Deana Fu began her career as a support engineer at Mitsubishi Electric in Japan, where she tackled customer challenges by uncovering overlooked insights in manuals or collaborating directly with product developers. Her ability to simplify complex issues naturally extended into supporting marketing teams with product demonstrations, sparking a passion for storytelling and customer engagement. She realized her strength lay not in debugging, but in helping customers envision how new products could transform their work.

This insight led Deana into product marketing and product management, where she spent several years navigating the intersection of engineering, business strategy, and relationship-building. As a product leader, she thrived on communicating value, driving growth strategies, and owning business outcomes.
Today, as senior director of strategic marketing, Deana brings a holistic lens to growth, one that transcends individual product lines to shape company-wide impact. She leads with a blend of technical fluency and market insight, aligning cross-functional teams around shared goals and customer value. Her work is rooted in inclusive strategy development, ensuring that diverse perspectives inform the company’s direction and innovation roadmap.

Talk about the culture at your company. What makes it inclusive or supportive of diversity in engineering and automation?

At Mitsubishi Electric Automation, our culture is built on our core values: commitment to excellence, respectful relationships, and passion for the customer. These values shape how we collaborate across teams to anticipate customer needs and deliver innovative solutions in engineering and automation.

We are deeply committed to creating an inclusive workplace, one that actively minimizes bias, encourages collaborative decision-making, and upholds equity and fairness. Our culture promotes understanding of cultural differences and unconscious bias, and values empathy and emotional intelligence as essential leadership traits. These principles were reflected in our recent inclusive management workshops, where leaders engaged in self-assessment, shared openly with peers, and developed action plans to improve inclusivity. I was inspired by the thoughtful conversations and genuine commitment to change that emerged from these sessions.

We are committed to building a workplace where everyone can thrive, including minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and early grads. While our backgrounds and experiences may differ, we are united by a shared vision: to be the most customer-centric organization in industrial automation. 

We also work closely with the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) to support the foundation’s mission to help youth with disabilities maximize their potential and live more fulfilling lives through increased employment. The foundation helps promote accessibility to careers in technology and trade, supporting local non-profit organizations to create a pipeline of skilled talent to access careers in high-demand fields. 

Describe a recent company project (in which you were involved) that went particularly well. How did you and your team go about ensuring success?

A recent project that went particularly well was our updated go-to-market strategy. We formed cross-functional work groups to identify market segments where customer needs align strongly with our capabilities. These teams analyzed customer challenges, refined our solution offerings, and equipped our sales team with the tools and knowledge to guide customers through discovery conversations. We also developed a comprehensive marketing plan to support the rollout.

The first key to success was orchestrating a cross-functional team that brought diverse perspectives and experiences. Every conversation focused on understanding the target persona, their customer journey, and the goals they aim to achieve. Staying anchored in this shared purpose helped us move past differences that could have distracted us from progress.

The second key was our agile approach. At the end of each meeting, we either defined a hypothesis with a validation plan or reviewed validation results and decided on a path forward. This cadence kept us moving quickly while remaining flexible and responsive to new insights. By combining customer-centric collaboration with disciplined execution, we aligned our teams and delivered a strategy that’s already gaining traction in the market.

What first drew you to engineering or the automation and manufacturing industry?

Sending their children to college was everything my parents had hoped for. When it came time for applications, I stared at the blank field labeled “intended major” and drew a blank. I felt the weight of living up to their expectations while falling short for not knowing what I wanted to study. But I was raised to seek new experiences, embrace discomfort, and take calculated risks; so I did exactly that. I enrolled at Cornell University to pursue a degree in electrical and computer engineering. At the time, I didn’t know anyone with an engineering career, but I had just aced a calculus exam and figured I’d find my way.

I stumbled into engineering not knowing what to expect, but I quickly found myself immersed in a diverse and welcoming community. I was learning complex concepts and forming lasting friendships. We tackled challenging projects together — and sometimes, we duct-taped classmates to the wall in impromptu competitions, a creative solution to the boredom of long winters far from home.

Most importantly, we learned how to collaborate, problem-solve, and engage with peers who were passionate about making a difference. That sense of shared purpose and curiosity shaped my journey and continues to guide me today.

Describe your biggest career challenge. How did you solve it, or what was the outcome or lesson learned?

A few years ago, I was asked to lead the implementation of a business operating system based on the 80/20 principle – a framework that encourages allocating effort based on the value an activity brings or could bring. We had just set a bold vision: to become the most customer-centric manufacturer in industrial automation. With rapid growth underway, we needed a strategic approach to scale effectively.

