Amanda Nowacki is currently a Biomedical Engineering (BME) Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Amanda has two years of research experience, having completed internships and cooperative programs with the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center and Medtronic. Amanda worked for the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices center during her undergraduate career as the Anatomical Segmentation Lead. Following her bachelors, Amanda worked as a Mechanical Design Engineer in the Neuromodulation group for Medtronic, focusing on implantable devices to reduce chronic pain. Starting in Fall 2021, Amanda joined the BME program at the University of Texas at Austin to pursue her Ph.D.
Amanda’s previous studies focused on biomechanics and disease quantification. During her undergraduate career, Amanda constructed 3D, anatomical models from CT scans that could be viewed in a virtual reality space or 3D-printed for physicians, medical students, and clinicians to practice surgical techniques on and test device-anatomy interfaces. Additionally, she worked with Dr. Ellermann’s research group at the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research to construct and mathematically analyze models of pediatric knee cartilage to identify the presence and predict the progression of juvenile osteochondritis dissecans.
Now that she is a part of Dr. Castillo’s team, Amanda continues to focus on robust computational methods to quantify the progression of disease.