Congratulations to Dr Faezeh Marzbanrad, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering and head of the Biomedical Signal Processing Research Lab, who was recently awarded a Women Leading Tech award in the Education/Research category.
An initiative created to support gender parity and representation across the tech industry, the Women Leading Tech is an event which recognises brilliant female tech talent within the industry. Through this recognition it is hoped women will no longer be excluded from the conversation in a heavily male-dominated industry.
The Monash Institute of Medical Engineering (MIME) sponsored Dr Marzbanrad for this award in support of her work to lead impactful medical technology research projects to address global health challenges.
“Dr Marzbanrad is leading a multidisciplinary team of students, postdoctoral fellows and professionals from hardware and software engineering, data science, biomedicine and industrial design backgrounds, working closely with clinicians and major hospitals, on a mission towards improving health equity. In 2021, she prioritised her research towards developing novel foetal and neonatal health monitoring techniques,” said Professor John Forsythe, MIME Co-Director.
“MIME works to celebrate and amplify the work of all women at Monash University, from students to senior leaders, working in healthcare innovation. Faezeh is an inspiring role model for female engineering students and researchers, and has provided invaluable service to the university and wider community. MIME and the Monash community are proud to have had Faezeh represent us in this award,” said Professor Forsythe.
Dr Marzbanrad’s research spans medical technology for health equity, biomedical signal processing and machine learning, artificial intelligence in health, affordable medical devices, mobile-health as well as fetal, maternal and neonatal healthcare technologies. She is currently working on two seed-funded projects within MIME focusing on developing automated technology to improve neonatal breath sound assessment and an accelerometry device for head impact monitoring.
This award has provided Dr Marzbanrad with the ability to connect with senior female technology leaders across Australia whilst receiving recognition she hopes inspires others.
“Through winning this award I have been able to learn a lot and grow my networks with those women leading the tech sector in Australia. It has provided a wonderful opportunity to hear the journeys of women and how they have been able to reach senior leading positions,” said Dr Marzbanrad.
“The recognition of the award is also important to me, especially as a woman of colour. I hope to become a role model for female researchers, particularly immigrants, women of colour and those with different cultural backgrounds. This award makes it possible to promote the great work that is being done in this space regardless of gender, race or cultural background, providing women with the inspiration to pursue their dreams and the ability to see diversity in our leadership.”
“I am very fortunate to have been sponsored by MIME for this award. MIME has provided support in all of my projects from the very beginning. Being involved with the MIME team has afforded me the opportunity to be able to connect with clinicians whilst also providing funding support and the ability for my team and I to form some really impactful partnerships within the health services sector. It is great to see MIME’s commitment to women in MedTech and I would love to be involved more in the promotion of women’s research going forward,” said Dr Marzbanrad.
MIME is committed to creating more opportunities for women across healthcare and medical technology innovation. Diversity is essential as we lead the discovery, creation and translation of technologies that will improve human health. For more on how MIME is supporting Women in STEMM visit monash.edu/mime/women-in-stemm
MIME is the clinical innovation platform of Monash Partners.