Several cross-functional initiatives were launched, and I was tasked with coaching each business group to define impactful strategies, make data-driven decisions, and establish clear performance indicators. Initially, I had doubts. My focus was on building a high-performing product management team, and this new assignment felt like a distraction.

After seeking advice from mentors, I realized it wasn’t a conflict, it was an opportunity. As a product leader, I’m responsible not only for technical expertise but also for driving growth and business outcomes. If I could do this for products, I could also help bridge gaps across functions and apply the same principles at scale.

Taking on this challenge pushed me outside my comfort zone and helped me grow professionally. I gained valuable insights into the operational aspects of our business and contributed to meaningful improvements. It was a reminder that stepping into discomfort often leads to the most rewarding growth.

5. What career advice would you give to your younger self?

If I could give my younger self one piece of advice, it would be to build authentic relationships any chance you get. A genuine desire to support those around us is one of the most powerful ways to shape not just a rewarding career, but a fulfilling life.

Over the years, I’ve grown close to many brilliant colleagues who became friends, advisors, and mentors. Some check in to remind me to pause and enjoy life, offer encouragement when I’m navigating new opportunities, or simply share a good laugh. I consider it an accomplishment when I can reciprocate, offer support and celebrate their successes.

While it’s exciting to chase the next career milestone, it’s the kindness, compassion, and connection shared among peers that truly make the journey worthwhile. Relationships built on trust and mutual respect are what sustain us through challenges and amplify our successes.

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It’s a journey that Roy Steinberg knows well. “I’ve always been spatially aware,” he tells me. “I can visualize things in my head and I want to bring them out. For me, CAD is the best way to do that. It’s how I got into engineering in high school, when I started CAD modeling with Autodesk Inventor and enjoyed it so much that I’d spend my lunch periods working on projects.”

Steinberg went on to major in mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois, where he continued to develop his skills in 3D modeling and also discovered an interest in 3D printing. Together, these helped him overcome a personal challenge in his education. “I have ADHD [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder] and I used toys during lectures,” he says, “but most fidget toys were distracting and didn’t actually help me focus. So, I decided to engineer my own.”

That decision led Steinberg on a journey familiar to many engineers: taking a product concept to design to production, including dozens of iterations along the way. The result, after a little less than a year, was the Pinchy — a silent, pinching fidget toy that’s deceptively simple in its design.

Designing the Pinchy

The fidget toy consists of just three main parts: a thumb pad, a column, and a finger carriage. Nevertheless, getting those three parts to work together in the way Steinberg envisioned them took time.

“I’d make small adjustments to the width of the bearing slot, the seating of the spring, or the spacing of the holes,” he explains. “Honestly, all that iterating and rapid prototyping was one of the most fun parts.”

During our call, Steinberg walks me through several of his prototype designs via screen share, including ones that used gears instead of bearings, or tension versus compression springs. As is often the case, some of those iterations ended up informing later designs, even though they didn’t make it into the original final product. The Pinchy Click, for example, uses gears similar to those in some of the earlier designs.

Although Steinberg is the sole inventor of the Pinchy, he’s quick to acknowledge the help he received from other engineers, including one of his professors, Michael Philpott. “He taught Introduction to Engineering Design,” Steinberg recalls. “He was amazing, and an inventor, too: he created the Salad Shooter. I’ve asked him for design help with the Pinchy and advice on patents.”

After many long hours and almost as many design iterations, Steinberg finally realized his original vision. “There were times I thought it wouldn’t work and felt like quitting,” he says, “But I pushed through, focusing on making the best possible fidget toy, first and foremost for myself, since I wanted something quiet to use in class.”

The product launch

By his junior year, Steinberg was ready to bring the Pinchy to market via the e-commerce website, Etsy. “I learned a lot about the logistics — printing labels, shipping, accounting — mostly from YouTube,” he says. “I launched right before the holidays, which helped, and I started getting orders every day.” By his senior year, Steinberg had begun using TikTok Shop, which he says helped turn the Pinchy into a solid side hustle. Even now that he’s finished school and started a full-time job at Northrop Grumman, he’s still shipping orders daily.

“I work on infrared countermeasure hardware, which is essentially missile defense systems for military aircraft,” he explains. “It feels meaningful to work on something that protects people. Balancing that with running a small business is hard, but I enjoy both.”

Beyond being an additional stream of income, the Pinchy is also continuing to help Steinberg focus at work. “I’ll fidget with it in my left hand while using my mouse in my right.” He also gave them away as gifts to his coworkers during his internship.

