Biography
Raveen Kariyawasam is a dual degree student in bioengineering with concentrations in computational medicine and medical devices in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and in the Wharton School with concentrations in finance and entrepreneurship & innovation at the University of Pennsylvania. Kariyawasam also holds a master’s degree in bioengineering concentrating in brain-machine interfaces and advanced computational modeling of biological systems.
With an interest in health care innovation and accessibility, Kariyawasam is involved in several research projects, including his Wharton honors thesis that focuses on optimizing a low-cost electronic medical record system in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. He has received several research grants, including the Vagelos Undergraduate Research Grant, the Berkman Opportunity Fund grant, and the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps grant. At Penn, he is editor-in-chief of Synapse, a student-run health care magazine and is vice president of the Phi Sigma Biological Honor Society. He is a disc jockey for the student-run radio station, WQHS, and an executive board member of the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club. He also is a former student ambassador at the Penn Health-Tech Center for Health Devices and Technology.
At Oxford, Kariyawasam plans to pursue a D.Phil. degree in engineering science to develop culturally and contextually aware medical platforms that can shift the care paradigm in low-resource settings.