Amanda Randles Wins Inaugural Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature

2/4/25 Pratt School of Engineering

Associated $250,000 prize will support Randles's work to build "digital twins" for the human vasculature to improve heart-related health outcomes

Amanda Randles Sony Award
Amanda Randles Wins Inaugural Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature

Sony Group Corporation (Sony) and Nature announced the inaugural recipients of the Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature today, honoring outstanding early to mid-career women researchers who are spearheading breakthroughs for the betterment of society and the planet in the field of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The award grants each winner a prize of $250,000 to support and accelerate their technological research.

Amanda Randles, the Alfred Winborne and Victoria Stover Mordecai Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, was recognized today at an award ceremony in Tokyo, Japan, along with the three other winners.

Randles received the award for her innovative research in “digital twin” technology, which integrates wearable-informed computational models to provide personalized insights into cardiovascular hemodynamics and optimize treatment strategies.

Randles, a computational scientist and biomedical engineer, leads the Randles Lab at Duke
University and is known for her contributions to high-performance computing, machine
learning and the personalized modeling for disease diagnostics and treatment.

After successfully exploring the use of digital twin technology to guide interventions for heart
patients
, Randles and team aim to investigate how this technique can be applied to early
intervention for cancer
. With this prize, the Randles Lab plans to explore innovative ways of
modeling and identifying new therapeutic targets to advance cancer treatment.

Speaking on their decision, the judging panel highlighted that Randles has had a “significant impact opportunity in the fascinating space of digital twins,” and that, “her vision of a doctor reviewing digital twin organs to enable proactive intervention is inspiring.”

Amanda Randles pointing to large screen with colorful illustration
Amanda Randles showing how portions of her “digital twin” modeling technique for the human vasculature system works.

Winning the award along with Randles were Dr. Kiana Aran (UC San Diego, USA) and Dr. Yating Wan (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) as
well as the Judges’ Commendation recipient Jiawen Li (University of Adelaide, Australia).

“We launched this award in March 2024 with the clear aim of supporting more diverse gender representation within the international research community,” says Hiroaki Kitano, CTO of Sony Group Corporation and executive sponsor of the program. “We are very inspired by our honorees, each of them challenging the current state of the art in their fields. We look forward to championing their work, as well as growing the program in the years to come.”

Magdalena Skipper, Editor-in-Chief, Nature added, “Fewer than 47% of the positions in the tech sector are held by women globally. And yet, the diversity, creativity, and innovation that women bring to research and technology is essential if we hope to address the most pressing challenges facing the world. Therefore, it is with great pride that we celebrate the inspiring work of Kiana Aran, Amanda Randles, Yating Wai, and Jiawen Li. Through their commitment to research excellence and innovation, this year’s winners are fantastic role models for the next generation of women considering careers in research and engineering.”

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