Engineering & ADHD

The overlap between engineers and people with ADHD is large enough that the relationship between engineering and having ADHD has become a subject of scholarly interest. Papers on this topic appear in the American Society for Engineering Education, the International Journal for Talent Development and Creativity, and the Journal of Engineering Education.

In each case, it’s noted that individuals with ADHD tend to excel in creativity and a willingness to take risks, both potentially useful traits for engineers. While most research still focuses on the struggles of teaching engineering to those with ADHD, more recent efforts — including the examples cited above — emphasize the unique strengths ADHD can offer to engineering.

Asked about the relationship between being an engineer and having ADHD, Steinberg’s response is very much in line with this duality. “It can be tough,” he admits. “Focusing, staying organized, blanking out mid-conversation, but I also think of it as kind of a superpower. People with ADHD often make connections quickly and that helps them come up with ideas fast and think in unique ways. I take medication to help manage it, but I still value the creativity and fast thinking it gives me.”

That creativity and drive come across when I ask Steinberg what he’d do with unlimited time and resources to apply his engineering skills. The projects that immediately spring to mind are ambitious and meaningful: reducing carbon dioxide levels through improved filtration and carbon capture systems, or building better high-speed rail infrastructure, especially in his hometown of Chicago. “I love trains,” he says, “and I’d love to see rail systems modeled on the European ones here.”

Neurodiversity in engineering

Being a good engineer requires a certain kind of mindset: a natural inclination to see the world in terms of problems to be solved and an innate drive to make those solutions a reality by building them. That means a good engineer needs to be creative, willing to take risks and capable of intense focus, all qualities that are also frequently found in individuals with ADHD. Of course, that doesn’t mean that good engineers are more likely to have ADHD or vice versa, but it does suggest, as in the neurodiversity paradigm more generally, that difference and disability are not the same thing.

Engineers are often skeptical, but they also tend to be optimistic when it comes to their work and the difference it can make to the wider world. Whether he’s designing a fidget toy or a missile defense system, Roy Steinberg personifies these values and that’s reflected in his advice for other young engineers: “Don’t be bound by what others say. Anything is possible and if someone criticizes your idea, take it as constructive feedback, not a reason to give up. There’s always room to innovate, and you can always make something better. Of course, at some point,” he chuckles, “you do need to stop and release it.”

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Nikki Maginn took a winding journey to become the engineer and leader she is today. She grew up wanting to be a teacher, yet her father trained her to become a pilot. At age 16, she could legally fly a plane before she could drive a car. Although she appreciated the experience and challenge, she yearned for a career where she could interact with people, and being a pilot was not going to do the trick.

“My parents had this mantra. They said, if you want to be happy for a day, take a nap. If you want to be happy for a week, take a vacation. But if you want to be happy for life, live in service,” said Maginn.

These wise words had Maginn rethink her life path, and she turned toward engineering because of her inspiring grandmother, who designed aircraft carriers during World War II.

“She was a Rosie the Riveter. Her name was Mary Saridan. At the time, women didn’t go into engineering, and she put herself through school. She was the first person I ever knew who was an engineer, and she was also the happiest person I had ever experienced in my life,” said Maginn. “I told myself, that’s what Grammy is, so that’s what I’m gonna be.”

Still, Maginn struggled with the notion of engineering during high school, mostly because she felt she was bad at math — that is, until she took her first physics course. Learning physics breathed life into math, and suddenly, she understood how to apply math, physics, other sciences, and critical thinking skills to solve problems like puzzles. However, it was Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons” novel that gave her the final nudge she needed.

“In this book, he was talking about antimatter, where you smash atoms together, and they break into their subatomic parts. So you have a positron and an electron, and the positron is the antimatter of an electron,” said Maginn. “I was obsessed with this ‘science fiction idea’ that annihilation creating enough pure clean energy to power New York City for three days. And I’m sitting there in class thinking, ‘This is fake, but how cool would it be if it were real? And how cool would I be if I were just like my Grammy and got to be the first woman to do something?’ My first thing was going to be creating energy equity across the world — getting rid of all energy poverty, giving access to clean, free energy to everyone. So, I said, ‘This is it. This is what I should do with my life.’”

With the guidance of high school teachers and counselors, she enrolled in the University of Tennessee as an electrical engineering student. Yet, during her fundamentals courses, her college classmates and professors quickly steered her toward nuclear engineering, based on her interest in creating clean energy.

Unfortunately, she graduated from engineering school two years after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, and no one was hiring nuclear engineers. After 199 rejection letters, Maginn rebranded herself as a glorified mechanical engineer, as she puts it, and found a position in material handling and logistics. She quickly proved herself and assumed management responsibilities, devising solutions for her team and customers. In her first three months, she transitioned from managing one to 30 projects, ranging from $1 to $5 million and totaling approximately $30 million.

