HWIL Europe i
WOrkshop Speakers
Kaushik Sethuraman
Head of Program Management, Social Impact Group, Facebook
Keynote Speaker
Kaushik Sethuraman is the Head of Program Management of the Social Impact Group For Facebook, where they explore social problems at the intersection of technology and society. He works to help people raise funds for causes they believe in and enables resilience within communities during a crisis. Kaushik also worked for Microsoft for over fifteen years, performing different roles to improve product experiences through strategy, ideation, and development. Kaushik is an MBA from the Indian School of Business and holds a certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Meghan Wolf
Manager, Global Social Business & Transformation, IBM
Modern Collaboration: Making the Dream Work Together Speaker
Meghan Wolf leads Global Social Business & Transformation on the IBM Social Discipline. In her role, she is responsible for strategic initiatives & partnerships that improve social at IBM.
She is a relationship-focused leader with proven success in navigating organizations and making strong connections in order to drive results.
Currently she is focused on simplifying how audiences experience IBM on social and using insights to strengthen the brand connection with online communities.
Originally from Chicago, IL, she now resides in Austin, TX with her husband and two sons. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Villanova University.
Nada Alkutbi
EMEA Social Media Leader, IBM
Modern Collaboration: Making the Dream Work Together Speaker
Nada Alkutbi is an experienced digital and social media expert at IBM, and has recently been appointed as the Social Media Leader across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Previously, Nada has worked as both a digital marketing and social media strategist for IBM in the UK & Ireland. Among her achievements, she spearheaded the IBM UK social influencer marketing programme, driving engaged visits to ibm.com and quality audience generation for events, and played a key role in the design of the global IBM Influencer Council, to establish a centralised approach to influencers and to give teams the tools needed to develop and measure their own programmes. She has also led the UKI employee advocacy programme helping IBMers to improve their social eminence and presence.
Outside of her professional life, Nada is a fitness fanatic. She is also passionate about mental health and well-being.
Ayah Al-Zubi
Harvard class of 2023
Mentor and Public Speaking to Lead and Inspire Speaker
Ayah Al-Zubi is a junior in Leverett house born in Jordan and from Cincinnati, Ohio. Ayah plans on studying the intersection of psychology, sociology and education. She empowers youth to transcend their potential and take on challenges. With sports being one of her most important motivators, Ayah utilizes the sports platform to bring on this empowerment. This passion for sports has allowed her to start her own organization, Impowera, that builds youth sports curriculum in which she launched basketball camps in the MENA in 2019. This also led Ayah to create the first ever sports and mental health conference in the MENA. Ayah has taught a sports justice course featuring professional athletes and given a Tedx Talk on diversity and youth leadership. Ayah supports HGEM's mission because Ayah believes in empowering youth to change the future because they are the future. You can find Ayah outdoors, traveling, learning about new cultures, and playing any sport in her free time!
Jerry Huang
founder and ceo, datryx technologies
Uncovering Social Innovation Speaker
Jerry studied at Harvard University as a Computer Science and Statistics joint concentrator. Now he is the founder and CEO of a manufacturing SaaS startup: Datryx Technologies. Based in Shanghai, Datryx is committed to build technical infrastructure for global manufacturing clients by providing single-stop SaaS software to help factories go more digitized and automated in MES – manufacturing execution, ERP – enterprise resource management, and supply chain management.
Simeon Sayer
harvard Class of 2023
Leading the Veritas Way Panelist
Simeon is a rising Junior at Harvard college, and is concentrating in Computer Science. He is an international student from the United Kingdom. He is particularly interested in the application of technology and algorithmic strategies to complex real world problems. On campus, he explores this intersection in his work as an associate consultant for HCCG, where he has provided cutting edge analysis to some of the biggest industrial and microchip manufacturers. Through his work with Harvard's Undergraduate Foreign Policy Initiative, Simeon has co-authored advisory papers that analyse the role of emerging space technology on US policy national security, which he then presented to the White House and the Pentagon. He engages in further policy discussion in his role as senior writer for the Harvard Political Review, where he is currently conducting an investigative piece to evaluate the possibility of a US-China conflict.
Simeon also engages in computational research, with a particular interest in abstract proofs and discrete mathematics. He has had research projects shortlisted for funding by the Harvard Computing Society, and currently does contracted full stack web development work. He looks forward to engaging in more research in the area of machine learning during his remaining two years at Harvard.
This summer, Simeon interned for the United Nations, specifically the ITU, which acts as the international tech arm of the organisation, where he facilitates international collaboration on technology out of the UN General Assembly liaison office in New York. His particular role examines the role international collaboration and adoption of Artificial Intelligence between member states.
