CEO & Co-founder, SmartEar
Dr. Masaki has 20 years of experience in the field of hearing and holds a Bachelor and Masters in EECS from MIT, a PhD in biomedical engineering from Harvard/MIT, and a Post-PhD from Stanford Medical School in stem cell engineering. Dr. Masaki has taught and lectured at MIT, Stanford and numerous conferences about hearing and hearing technologies. Dr. Masaki has created and managed intellectual property for a number of global hearing companies that are leaders in the field of hearing and has numerous patents that are being commercialized. Dr. Masaki is skilled in the development of biomedical technologies with expertise in bioengineering and strategic integration of engineering, biology, and medicine. Prior to SmartEar, Dr. Masaki was the founding Principal R&D Scientist at EarLens where she led R&D efforts in developing a novel hearing device for FDA approval and worked on process design and material engineering for biocompatibility and biosafety. She was also involved in execution and planning of Clinical Trials and the submission of the product for 510(k) De Novo approval. Prior to EarLens, Dr. Masaki was a Principal Scientist at Advanced Bionics where she was responsible for developing the next generation cochlear implants. Dr. Masaki led international R&D efforts to develop technology to automate and objectively fit infants for cochlear implant use and developed IP for several form factors with different investment requirements. Dr. Masaki has received numerous awards including California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Scholar Training Grant for her past work and has published many publications.