“One of the biggest challenges I faced was helping non-technical people understand why we had to do something a very specific way, or why we were designing something in a certain way. I really had to develop this skill,” said Maginn. “I think of it like a translator. Management is telling me I need to do something faster or be more efficient. Well, I need them to understand that there are specific steps that have to get done for me to give something that’s of quality, meets our safety standards, and makes sure it’s actually meeting the customer requirements.”

Maginn learned that humility goes a long way in challenging conversations, and she first needed to understand where each person was coming from before diving into an explanation.

“I think of everything as inputs and outputs, and I want the output to be that everyone walks away with exactly what they need to be successful. We all understand the requirements, we all understand the ultimate design we’re trying to achieve. But what has to be inputted to make sure I can get that?” she said. “Coming in hot is not a good input. That is not going to get me an equitable, harmonious outcome for everybody, nor is trying to demean someone, or answering a question so that it makes me look good, but not actually solve the problem. I’m asking questions to understand and lead a horse to water instead of showing you how smart I am and how much I know.”

Maginn worked diligently to learn how to ask questions and communicate effectively to facilitate problem-solving. She became so skilled and so aware of the positive effects her efforts had on her career that she wanted to teach others how to do the same.

Today, Maginn teaches emotional intelligence to engineers through her company, Inside Out Engineering. She believes that graduating engineers are unprepared to participate effectively in difficult conversations and experiences because they have been trained in a bubble.

“Most academic work is focused on creating ideal conditions. You do your homework, you take these tests, and you’re told to ignore friction or ignore wind resistance — assume ideal conditions. But that’s not what happens in the real world,” she said. “So, you train engineers to operate in ideal conditions, and then you throw them into the corporate world, and they have to figure it out. All of a sudden, there are unknown variables you just weren’t prepared for, and you’re also typically the only technical person on the team, so you have to find a way to make sure people understand.”

Maginn also believes that because engineering students are evaluated as individuals, they are unprepared for the realities of relationships and collaborations necessary to function and be successful on real-world, problem-solving teams.

“In the corporate world, you have to work as a team. You are not the end-all, be-all authority. You have to work with different ideas,” she said. “If you’re bringing your ego to the table, if you’re feeling threatened, you need to recognize: There’s an executive who’s coming at me because they’ve got a very stressful thing going on in their life. They’ve got different pressures than I do, and they’re kind of attacking me in this meeting and blaming the design. But it’s not the design, there’s something going on with that person, and I have to know the difference between how I’m feeling and how they’re feeling. That’s a projection, that’s not something that I need to internalize as ‘I did something wrong.’ I need to be able to take constructive criticism.”

Taking criticism, participating in difficult meetings, and communicating with non-engineers are not usually included in a college curriculum. So, through her own struggles, Maginn saw an opportunity to help brilliant engineers in the real world develop themselves so they can be most effective and happy in their careers.

Today, Maginn teaches engineers how to rewire their thinking, recognize themselves and others as human beings with emotions, and solve problems from different perspectives. Her work is helping engineers at every career level up their game and be more impactful in work and life.

Learn more about Nikki Maginn’s work and get in touch with her by visiting insideoutengineering.com.

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Growing up surrounded by engineers, it’s no surprise that Maryam and Reza both followed their uncles into engineering. “In my family,” explained Maryam, “we have a lot of engineers. My uncles were engineers, though not all were electrical engineers. My mom’s uncle was a well-regarded physicist in my country. He wrote books that were used in universities.”

“We always had an interest in science and math,” she continued. “The four siblings in my family always gravitated or were pulled into math and physics. From early on, I enjoyed solving difficult math problems, even as a hobby and not just in school. I’d try to attack and solve them.” She also admitted to loving a documentary film about Einstein’s theories even though she didn’t understand them at the time.

After graduating from high school, Maryam followed Reza to Los Angeles. There, where he was studying electrical engineering at UCLA. Though before she could get there, she needed her acceptance from USC to get a student visa. She spent nine months in Germany before the paperwork was done.

Maryam’s first exposure to electrical engineering came when she visited Reza’s lab at UCLA. Seeing people using computers to design ICs and circuits convinced her to take some EE courses. Seeing what you can design was enough to convince her to study EE rather than physics or math. 

Maryam spent two semesters at USC before transferring to UCLA, where she completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She was halfway through a PhD program when she dropped out to start her first company with Reza, called Innovent Systems. 

