People
OPTIC Team
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Read More about Lama Al-Aswad, MD, MPH
Lama Al-Aswad, MD, MPH
Professor of Ophthalmology
lama.al-aswad@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Physician Profile
Dr. Lama A. Al‑Aswad is the Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given Research Professor of Ophthalmology at the Scheie Eye Institute with a secondary appointment in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She serves as the Vice Chair for Quality and Safety, Director of Teleophthalmology, AI, and Innovations, Chair of the Glaucoma Imaging Group on the Collaborative Community on Ophthalmic Imaging, and most recently is the chair elect of the Medical Faculty Senate Steering Committee. A board‑certified glaucoma specialist, she has held national leadership roles, including past president of the NY Glaucoma Society and Women in Ophthalmology, and a voting member of the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel.
Dr. Al-Aswad's research focuses on blindness prevention, tele‑ophthalmology, artificial intelligence, and healthcare innovation. She has led major population‑health initiatives, including large‑scale glaucoma screening programs, a mobile tele‑ophthalmology unit for detecting leading causes of blindness, and an Epic‑integrated vision‑testing app developed during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
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Read More about Almiqdad Saeed, MD
Almiqdad Saeed, MD
Ophthalmology Innovation Fellow (Class of 2026)
almiqdad.saeed@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
Profile
Almiqdad Saeed is a postdoctoral innovation fellow in the Department of Ophthalmology. He is also an ophthalmology resident at the St John Eye Hospital-Jerusalem. Concurrently with his innovation fellowship, he is pursuing a Master's degree in Bioinformatics at the Perelman School of Medicine to advance his specialization in ophthalmology. In addition to his academic and clinical work, Almiqdad is the co-founder of a leading optical solutions company, where he applies his entrepreneurial skills to drive innovation in eye care. His work focuses on advancing research in ophthalmology, contributing to the understanding and treatment of eye diseases.
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Read More about Ceyhun Elgin, PhD
Ceyhun Elgin, PhD
Professor of Economics
Personal Website
Ceyhun Elgin is a Professor of Economics at Bogazici University in Turkey. He got his BA in economics from Bogazici University and then subsequently obtained his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Minnesota in 2010. His research interests are in applied macroeconomics, economic growth, development economics, and political economics with a particular emphasis on the economics of the informal sector. Previously, Dr. Elgin also had positions at the Columbia University, IMF, WB, and Boston University.
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Rina Nagatani, BA
Lab Manager / Clinical Research Coordinator
Email Rina Nagatani, BA
215-770-3337
LinkedIn
Rina Nagatani, BA
Lab Manager / Clinical Research Coordinator
rina.nagatani@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-770-3337
LinkedIn
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Read More about Andrew WronkaAndrew Wronka
Data Engineer
Andrew Wronka
Data Engineer
Andrew Wronka is a Data Engineer in the Department of Ophthalmology. He also has a long history in clinical imaging including application management as well as a background in product management, including in the area of PACS, Picture Archiving and Communications Systems. A graduate from Rutgers University College of Engineering, Andrew's career spans a diverse set of roles, usually in positions that challenged the conventions whether it be in the clinical IT innovations from digital imaging to the latest in datahubs and opportunities for AI, often working across diverse teams and outside entities.
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Read More about Wenwen Si
Wenwen Si
Research Assistant
Personal Website
Wenwen Si a fifth-year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on developing trustworthy machine learning systems through uncertainty quantification and robust optimization, primarily from a statistical, distribution-free perspective. Previously, Wenwen received her Bachelor of Engineering in Automation from the Institute of Information Science at Tsinghua University in 2018, and my Master of Science in Computer Vision from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in 2019.
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Dalal Ahmidouch
Research Assistant
Dalal Ahmidouch
Research Assistant
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Read More about Jason (Ruizhe) Dai
Jason (Ruizhe) Dai
Statistical Machine Learning Research Assistant
LinkedIn
Jason is a current graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing an MSE in Data Science, with a focus on machine learning, natural language processing, statistical analysis, and big data analytics. He earned dual degrees in Data Science and Economics from UC San Diego, graduating summa cum laude, where he built a rigorous foundation that bridges quantitative modeling, algorithmic reasoning, and data systems. His experience spans AI research, financial modeling, and large-scale anomaly detection in enterprise networks, bringing together research insight and practical engineering to design intelligent data-driven systems.
