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Joel Disu is a Biomedical Engineering doctoral student at Â鶹¹ÙÍø. He has been a research assistant and lab member in the Wood Neuro Research Group since August 2022. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from University of Ghana and pursued his master’s degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China where he focused on imaging and medical robotics research in Biomedical Engineering. He is originally from Accra, Ghana. His research interests broadly include neuroimaging hardware instrumentation, inclusive neurotechnology, and data acquisition using noninvasive neuroimaging devices. Joel loves listening to gospel and jazz music, reading, and playing soccer.

Research interests: sickle cell disease, functional MRI, pain, quantitative sensory testing, cerebral autoregulation

 Email: jdisu@andrew.cmu.edu

Lara Abdelmohsen is a doctoral student at Â鶹¹ÙÍø and has been in the Wood Neuro Research Group since August 2022. She is co-advised by  and a member of the .  She graduated from The College of New Jersey with her Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering, and interned at Siemens Healthineers where she gained valuable experience in neuroimaging and MRI inspiring her to pursue a PhD in the field. She is broadly interested in studying the cerebral vasculature and stroke. Her goal is to use computational fluid dynamics models to understand how changes in cerebral vasculature could contribute to increased stroke risk in patients with sickle cell disease. Outside the lab, Lara enjoys hiking and Muay Thai.

Research interests: cerebral vasculature, stroke, cerebral hemodynamics, CFD, image-based simulation, sickle cell disease

Email: labdelmo@andrew.cmu.edu

Julen is a doctoral student at Â鶹¹ÙÍø, where he has been part of the Wood Neuro Research Group and the BioSIMM Lab since January 2026. Originally from Spain, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Mondragon Unibertsitatea and a Master’s in Computational Engineering from the University of the Basque Country. His research interests include cardiovascular CFD, Deep Learning and Wearable devices. Outside research Julen enjoys trail running, kickboxing and attending concerts.

Anay Soni is an undergraduate student at Â鶹¹ÙÍø majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been in the Wood Neuro Research Group since summer of 2025. Anay is passionate about utilizing hardware in new ways to improve the quality of life for underrepresented individuals. He is currently working on a wearable-XR prototype for pain-cognition assessment, seeking to synchronize autonomic and thermal sensors with VR technologies using low power Bluetooth. Outside of research, Anay enjoys playing video games, eating, and spending time with family and friends.