At UCLA, they were able to show that both 900 MHz RF and digital circuits could be integrated onto a CMOS IC. The prototype, which grew from that project, showed that such a combination on CMOS was possible, but not practical to manufacture at a low enough cost, given the technology at the time. Reza worked on the RF section, which began his and later Maryam’s interest in wireless communications.

At around that time, Bluetooth and WiFi began to appear. Working with Broadcom, the Rofugarans chose Bluetooth for their next project, but designed it for WiFi use as well. After all, both technologies operate at 2.4 GHz — today’s 5 GHz and 6 GHz WiFi didn’t exist then.

The technology attracted interest from Intel and Qualcomm. Both companies wanted to acquire Innovent Systems. Maryam and Reza chose Broadcom. At the time, Broadcom had just issued its initial public offering, so Maryam noted that it too was essentially a startup, though much larger than Innovent Systems. That was around the year 2000.

Maryam and Reza were instrumental in designing radios for Broadcom. “It started with Bluetooth,” said Maryam, then we added WiFi, GPS, and near-field communications (NFC), integrating them with digital circuits on the same chip. Broadcom shipped parts to companies such as Nokia and Samsung with 3G and later 4G radios. They added carrier aggregation and eventually designed radios operating at frequencies up to 60 GHz. That’s when they decided to follow their passions for mmWave and the coming of 5G.

The big move

Maryam and Reza left Broadcom in April 2016 to start Movandi, where they develop products based on mmWave technology.

On the surface, you may question such a move. The Rofugarans have, you might say, bet their life savings on mmWave, a technology that, on the surface, seems unlikely to go mainstream, at least from a smartphone perspective. 

“It takes a lot of effort for people to actually understand what mmWave can do, what it cannot do, what best applications it can support. Millimeter wave signals cannot easily travel through metals and they have short ranges because of the short wavelength (1 cm at 30 GHz). It has blockage issues, but these are the challenges that need to be solved. Having done so many things that at one point people said were impossible, we believe that if you focus on the challenge, and you address the challenge, you can come up with the technology that could be a game changer.” That’s why in addition to designing mmWave semiconductors, Movandi also provides what it calls “smart repeaters” to bring mmWave signals indoors.

What you get from mmWave is large bandwidth that’s impossible to get at the sub-6 GHz frequencies where 5G mostly lives. Having worked with frequencies up to 60 GHz at Broadcom, Maryam and Reza knew the challenges, even though most 5G mmWave use is currently at or below 30 GHz.

Rather than focusing only on semiconductors, the Rofugarans also took a systems approach by designing smart repeaters to bring 5G mmWave signals indoors. They worked not just on chipsets because they can be made at low cost and deliver high performance, but that wasn’t good enough. “You don’t just build something in a completely new technology and then try to repeat the same deployment, right? We came up with our own algorithm to make repeaters that are smart, unlike analog repeaters. We have shown in many cases how these things can change an industry.”

You may recall the initial 5G hype where operators were touting blazing download speeds. According to Maryam, that gave the wrong impression of 5G. Now many telecom pundits say mmWave has failed. That, however, is based on a narrow vision where they only look at it from a smartphone perspective. Other applications, powered by Movandi products, can still make mmWave a game-changing technology. Think stadiums, private networks, and fixed-wireless internet access (FWA). 

Maryam sees FWA as the technology that will bring mmWave to the masses. Why? Because the 5G midband, roughly 3 GHz to 7 GHz, will run out of capacity. Making incremental changes to radio modulation, for example, will only go so far.

Maryam also noted a common issue with new technologies, the “chicken and the egg” issue. In the case of mmWave, more deployment or more devices that support it will drive the technology forward. She noted that Movandni has repeaters installed in Tokyo but, she said, Apple phones in Japan don’t support mmWave. “It’s taken longer than I would have hoped, she said, but it will come.” 

The game changer will be AI and the amount of data it will need and will create.

AI and engineers

While AI could push mmWave over the top, AI will also change how engineers work. Indeed, Maryam noted that using AI gives her more time for engineering work by getting her through emails faster, but it’s also an engineering tool. She explained that AI won’t replace engineers, but it could make engineers more efficient. “With AI, you won’t need lower-level engineers just sitting at a computer doing simulation. AI can produce a design much faster than people, but at the same time will also require people with a higher skill level. I think a combination of AI with smart people is where we’re going, and I think the efficiency will become much higher.”

She does, however, worry about the potential negatives of AI. She explained the possible effect on children’s abilities to solve problems, “It could have a negative effect on their creativity and their learning. I’m hoping that we can advance AI as much as we should because it definitely helps us. At the same time, we need to manage it in a moral, dignified manner so that our society benefits from it.”

