Stacey Kuo
MS in Biomedical Engineering, Duke ’15
Current Role: Manager, AI/ML SQA at Align Technology
Stacey earned a BS in Nano-Engineering (Bioengineering concentration) from UC San Diego in 2013 before starting her career in the tech industry. While at UCSD, her engagement as an Eleanor Roosevelt Provost Honors Scholar and involvement in various engineering societies laid the groundwork for her future career. She then pursued an MS in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, graduating in 2015. Her time at Duke, where she served as CFO for the Biomedical Engineering Association of Masters Students (BEAMS) and conducted research on MRI contrast agents, further solidified her technical expertise. Stacey then transitioned to Asensus Surgical, where she gained valuable experience as a Quality Engineering Associate and later as a Quality and Compliance Specialist. She then joined Align Technology in 2018 as an Associate SQA Engineer for Machine Learning.
At Align, she quickly became the first Software Quality Engineer on the Machine Learning team. Since January 2023, Stacey has been managing the AI/ML SQA team at Align, showcasing her leadership and strategic capabilities. Throughout her career at Align, her passion for connecting with the academic community, particularly at Duke, is apparent through her role as an R&D Representative and Campus Champion.
My Talk with Stacey
My interview with Stacey revealed how pivotal her Duke experience was when it came to shaping her career. I learned how important it is to engage with the community at Duke and take advantage of all the resources that this university has to offer including but not limited to career fairs, and alumni interviews. Engaging in these opportunities can lead to discovering new career paths and changing the way you think about your career trajectory after graduation.
Duke impact on career goals?
Stacey’s time at Duke allowed her to engage in lab work while learning about different industry roles in engineering through interviews and career fairs. While her UCSD nanoengineering undergrad gave her a foundation, Duke, through career fairs and interviews, broadened her understanding of engineering roles beyond initial R&D interests. Stacey had a chance to learn more about positions related to engineering and have meaningful conversations with recruiters at career fairs which impacted the way she thought about her career path.
MS expectations vs. reality?
Stacey didn’t have specific expectations coming into Duke but found that Duke has an abundance of resources when it comes to career prep and professional development. Some specific resources that she used as mentioned before include career fairs which helped her get in front of recruiters, practice her elevator pitch, and gain a better understanding of roles in industry that are a good fit for her skill set and background. Furthermore, attending events involving company speakers/interviews and alumni interviews was beneficial to connect with individuals that have a similar background and learn from their experiences.
First role after Duke? Helpful Duke experiences? Turning points?
Her initial role was in quality control/healthcare compliance, landed via Duke’s career fairs and LinkedIn. A key moment was realizing healthcare compliance wasn’t for her, leading to software quality and her current ML management position. This realization came because of attending a healthcare compliance conference where she realized that field was not for her and came across one individual at the conference who did software quality work. This type of work piqued her interest thus leading Stacey to pursue software quality positions and change her line of work. Therefore, Duke helped her develop communication skills and take advantage of unique opportunities like the healthcare compliance conference which had a profound impact on her career trajectory.
Advice for students? Key takeaways?
A piece of advice for students is that managers shape your entire work experience, so it is very important to find managers and mentors that allow you to grow. More specifically, she found that working under managers who allowed her to gain a variety of experiences and skills while providing consistent support and guidance gave her the best working experience. Stacey also advises current students to maximize every learning opportunity at Duke, as your time here is short. She encouraged students to go to as many career events as possible, talk to as many alumni and career representatives as you can, and utilize your peers to learn as much as possible about possible career paths you might be interested in.
About the interviewer and author
My name is Annika Kumar, and I am a second-year BME MS student at Duke, passionate about conducting research in the field of computational bioengineering. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Washington, majoring in bioengineering with a data science option. During my undergraduate career, I participated in two summer internships that sparked my interest in computational bioengineering. Through these experiences, I learned how to work with large biomedical datasets and conduct machine learning studies using various algorithms.
Now at Duke, I am actively involved in the Big Ideas Lab, where I apply machine learning to smartwatch data for digital biomarker development. I also work in the Hoffman Lab, focusing on protein-protein interactions using machine learning and simulations. Beyond research, I’m dedicated to supporting fellow students through the Duke Engineering Ambassadors (EGA) program, where I mentor undergraduates on graduate school applications. In my free time, I enjoy playing basketball, watching movies, and spending time with my dog.
