Influential Woman · Healthcare

Ayma Waqar

Project Engineer, Airalux Medical

Philadelphia, PA

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Master's degree in Bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania Degree Undergraduate degree in Bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania

Her Story

About Ayma

I've been working in healthcare for about 4 years now, focusing on bioengineering research in endocrinology. My journey into this field started when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2018. Before that, I saw myself becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon, but after I started using insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring devices to manage my diabetes, I realized I wanted to make these devices instead of prescribing them to people. That passion led me to develop a diabetic foot monitoring device in 2020 while I was still in Pakistan. It was the first of its kind in the country, and I ended up appearing on news channels for about a year because of it. After that, I moved to the States and came to Penn, where I'm now graduating with both my master's and undergraduate degrees in bioengineering this May. I work with a great team of other girls and women, and my mentors are all doctors in this space who are also women. They go above and beyond to help and support me, which makes working in medical devices really special.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Ayma

01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

I think the best career advice I've ever received is when people told me to do what I really was passionate about and wanted to do. I think that's so important. I completely pivoted from medicine into doing bioengineering just because I was so passionate about this, and I think that was the best decision I made. You just tend to learn more if you're doing what you want to do.

02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I say, go for it. You can not only teach yourself a lot of things, you're given so many resources, and the biggest one is just yourself. You know, do some research, speak to people around you, everybody's willing to help out, well, usually. So I suppose use your resources. The benefit of working in such a field and being a woman in this field is you will always find people who will want to help you because you're doing such a service to humankind by working in medical devices. I work with really a great team of just other girls and women, and my mentors are all doctors in this space, and they're all also women, and they go out on a limb for you. They go above and beyond to help you and support you, and that's a really, really special thing.

03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I think the biggest challenge would be pitching it to people. Sometimes it's hard to find the right people to discuss your idea with, and not a lot of people could be super receptive to it, and that's for a number of different reasons. So I guess just finding the right mentors, the right people, and then eventually, if you want to bring it to the market, who do you go through? That's something that's a little bit of a challenge to figure out. But there's so many great people out there. The benefit of working in such a field and being a woman in this field is you will always find people who will want to help you because you're doing such a service to humankind by working in medical devices.

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