UCLA SCI|ART NanoLab

Pinar Yoldas, Instructor
Pinar Yoldas is an LA based interface designer , artist and educator. She received her BArch from Middle East Technical University with high honors, her MA in Visual Communication Design from Istanbul Bilgi University,her MS in information technologies from Istanbul Bilgi University and (finally) her MFA from UCLA’s Design|Media Art department where she was the recipient of Eugene Wurzel Memorial Scholarship and Clifton Webb Scholarship from the School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA. So far, Pinar has exhibited in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Durham, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Bologna. Her work is a reflection of her interests in design, architecture, neuroscience, evolution, gender studies and science fiction. Pinar’s residencies include Duke University Council for the Arts Visiting Artist Award , Minneapolis Art on Wheels and MacDowell Fellowship.
http://www.vimeo.com/12581327

Pinar’s Website

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Sara Kiani
Sara Kiani is a PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Sara received her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran (2001) and her M.S. in the same field from the University of Texas at Arlington (2005) where she participated in many diverse research fields such as metallurgy, thermal fatigue and composites. She has nearly 3.5 years of industry experience with Kennametal Inc. in hardmaterials, ceramics, coatings, and materials’ characterization where she submitted a patent on bonding synthetic diamonds to tungsten carbide before joining UCLA in Sep. 2009. Her research interests will be focused on carbon nanotubes with application in various carbides for enhanced properties. She is a member of Tau Beta Pi- Engineering Honor Society- and was a co-founder of ASM- North Texas chapter at UTArlington. She also participated in a prestigious Arthur E. Focke Leadershape award through a week long leadership training program. She is interested in bridging the gap between science and art where strong aspects of each field can contribute to a fascinating outcome. Her main hobbies are photography and dance. She is also a big fan of traveling and exploring new places/cultures.
http://www.vimeo.com/12580263

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Mattia Casalegno, Instructor
Mattia Casalegno is an Italian multidisciplinary artist whose works explore the relations between information technologies, audiovisual perception, natural processes and complex systems. He collaborates with scientists, neurologists, designers and musicians to produce architectural video installations, immersive environments, live media performances and interactive systems. He performed and exhibited in festivals as RomaEuropa, Netmage in Italy, Mutek in Canada, Optronica in UK, OFFF in Spain, AVIT in Germany, Cimatics in Belgium, PlayWithFire, US. His recent commissions include clients such as FENDI, R.Capucci, Sonia Rykiel, J.P. Gaultier. Since 2009 is based in Los Angeles to earn his MFA in Design Media Art at UCLA.

Mattia’s website
http://www.vimeo.com/12548912

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Romie Littrell, Instructor
Romie Littrell is a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Dept. at UCLA. He received his BA in Molecular and Cell Biology in 2003 from UC Berkeley. Since then he has engaged in a wide array of biological research including maize genetics, cornea tissue engineering, microfluidic bioreactors, and cell-chip interfaces. His current research focuses on creating hybrid electronic/microfluidic tools for abstracting biological techniques to facilitate education and empower those in unrelated fields to perform advanced biology. Romie is also very interested in synthetic biology, is a member of DIYbio, and was a grad advisor to the 2007 MIT iGEM team. He currently collaborates with UCLA’s department of Media Arts and MIT’s Media Lab. for the former.
http://www.vimeo.com/12580087

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Rita Blaik, Instructor
Rita Blaik is a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Rita received her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California at Irvine, where she participated in many diverse research fields such as metallurgy and thermal effects, bio-ceramics, and tissue engineering. She also helped co-found UCI MatSci, a student chapter of the nationally recognized society Material Advantage, which began an outreach program to local high school students. At UCLA she is a proud fellow of the IGERT Clean Energy for Green Industry fellowship and works with professor Bruce Dunn on biological fuel cell systems and architectures. She also has a continuing interest in the issues of technology and society, as well as the study of sound in both a scientific and humanistic context (and of course, the interplay between the two). Among her inspirations are Leonardo DaVinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Blixa Bargeld. If you know who all four of those people are, then you probably inspire her too.
http://www.vimeo.com/12580048

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Miu Ling Lam, Instructor
Miu Ling Lam is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the UCLA CNSI Nano & Pico Characterization Laboratory. Her research interests include Robotics, Physical Computing, Computational Geometry and Sensor Networks. Dr. Lam has received her B.Eng., M.Phil. and Ph.D. of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her works dealt with robotic hand grasping, autonomous deployment of mobile sensor networks and kinematic control of redundant manipulator. She received the Best Student Paper Award in the IEEE Int’l Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2006), the Croucher Fellowship and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Fellowship.
Miu’s website

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http://www.vimeo.com/12717959
Johanna Reed
http://www.vimeo.com/12580440