Feb 20 2026

2/20 – Career Development and Industry Engagement Seminar Series: Vaishnavi Vanamala

Career Development and Industry Engagement Seminar

February 20, 2026

12:15 PM - 1:15 PM

Location

SEO 236

Address

851 S Morgan St, Chicago, IL 60607

The speaker will be virtual.

Speaker:

Vaishnavi Vanamala

AR/VR Product Owner at AbbVie

Title: Learning in Motion: Navigating an Early Career in Immersive Technology

Bio: Vaishnavi Vanamala is an AR/VR Product Owner at AbbVie, where she manages the organization’s AR/VR Center of Excellence within IT. In this role, she translates business needs into actionable development priorities, aligns cross-functional stakeholders, and oversees delivery to ensure immersive technology initiatives support enterprise goals. Her work focuses on bridging business strategy and technical execution while advancing the adoption of emerging AR/VR capabilities in a large, complex organization. She joined AbbVie through the company’s IT Development Program immediately after graduating, completing three rotations across distinct roles over two years. These experiences provided broad exposure to enterprise technology operations and strengthened her ability to navigate ambiguity, collaborate across teams, and drive strategic initiatives from concept through implementation. Vaishnavi holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago. Early in her career, she prioritizes continuous learning and hands-on exploration of new domains, particularly immersive technologies, while expanding her technical fluency. Her professional focus centers on growth, adaptability, and building the skills needed to connect evolving business needs with practical technology solutions

Host: Hananeh Esmailbeigi

Contact

UIC Biomedical Engineering

Date posted

Feb 12, 2026

Date updated

Feb 12, 2026