Award Winners

Dr. Rucha Joshi – Tamaskar, Ph.D., is a faculty at Plaksha, formerly an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis; and a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University, where she worked on tissue engineering as well as engineering education research, specifically on biomaterials, drug delivery and instructional innovation using active learning in biomedical engineering. Rucha received a BS in biotechnology engineering from Shivaji University, India, in 2009, and MS in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2011. Rucha has two patents, on making low calorie biscuits from banana peel pulp, and second on “collagen based therapeutic delivery systems”. Her current research focuses on silk-biomaterials, project-based learning, personalizing learning, and entrepreneurially minded engineers. She is also a director for Grand Challenges Scholars Program at Plaksha, creating experiential learning through a combined curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular program. Rucha has been active on making engineering inclusive to the underrepresented high school students in India and the United States. Her latest book on collagen based drug delivery was published by Springer in 2021. Rucha also wrote a book in Marathi telling a story of her journey of representing India at Japan in class 12th, being honored by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the late president of India, for her invention of “low calorie biscuits from banana peel pulp”. This book in Marathi, “Bhartiya Balvaidnyanik achi Garudzep”, summarizing her life experiences in inspiring Indian students towards STEM pursuits, won a literary award from the State Government of Maharashtra in 2008. Rucha is actively working to promote the inclusive maker movement as a part of the Inclusive University Alliance, and building inclusive STEM DIY activities to address the higher learning needs of visually impaired high school children. She has served as a BME Liaison for the Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 2021-22, and as a secretary of New Engineering Educators division of ASEE in 2019-20. She was invited on the advisory committee for the 10th International Conference in Transformations in Engineering Education (ICTEIEE) 2023, organized by the Indo Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE). In 2022, she served as the healthcare area co-chair for the International Conference on AI at Plaksha. She is active member of IEEE, SWE and a reviewer for peer publication of manuscripts (eg. Journal of Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, Journal of Engineering Education). On extra-curriculars, Rucha loves acting, hiking, wild-life sfaris, star-gazing, Indian Classical Singing, collecting stones, and assemblage art. Rucha is also a NAUI certified SCUBA diver and 2023 Punjab state badminton winner in 35+ Women category, representing Punjab in 45th National Badminton Veterans Championship.