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Historians and researchers have categorized this state of affairs as political polarization. Survey after survey, poll after poll, point to the same observation; American society is becoming more divided, not less so. Go beyond polls; ask your neighbors or friends or coworkers what they think, and chances are they’ll echo these sentiments, at least to some degree.

A few practical issues stand out. Instead of exerting time and energy trying to get at the origins of disagreements, the focus here will be how to actively manage situations in the workplace or on the job site. Among the many kinds of concerns, perhaps the most pressing ones are these; how to work with people who may hold different political views, and how to be respectful and a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) supporter during these times, especially given the recent pushback against DEI initiatives in general.  

What the data shows 

Some recent studies provide insights into the state of the workplace today. For instance, a 2022 study from the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) shows that “1 in 5 U.S. workers (20 percent) have experienced poor treatment in the workplace by coworkers or peers due to their political views.”

Some other key findings from the 2022 SHRM Politics at Work Study show that:

• 45 percent of U.S. workers say they have personally experienced political disagreements in the workplace, compared to 42 percent of U.S. workers in 2019.

• Those who work fully in-person (50 percent) are more likely to say they’ve experienced political disagreements in the workplace than hybrid workers (36 percent) and fully remote workers (39 percent).

• More than a quarter of U.S. workers (26 percent) engage in political discussions with their coworkers.

• Only eight percent of organizations have communicated guidelines to employees around political discussions at work.

A typical workplace is bound to be diverse across many different factors. These include racial differences as well as recent immigrants from around the world, the range of religious diversity, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Any one of these factors or combinations can be a source of a political disagreement in the workplace. Unfortunately, the pandemic and subsequent events have added to or exacerbated differences in many cases.

Then there are age differences and the differing generational outlooks that come with it. Think of the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, or the newest generation of college graduates just entering the workforce, Generation Z, who are often described as being the first truly “digital native” generation. Each of these generational cohorts has differing views of the workplace, of its expectations and demands, and what they consider “normal” or standard practice that others should be held accountable to.  

Such differing expectations are real. A recent study from Deloitte found evolving trends and attitudes among Millennial and Gen Z employees. Most notably, these generations tend to think that employers are responsible for promoting social values such as diversity and equity in the workplace, and they look for employers who demonstrate these values in their actual day-to-day business practices.

What we can do (practical recommendations)

With so many potential flash points and the awareness of so much political polarization in society generally, how can people best deal with these issues in today’s workplace?

One suggestion is to ban political discussions in the workplace to stay focused on organizational goals instead of letting politics take over. But the consensus seems to be that this is a bad idea.

For instance, Heidi Brooks, senior lecturer in organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management, says that focusing on a respectful, compassionate, and curious culture is more effective than an outright ban on talking politics. As Brooks notes, “It’s a dicey time. I’m making a bid for wisdom and compassion and empathy. I’m suggesting we prioritize learning and curiosity.”

Morela Hernandez and Michael Pratt, writing for the MIT Sloan Management Review, also argue that outright bans are counterproductive, especially given that work and personal boundaries are as porous as they are today.

They write that “the challenge is that most of us have personal views about public policy that affects our nonwork lives, and we tend to have strong, visceral reactions toward individuals whose views are different from ours.”

Part of the solution is to recognize complexity. As they write, “psychological research has uncovered complexity’s usefulness as a core antidote to the simplifying dynamics inherent in polarization. Once we view an issue as more complex than we first thought, it can open the door to viewing others more fully.”

Recognizing complexity means acknowledging that humans are not one-dimensional but, as Walt Whitman proclaimed, “contain multitudes.” This means that you cannot ask people to leave parts of themselves and their identities out of work, especially given the often-mentioned tendency to encourage people to bring their whole selves to work.

So, once people are at work, how should they behave in situations where political disputes arise? How should they meaningfully engage without having things go “off the rails,” so to speak?

SHRM offers a number of guidelines that serve both to set expectations for discussions in the workplace as well as a reminder of what is expected and the kind of culture a company is building.

• Remind people that the workplace is a place where everyone should feel safe, welcomed, respected, and included. 
• Communicate to people that the company doesn’t want to limit healthy dialogue about social issues, but it does have a vested interest in reducing disruptions and maintaining a culture of respect.
• Encourage people to approach these conversations from a place of curiosity and accept that they may not find common ground. Conversation should be seen as an opportunity for better understanding, not a means to change someone’s mind.

The notion that every workplace should be a place where people feel respected and included, creating a culture of respect, and for people to approach conversations with a mindset of curiosity and seeking common ground are good and positive goals for any workplace to adopt.