Ali Kurmus
harvard class of 2023
Leading the Veritas Way Panelist
Hello everyone I am Ali, a rising sophomore from Turkey returning from a leave of absence living in Dunster House. I still don’t know the difference of academic and social class so I go with both the Class of 2023 and 2024. I LOVE doing physics and want to pursue an academic career. As you could imagine, I am planning to declare a physics concentration. I am planning to have a secondary in computer science as well because of CS50! Before becoming addicted to ballroom dancing at Harvard, I was a basketball player and basketball is still something I enjoy the most in life. I also improved my bass guitar skills during my gap year! So when I return to campus, in the times I am not doing physics, dancing or trying to recruit people to the ballroom dancing team, I would hopefully have time for jam sessions!
Thu Pham
harvard class of 2023
Leading the Veritas Way Panelist
Thu is a rising junior at Harvard pursuing a major in Computer Science and Statistics, a minor in Educational Studies, and a language citation in Spanish. She is originally from North Texas, which she greatly looks forward to returning to during school breaks. Outside of the classroom, Thu spends most of her time in public service activities, mainly Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment and the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter. She also works as a calculus course assistant and an economics research assistant, sings in the Harvard Noteables, and shares cultural pride and love with the Harvard Vietnamese Association. In her spare time, you can probably find her making voice calls to loved ones on long walks, going down YouTube and Reddit rabbit holes, and running (with many, many breaks) along the Charles River. She is endlessly grateful for the communities she has found in college, and looks forward to meeting the lovely delegates and staff of HGEM!
Alex Mancevski
Harvard Class of 2022
Leading the Veritas Way Panelist
Alex is a rising senior at at Harvard University, concentrating in Chemical and Physical Biology with a secondary concentration in Global Health and Health Policy. He has experience doing research and academic writing in biology and neuroscience fields, as well as in public health. He is the President of the campus-based Veritas Financial Group and the Director of ExperiMentors, a program through the Phillips Brooks House Association. This summer, Alex worked as a summer business analyst at Kearney.
Marissa Sumathipala
Harvard Class of 2022
Judge
Marissa is a senior at Harvard University studying Computational Neuroscience with a secondary in Chemistry. She has previously conducted both wet-lab and computational biology research and combines both in her current research on large scale sequencing of synapses in the human cortex. Marissa is a Three Dot Dash Global Teen Leader, Glamour Magazine College Woman of the Year, and winner of the Collegiate Award from the National Center for Women in Technology. Outside of research and classes, Marissa is president of the Harvard Figure Skating Club, Editor-in-Chief of Harvard's popular science magazine, and Chair of Science Communication at the iGEM Foundation.
Sydney Kepler
Harvard Class of 2023
Judge
Sydney is a rising Junior at Harvard College in Leverett House concentrating in bioengineering with a chemical & materials subtrack and obtaining a Spanish citation. Motivated by her tissue engineering research, Sydney is interested in biotech and the up-and-coming field of regenerative medicine. During the 2020-2021 academic year, Sydney took time away from school to gain industry experience with two biotechnology companies. On campus, she is the Co-Director of Harvard’s Room 13 peer counseling organization, a Regeneron Campus Ambassador, Co-Chair of Education of the Harvard Premedical Society Compassionate Care Committee, a member of the women’s club soccer team, and an undergraduate researcher in the Chaikof Lab.
Raymound Jow
Harvard Class of 2022
Judge
My name is Raymond Jow, and I am a senior studying Physics and Computer Science from Dallas, Texas. I’ve always been passionate about science, technology and innovation, tinkering with microcontrollers and building fuel cells since middle school. At Harvard, I do research for the Mundy Research Group specializing in designing quantum materials, play classical music with the Harvard Bach Society, and illustrate for the Harvard Technology Review. This past summer, I had the privilege of doing research in Information Scrambling in Quantum Neural Networks at the McMahon lab at Cornell, building a Node js remote control panel for the Mundy group, and attending the IBM Global Qiskit Summer School on Quantum Machine Learning. In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis with friends, hiking in the mountains, and drawing on my iPad. Excited to meet you all and learn about your amazing projects at the HGEM Workshop on Innovation and Leadership!
Desiree Rickett
Harvard Class of 2024
Mentor
My name is Desiree Rickett, and I am a sophomore at Harvard College thinking about concentrating in Economics. At HGEM, I work to assist with Finance Board. With such wonderful teammates and mentees, I know we have a fabulous workshop ahead of us, virtually or not!
Uluç Kadioglu
Harvard Class of 2023
Mentor
Uluç is a junior at Harvard concentrating in Government and Neuroscience. At HGEM, he serves as the Director of Philanthropy and Co-Chief of Finance. He’s very happy and excited to have the opportunity to work with amazing high school students from all over the world!
Larisa Shrestha
Harvard Class of 2022
Mentor
Larisa is a rising senior at Harvard studying neuroscience, with interests at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and education. She currently conducts research at the Valera Lab within Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Outside of classes and research, she’s also worked as a Course Assistant and Peer Tutor at Harvard. She also serves as the President of the Harvard Undergraduate Global Education Movement (HGEM) and loves working with her amazing friends on the HGEM team to organize international conferences all over the world. Besides these, she loves coffee, bullet journaling, the smell of old books, and warm fuzzy socks.
