MASS AWIS Open House 2025

Get ready to connect, learn, and be inspired at the 2025 MASS AWIS Open House!

This is your chance to engage with a vibrant community of women in science, explore new ideas, and expand your professional network.

The evening will feature a fireside chat: “AI as a Lab Partner: Opportunities and Challenges for Women in Science.”

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way scientists design experiments, analyze data, and accelerate discovery. Join our guests (bios below), Dr. Ashwini Ghogare, Ph.D., MBA, an oncology researcher and AI strategist recognized among the Top 100 AI Leaders of 2025, and Prof. Tina Eliassi-Rad, Ph.D., a distinguished computer science professor and Lagrange Prize awardee, as they explore the opportunities and challenges AI presents for women in science.

Enjoy a dynamic evening with networking opportunities, free professional headshots with Martin Lightfoot, and engaging activities like Bingo and a Scavenger Hunt. This is also a great platform to connect with MASS AWIS committees, learn how to get involved, discover programs, and meet like-minded peers.

Agenda

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM Registration & MASS AWIS Committee Tables OPEN (Lobby and Deborah Sampson Room)

6:00 PM - 6:05 PM Introduction to MASS AWIS and Leadership Board (Abigail Adams and Horace Mann)

6:05 PM - 6:45 PM Fireside Chat Guest(s) Introduction and Discussion (Abigail Adams and Horace Mann)

"AI as a Lab Partner: Opportunities and Challenges for Women in Science"

6:45 PM - 6:50 PM Announce Timeline for Rest of Evening (Abigail Adams and Horace Mann)

6:50 PM - 8:00 PM Professional Headshots by Martin Lightfoot (Abigail Adams and Horace Mann)

6:50 PM - 8:00 PM Food Available & MASS AWIS Committee Tables OPEN (Lobby and Deborah Sampson Room)

7:30 PM - 8:00 PM Closing Speech and Bingo/Raffle Winners Announcement (Lobby and Deborah Sampson Room)

"Winners to Receive a Copy of The Career Toolkit by Mark Herschberg, our January 2026 Workshop Lead"

Fireside chat: "AI as a Lab Partner: Opportunities and Challenges for Women in Science"

Join our speakers, Ashwini Ghogare, Ph.D., MBA, and Prof. Tina Eliassi-Rad, Ph.D., for a fireside chat on Artificial Intelligence and its impact on Women in Science.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the way scientists design experiments, analyze data, and accelerate discovery. In this conversation, we will explore how AI is reshaping the research landscape, the unique opportunities it offers for women in science, and the challenges of ensuring equity, ethics, and inclusivity in an AI-driven future.

Guest Bio(s)

Ashwini Ghogare, Ph.D., MBA, is a scientist-turned-intrapreneur passionate about transforming how medicines are discovered. Over the past decade, she has led ambitious, high-impact initiatives in global pharma, bringing together AI, automation, and vision to accelerate drug discovery. As founder of the AIDDISON Platform and the AIDD Automation Lab, Ashwini built and scaled these ventures from concept to commercialization—reshaping how small molecule discovery is done: faster, smarter, and more predictably. She thrives on moving AI-driven technologies from concept to the lab bench, building extraordinary teams, and turning bold ideas into products with measurable business impact.

Ashwini is recognized internationally as a thought leader in GenAI and automation for drug discovery and was honored as one of the 'Top AI 100 Leaders and AI Leader of the Year' in 2025. She holds a Ph.D. in oncology research and an Executive MBA from the Wharton School of Business. She is the co-founder of her consulting firm BioFinIQ LLC, a strategic AI consultancy at the intersection of biotech and finance, helping clients accelerate discovery, optimize AI portfolios, and unlock R&D insights through advanced GenAI and intelligent platform design.

Tina Eliassi-Rad is a Professor of Computer Science and The Inaugural Joseph E. Aoun Chair at Northeastern University. She is also a core faculty member at Northeastern's Network Science Institute. In addition, she is an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute and the Vermont Complex Systems Institute. Before joining Northeastern, Tina was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University. Before that, she was a member of technical staff and principal investigator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Tina earned her Ph.D. in Computer Sciences (with a minor in Mathematical Statistics) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is at the intersection of data mining, machine learning, and network science. She has over 150 peer-reviewed publications (including a few best paper and best paper runner-up awards) and has given over 300 invited talks and 14 tutorials. Tina's work has been applied to personalized search on the World-Wide Web, statistical indices of large-scale scientific simulation data, fraud detection, mobile ad targeting, cyber situational awareness, drug discovery, democracy and online discourse, and ethics in machine learning. Her algorithms have been incorporated into systems used by governments and industry (e.g., IBM System G Graph Analytics) and into open-source software (e.g., Stanford Network Analysis Project). Tina received an Outstanding Mentor Award from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science in 2010, became an ISI Foundation Fellow in 2019, was named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics in 2021, received Northeastern University's Excellence in Research and Creative Activity Award in 2022, was awarded the Lagrange Prize in 2023, and was elected Fellow of the Network Science Society in 2023.

Light refreshments will be served!

Event Fee: FREE for ALL. Registration Required. Register Here.

Registration Deadline: Wednesday, 12th November 2025, 11:55 PM ET.

Walk-Ins Not Allowed for Security Reasons.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR ID FOR REGISTRATION.