Along the lines of these recommendations come some more direct and specific guidelines for people to keep in mind when engaging in any type of discussion with political overtones. These come from the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin and include the following:

• Focus on the people, not the politics. The idea is that one should build a relationship with a person before talking politics. Also, don’t take comments personally, but try to keep them objective. Part of this may also include sharing your own relevant experiences. 
• Find common ground. Once you build a relationship, it’s easy to bond over less polarized issues, making any disagreements less likely to be taken more seriously or as personal. Another good suggestion is to be open to listening and understanding; asking questions to understand a different viewpoint is part of this, as is focusing on shared beliefs.

• Stick to the facts and avoid confrontation. This seems like an obvious one, but oftentimes in the heat of the moment, people forget. But it’s important to stick to information that can be verified and to support one’s opinions with evidence. Although we know that there can be legitimate disputes over the facts themselves, it should not stop us from basing any argument on the best available factual information we have.

A corresponding aspect here is to limit emotion in discussion and avoid confrontational language as much as possible. Again, in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to forget and lean into one’s position with whatever one’s got. However, there are obvious downsides to this, especially in a workplace.

References

Society for Human Resource Management

• https://www.shrm.org/about/press-room/shrm-study-reveals-20-workers-mistreated-due-to-political-views

• https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/employee-relations/political-discussions-workplace

Deloitte

https://www.welcometothejungle.com/en/articles/navigating-political-disagreements-at-work

Yale School of Management

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-to-keep-workplace-happy-in-divided-political-moment

Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin

https://mediaengagement.org/research/divided-communities/

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Since the age of nine, Harshwardhan Zala has been passionate about technology. He grew up in a small town in India and was the first engineer in his family. At a young age, he enjoyed building solutions and devices to solve daily problems for his family and community. For example, to help his mother clean the house quickly and efficiently, he built a robot with a small mop that sensed and detected walls and obstacles. He also created a solution to help his school save electricity when students forgot to turn off the lights and fans.

“Funny story,” said Zala, “I was walking past my neighbor, who was an undergrad student. He was solving this issue with one of his capstone projects, and I happened to know the solution, so I offered it for free. He ended up winning first prize, which was a big shock to me. But then he introduced me to his friends and colleagues, other students, which led to me building Robosoft Group, a school-led initiative helping undergrad and graduate students with their projects.”

And that’s how Zala became an entrepreneur at age 11. While helping others solve problems, he eventually met Urvashi Kikani, an aerospace engineer with whom he later cofounded Aerobotics7 to address the devastating effects of active landmines that remain undetected around the world.

“The pivotal moment came when I was 12,” he said. “I saw a photo of a young kid who lost both his legs due to landmines. That was a shocking moment. I realized how severe the problem is and the massive scale of it. It’s estimated there are more than 100 million active landmines still buried in 60-plus countries, and solving these issues still relies on human deminers, risking their lives, whether it’s through metal detectors, sweeping it and spending hours in a small patch of area, or using other methods like sniffing dogs and rats, putting everyone in danger. What I realized is, as wars have ended throughout the decades, these explosives still impact not only communities, but businesses in the economy of these growing countries.”

Zala noted that in active conflicts around the world, many military casualties occur because of undetected, noncombat threats, including landmines. Traditional demining methods, such as breaching, in which the military uses explosive line charges to clear a path, have varying efficacy.

“That was the first starting point for me to realize the scale of the problem, where the current solution stands, and how we can solve it. Of course, I was 12, I was too young to really think about all the aspects of it, but I was determined to make this my personal purpose,” said Zala. “I pivoted from Robosoft Group, started building robots to see if we could deploy them on the ground, but the issue was, being on the ground, it had a risk of blowing up itself, and it’s slower than drones.”

As such, he redirected his focus on building drones and created a few prototypes. His intention was not necessarily to replace humans with drones, but to provide humans with a scalable, remote capability that would increase detection accuracy.

“The primary challenge of detecting these mines, and why these casualties happen, is because most of the new, modern types of mines, or IEDs, are made out of nonmetallic components, mostly plastic, and these are very hard to detect using the traditional detectors, and oftentimes missing them creates a lot of casualties,” said Zala. “But it’s also the slowness in the detection efforts that they have to go through. So, the goal became to build a radar system that is focused on detecting these nonmetallic threats buried under the surface, and detect and identify them with the highest amount of accuracy possible.”

Three years ago, Zala moved to the U.S. and started a company with his cofounder. It began more as a research project, and they started working with governments around the world to understand the problems, the demining industry, and companies and nongovernmental organizations leading the charge.

