Amena Shermadou is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State University. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

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After completing her Masters, Amena began her career at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH where she continues to hold a Human Factors Researcher position. Her role consists of supporting the design, execution, and reporting of formative and summative user studies for evaluating medical devices. At Ohio State, Amena has worked as a graduate teaching associate as well as a member of the Student Instructional Leadership Team for the Department of Engineering Education. She is currently a graduate research associate under the guidance of Dr. David Delaine.

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Amena’s extensive teaching experience in first-year engineering programs was what sparked her interests in engineering education research. Broadly, her research interests are in exploring cross-cultural interactions in diverse classroom environments. Her qualitative dissertation research is examining how undergraduate engineering students make sense of encounters with cultural differences while participating in international service-learning. Amena’s career vision is to become a leading expert on the dynamics of encounters with cultural differences in engineering in order to support the advancement of a culture in engineering education that promotes inclusiveness and diversity.