What do modelers do outside academia?

Computational modeling and simulation offer vast potential beyond traditional academic research, yet the pathways into industry, regulatory, and entrepreneurial roles can often seem opaque to early-career scientists. 

In this VPH Young Scientists Committee-driven webinar, a diverse panel of experts including Ingmar Fleps (Zimmer Biomet), Vivek Palepu (US FDA), and Lakshmi Dasi (Georgia Tech/Dasi Simulations), will share their personal career trajectories and discuss how they successfully transitioned from academia into the large industry, regulatory, and start-up sectors. The speakers will present their unique academic pathways, the catalysts for their career shifts, their day-to-day experiences leveraging predictive modeling outside the lab, and their perspectives on the future of in silico methods. 

This webinar is moderated by VPH Young Scientist Committee member, Yogesh Kumaran (University of Toledo).

Speaker’s bio:

• Vivek Palepu, PhD

Dr. Vivek Palepu is a Senior Regulatory Scientist and Reviewer at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toledo, where he completed his doctoral research at the Engineering Center for Orthopaedic Research Excellence under Dr. Vijay K. Goel. With a decade of experience navigating regulatory and scientific landscapes, Dr. Palepu specializes in the evaluation of novel medical devices and spinal implants using computational modeling and finite element analysis. His subject matter expertise includes developing pre-clinical assessment tools, such as Regulatory Science Tools, and establishing international consensus standards (ASTM and ISO) to help bring safe and innovative medical devices to patients.

• Lakshmi Dasi, PhD

Dr. Lakshmi Dasi is a leading bioengineer, academic, and entrepreneur in the field of cardiovascular biomechanics and heart valve engineering. He earned his PhD in fluid dynamics and turbulence from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2004, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship focused on cardiovascular biomechanics. He is currently a tenured Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he directs the Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics Laboratory. Dr. Dasi is also the inventor and co-founder of Dasi Simulations, a medical device startup launched in 2019 that focuses on advanced predictive modeling and pre-operative planning for cardiothoracic surgery. A Fellow of both the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (FAIMBE), he has over 16 years of experience translating computational fluid dynamics and structural modeling into clinical tools for evaluating native and prosthetic heart valves.

• Ingmar Fleps, PhD

Dr. Ingmar Fleps is a Senior Research Engineer at Zimmer Biomet with a strong background in experimental and computational musculoskeletal biomechanics. He earned his PhD in Health Science and Technology from ETH Zurich, following Master of Science degrees from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Luleå University of Technology. Prior to joining Zimmer Biomet, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at ETH Zurich and Boston University. Dr. Fleps’s work focuses on the interaction between hard and soft tissues in the human body. He specializes in leveraging medical imaging, finite element modeling, and machine learning to develop highly biofidelic models to create safer medical implants, better diagnostic tools, and improved pre-operative plans.

• Yogesh Kumaran, PhD

Yogesh is a recent PhD graduate in Biomedical Engineering and current MD student at the University of Toledo. With over nine years of experience in computational modeling and simulation (CM&S), musculoskeletal modeling, benchtop biomechanical testing, and motion capture analysis, his research at the Engineering Center for Orthopedic Research Excellence (E-CORE) focuses heavily on orthopedic biomechanics. He leverages computer-aided engineering to advance the adoption of in silico models in clinical practice.