Current Members
Principal Investigator
Siavash Ahrar (he\him\his)
Assistant Professor
Biomedical Engineering, CSU Long Beach
Email: Siavash.ahrar [at] csulb.edu
BlueSky: @Siavasha
Education
SEEF fellow, Bioengineering, Stanford
Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Irvine
PhD, Biomedical Engineering, UC Irvine
Maro Aziz
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Jaimie De Guzman
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Kassandra Saavedra
Pneumatic digital logic
Expected graduation
Spring 2027
Roquel Roman
Imaging tools for marine organisms
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Ena Arroyo
Imaging tools for marine organisms
Expected graduation
Fall 2025
Anh Nguyen
Pneumatic digital logic
Expected graduation
Spring 2027
Helen Cardenas-Rios
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2027
Kenji Yoshida
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Looking for research opportunities?
Current CSULB students (all majors - no prior research experience is required)
are welcome to apply.
Our lab is always looking for folks who are excited to deeply engage with research.
Please reach out to Siavash directly via email.
At the moment we cannot accommodate K-12 student researchers.
Former team members
Name Graduations First position after graduation
1. Chung Thai Sp 2022 MS student at UCI Biomedical Engineering
2. Brenda Ametepe Sp 2023 PhD student at UCSF-UCB Bioengineering
3. Clare Kim Sp 2023 Engineer – industry position (Glidewell)
4. Brian Le Sp 2023 MS student at UCI Biomedical Engineering
5. Erika Gomez Sp 2023 Engineer I – industry position (Applied Medical)
6. Moses Villeda Sp 2023 Research Scientist – industry position (Recursion)
7. Lucas Kim F 2023 MS student UCSD
8. Natalia Margaris F 2023 Engineer – industry position (Applied Medical)
9. Michael Richardson F 2023 PhD student at UCR Bioengineering
10. Bryant Lopez Sp 2024 MS student at UCI Biomedical Engineering
11. Harithi Nandasena Sp 2024 MS student at BU Biomedical Engineering
12. Haley Obenshain Sp 2024 PhD student at UCSB Bioengineering
13. Emily Chrasta F 2024
14. Emma Varela Undergraduate student at CSULB Physics
15. Val Gillcrist Sp 2025
16. Ogochukwu Ozonevo Sp 2025
17. Sandra Trajkovski Sp 2025 MS student at UCB
18. Wesley Chen Sp 2025
19. Marcus Mallabo Sp 2025
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Our values and approach towards research and training
We seek to enable all team members to achieve their education, research, and career goals.
We strive to work collaboratively and support each other.
Together, we wish to create an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment.
We keep in mind that research is challenging.
Therefore, we actively aim to grow, learn, and improve as researchers.
Exciting research happens in a collaborative and supportive environment in partnership with others.
We strive to build and maintain such an environment.
Support and mentorship (both from Siavash and the team) are essential for our individual and collective success.
We define mentorship as setting individualized goals, creating progress plans, training, formative feedback, and reflection.
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Finally, we hope to have fun in a joyful environment while working on projects that could lead to discoveries or valuable technologies.
