for transitioning technology from R&D to production.
James Hone
James Hone creates and studies nanoscale materials and structures for basic understanding and a wide variety of applications. This work combines materials synthesis, fabrication of nanoscale structures, and characterization by mechanical, electrical, and optical techniques.
Over the past ten years, a primary focus has been on two-dimensional materials created from atomically thin sheets. Hone and collaborators have shown that an atomic sheet of carbon, known as graphene, is the strongest material ever measured. Hone has also developed new ways of manipulating two-dimensional materials to create layered heterostructures, in which intrinsic properties can be studied due to the lack of environmental disorder, electrical and optical devices demonstrate the highest performance, and new properties emerge at atomically precise interfaces. In collaboration with biologists, Hone has developed tools that have revealed new processes by which cells sense the physical properties of their environment at the sub-micrometer scale.
Hone received a BS in physics from Yale University in 1990 and a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998.
Jeff Malins
Jeff Malins is the Chief Platform Architect at HealthVerity, the nation’s largest healthcare data marketplace. He is a key leader in the development of the company’s next-generation data product platform and generative AI efforts. With over 20 years of experience straddling product management, architecture and software engineering disciplines, he has brought many commercially successful products to market.
Prior to joining HealthVerity, Jeff was Chief Product Officer at Curisium, a venture-funded healthcare automation startup acquired by HealthVerity in the summer of 2020. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of AcuityPlus, a healthcare risk analytics company. Jeff never intended to spend his entire career developing healthcare applications, but when some casual reverse-engineering of an electronic medical record system unexpectedly blossomed into an opportunity to provide Medicare and Meaningful Use analytics for Allscripts' entire enterprise product line, including operating the country's largest quality metric reporting registry, he was hooked.
Long interested in entrepreneurship, education and learning processes, Jeff is passionate about teaching the next generation of students about “the joy, empowerment and fulfillment of combining deep technical knowledge with the courage, skills and confidence to operate in an open-ended environment,” he says. “The world needs more creators, in business, technology and especially in society.” To this end, for more than 10 years Jeff has served as a FIRST robotics team coach and has been deeply involved in the robotics Maker communities in Honolulu, San Diego and Los Angeles.
As a member of the External Advisory Board of Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jeff provides his insights about the broad needs of the tech start-up industry. “Early-stage, small companies are looking for generalists who possess fluidity and the skill set to serve many roles,” he says. “In addition to technical know-how, these companies are looking for people with management, brand development, marketing and communication skills.”
Thinking back on his undergraduate days at Columbia, Jeff recalls the wide range of opportunities for immersion in hands-on projects. “I practically lived in the mechanical engineering lab spending most of my time working on various projects, some authorized, some not” he says. “It was a singular experience, and I want to give back to Columbia by bringing more of these hands-on learning opportunities to the students at Columbia.”
Jeff holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, where he was Salutatorian and a Wendell Medal recipient.
Akan E. Oton
Akan Oton is a member of Barings’ Capital Solutions team and leads the team’s investment strategy in healthcare. Akan joined the firm in 2017 and has worked in the industry since 1998, bringing over 24 years of experience. At the firm, Akan has led the growth of the team’s investment capabilities in pharmaceutical royalties and non-dilutive healthcare finance. Akan has served on multiple corporate boards in pharmaceuticals as well as an insurance settlements company. Prior to joining the firm, Akan worked at Sandoz (a division of Novartis), where he was an Executive Director and responsible for product acquisition, licensing and led M&A initiatives in generics and specialty brand segments. Prior to Sandoz, Akan worked at Catalent Pharma Solutions, where he was responsible for product partnering and technology licensing for the company’s venture group. He has also held marketing leadership roles at both Cardinal Health and Johnson & Johnson. Akan started his career as an engineer with Procter & Gamble. Akan holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Certified Licensing Professional and a board member of the NJ Chapter of the Licensing Executive Society.
Moshe Shoham
Moshe Shoham has been conducting robotics research for over 30 years, with particular focus on the kinematics and dynamics of robots, new robot structures and robots for medical applications. Moshe received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, served as a faculty member at Columbia University and then returned to the Technion’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he is an Endowed Chair Professor and Head of the Robotics Laboratory. READ MORE ABOUT MOSHE
Dedicated to advancing the field of medicine with technology, Moshe is the founder of five companies, including Mazor Robotics and Microbot Medical, both of which are NASDAQ-listed companies. Moshe is widely recognized for his landmark contributions to the field of robotics. On the theoretical side he introduced and applied the dual inertia and the hyper-dual numbers to calculate the dynamics of robots, and novel approaches to solving the singularities of parallel robots. On practical side he has developed and manufactured robots for surgical applications that are widely used in operating rooms worldwide.
Long passionate about fostering interest and curiosity in robotics among the youngest engineering enthusiasts, Moshe established the Leumi Robotic Center at the Technion, which since its inception in 2006 has trained more than 10,000 students and teachers of more than 100 schools from the US, Russia, Argentina, Mexico and Israel in robotics.
As a member of the External Advisory Board of Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Moshe says he “hopes to be able to bring some new points of view regarding research and education for the students who will lead the robotics field in the next 20 to 30 years.”
Moshe is a Foreign Member of US National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is the author of 180 technical papers and 3 books, and he holds 40 patents. Moshe also holds numerous prizes and awards, including election into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for contributions to robotic technology for image-guided surgery and the ASME Thomas A. Edison Patent Award.
Hitoshi Tanaka
Hitoshi Tanaka began his career as a research engineer at Singer Company and subsequently embarked on a 38-year career at Designatronics, a manufacturer and distributor of mechanical drive components used in aerospace, defense, pharmaceutical, robotics and other industries, where Hitoshi served as Corporate Senior Vice President and oversaw the operations of the company’s six divisions and two subsidiaries. He retired from the company in 2013. READ MORE ABOUT HITOSHI
Hitoshi, who received his B.A., M.S, and Doctorate of Engineering Science in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia, has been a member of the Board of Managers of the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association since 2007 and served as President in 2014 and 2015. He currently serves as Chair of the Nominating Committee and a member of the Egleston Medal Committee.
A longtime supporter of Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hitoshi has been on the External Advisory Board (EAB) since 2007 and served as Chair in 2011 and 2012. He established the Freudenstein Distinguished Annual Lecture Fund in honor of Professor Ferdinand Freudenstein in 2011 and the Mechanical Engineering Department Senior Design Annual Fund in 2016. Since 2005, Hitoshi has participated as a judge in the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Senior Design Expo.
“I really appreciate the education I received from Columbia, and I want to give back in as many ways as I can,” says Hitoshi. “As a member of the EAB, I hope to impart the importance of teamwork and learning about disciplines outside of mechanical engineering, such as computer science and electrical engineering, which are so critical in industry today.”
A recipient of the Columbia Alumni Medal in 2017, Hitoshi is devoted to making Columbia’s Department of Mechanical Engineering one of the best in the country by contributing not only to its academics, but also to its student life. “Alumni can go a long way to enhance student life, such as providing mentoring, social activities, and exposing students to the myriad of specialties and fields within engineering,” he says. “I am thrilled to participate in this process for our future engineers.”