Jazmin Dunlap
Harvard Class of 2023
Mentor
Jazmin is a junior at Harvard, studying Chemistry with a secondary in African American Studies. She is a co-director of the Outreach Board of the Harvard Global Education Movement.
Emily Tsai
Harvard Class of 2024
Mentor
Hi! I’m Emily and I’m a sophomore at Harvard College, where I’m interested in studying neuroscience and integrative biology. At HGEM, I’m part of the Content board. I’m super excited to meet everyone at HWIL Europe and see all the amazing work we do together!
Nidhi Patel
Harvard Class of 2022
Mentor
Nidhi is a senior from New Jersey at Harvard College studying Government and Neuroscience. At HGEM, she leads content development efforts for our conferences. She is always excited to get to know delegates and hear about their exciting ideas!
Alexandria Ho
Harvard Class of 2024
Mentor
Hello! My name is Alexandria. I am a sophomore at Harvard College studying History and Literature, with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, Rights. I'm passionate about social justice, climate change, and educational equity and beyond excited to be a part of HGEM as part of the Content Board (Best Board ❤️). Besides HGEM, I am also part of Harvard Vietnamese Association, the Asian American Womxn's Association, a writer for the flyby blog of the Crimson, and also a tour guide for the Harvard Visitor Center.
Cindy Phan
Harvard Class of 2024
Mentor
Hello, everyone! My name is Cindy Phan, and I'm a current sophomore at Harvard University, intending to concentrate in either History and Science (Medicine and Society track), Molecular and Cellular Biology, or Integrative Biology — or some combination of them! As a first-generation and low-income student of color, I am especially passionate about HGEM's emphasis on making their conferences accessible.
Jacob Winter
Harvard Class of 2024
Mentor
Jacob is a rising sophomore in Leverett House. He plans to concentrate in Economics with a secondary in Government, then head to law school. While taking classes at home during the Spring 2021 semester, Jacob substitute taught at his former school district, likely becoming the youngest substitute teacher in the district’s history. Now he is a third grade summer school teacher in the district.
At Harvard, Jacob is a member of the Harvard University Band, the Harvard Mock Trial Association, and the staff of Harvard Model United Nations. He enjoys playing the piano, which he quickly learned is a common skill at Harvard.
Truong Nguyen
Harvard Class of 2023
Mentor
Truong is a rising junior at Harvard concentrating in Psychology with a secondary in Educational Studies. His main area of interest is on developmental psychology to gain a better understanding of the development of language, individuality, morals, and emotions in children and adolescents across different cultures. While at Harvard, Truong discovered his love for teaching and mentoring through his volunteer experiences with PBHA serving the Vietnamese community in Dorchester, MA, and his involvement with the Harvard Ed Portal and other educational outreach groups that work directly with students from China, Japan, and Vietnam. Truong developed his interest in the intersection between psychology and education and how we can apply psychological principles to enhance the practice of teaching and learning experience for both students and teachers. After college, Truong plans to attend medical school to become a Pediatrician. This summer, Truong is currently working as a research assistant at the Stress and Development Lab on a study seeking to gain further insight into how early life experiences impact processes that are connected to mental health in order to better help other teenagers who have been exposed to trauma. Outside of classes, Truong works as a tour guide for the Harvard Visitor Center while producing his own podcast about college life and college admissions to provide additional resources for first-generation low-income students.
Alec Kennison
Harvard Class of 2022
Mentor
Hey all! My name is Alec and I'm a senior majoring in Social Studies at Harvard. I'm originally from Austin, Texas (the best city in the US!) and am completing a summer internship in the management consulting industry. I'm happy to field any questions and share insights from my experiences thus far--whether it be about adjusting to college life, practicality and effectiveness, mentorship, exploring job and career options, etc. I remember feeling overwhelmed at first and hearing other people's advice really helped me figure things out. Outside of school and work, I enjoy poker, storm chasing, mountain climbing, and travel!
Trinh Nguyen
Harvard Class of 2025
Mentor and Leading the Veritas Way Moderator
Hi! My name is Trinh Nguyen (she/her). I’m from Vietnam, but I moved to Eagan, a suburb of Minnesota, when I was eight. I am an incoming first year at Harvard College, where I plan to go on the pre-med track, but I am excited to explore all of the options offered!
Tram Nguyen
Harvard Class of 2022
Mentor
Tram Nguyen is a senior at Harvard College studying Social Studies with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights, and a citation in Spanish. On campus, she is the director of the Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment program, the Vice President of the Harvard Global Education Movement, and a leader and team builder in the Leverett House community. Her academic work focuses on the political identity of migrants, especially those from the vast Vietnamese diaspora.
Outside of the classroom, Tram enjoys her role as a tour guide for the Peabody Museum, cherishes every single food truck she can possibly find, and appreciates a really good cup of froyo with mochi topping. This past summer, Tram interned as an analyst working on some corporate strategy and development projects. Tram is thrilled to meet all her mentees and delve deeper into leadership and innovation!