They were met with resistance at first, being very young and pitching a solution that required a paradigm shift away from traditional thinking. Zala realized that to change people’s perception, he would have to show them prototypes and provide metrics to support his claims.

“We ended up receiving 96% accuracy in detecting nonmetallic threat types found in Ukraine, which led us to receive a letter of intent from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense,” said Zala. “Then, we started working on the same problem statement with the U.S. Army and the DoD, as more and more of our war fighters lost their lives because of not being able to detect these threats, and it ended up becoming a critical, urgent need throughout our NATO allies and partners.”

One of Zala’s challenges was improving the drones to ensure they maintained stability while flying at slower speeds. Most drone models were designed for high speeds, but Zala needed a drone to hover steadily and slowly. Another challenge was creating a sensing system that could detect threats underground. Zala and his partner focused their efforts on the sensing system and collaborated with manufacturers to build the right drone.

The team’s Eagle A7 system builds a 3D point cloud three meters below the Earth’s surface, and an AI model identifies a specific pattern for its targets, rather than detecting the presence or absence of a mine or deviations in soil properties. As the system collects data in real time, it trains the AI model to adapt to and detect new threats.

As countries withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, which bans anti-personnel landmines (mines that target humans), and billions of dollars continue to be spent on advancing military technology, Zala and his team call for an increase in PeaceTech funding and technology to support conflict prevention and recovery.

Last year, Aerobotics7 won the 2024 Kluz Prize for PeaceTech for its Eagle A7 drone technology, demonstrating that Zala and his team have moved well beyond research and baseline prototyping. From humble beginnings and a desire to positively impact individuals’ lives, they have grown their technology into a sophisticated, autonomous, AI-enabled solution to tackle one of the world’s most overlooked problems.

“It’s always hard. Every career we choose is hard, so the amount of leap you want to take comes down to your purpose and why you want to do it,” said Zala. “The only thing that kept me going and will keep me going to the finish line — seeing a world without landmines — is the big vision of using technology to support these communities, support children and people dying and losing limbs because of how we can utilize the power of technology to safeguard these countries and safeguard lives at a massive scale. And if no one else is thinking about it, then someone has to, and if I’ve taken that leap, I’m sure people will follow, and they will start leading it.”

Learn more about Aerobotics7 by visiting aerobotics7.com, and read more coverage on Eagle A7 at our sibling publication, Design World, by visiting designworldonline.com/eagle-a7-prevents-landmine-casualties-with-drone-mounted-ai.

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Jensen loves that the technical nature of electrical engineering design means no project is ever the same. Her favorite Certus core value is “We work with integrity,” which embodies her everyday approach to life and business, and she’s honored to use her problem-solving skills to indirectly impact the important work healthcare professionals do every day. Jensen was a 2009 Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 Under 40 winner.

What first drew you to engineering? Why did you decide to specialize in electrical engineering? 

I initially thought I wanted to be an architect because I loved both art and mathematics. But after a tough first “crit” in the architecture program at Kansas State University, I quickly realized that architectural design was not my gifting. 

At the same time, I asked my college counselor if I could take Calculus III as an elective. She literally laughed because the architecture degree I was pursuing only required College Algebra, which I had completed in high school. When she realized I was serious, she introduced me to the architectural engineering program. I had never heard of it, but it was the perfect fit, combining my love of buildings with the logic and structure of engineering. I switched majors the following semester, and that decision shaped the rest of my career.

Were there any influential engineers who helped shape your decision to become an engineer? Who and how?

My father is a civil engineer, and my mother worked at both an engineering firm and an architectural firm while I was growing up, so I was surrounded by the industry from an early age, though I didn’t fully realize the impact it had on me at the time. They both encouraged me to pursue a path that combined my strengths in a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field and my creativity. 

It was actually some of my mom’s colleagues who recommended Kansas State University for its strong architectural program. That suggestion got me in the door, but it was my parents’ ongoing support and my dad’s example as an engineer that ultimately guided me to switch into architectural engineering and find the path that was truly right for me.

Describe your involvement in a building design project that went well. How did you work with/mentor others on your team through the projects?

One of the first large-scale projects we were awarded after launching Certus was part of a major expansion for a large hospital campus that included a new five-story patient tower housing inpatient beds as well as full emergency and radiology departments. The project was delivered through a strategic design-assist/integrated approach, which was critical due to the aggressive schedule and the ongoing supply chain issues and lead time delays we faced in the wake of COVID.

As one of the principals in charge and senior electrical engineer, I was responsible not only for planning the electrical infrastructure to support the new facility, but also for leading the integration and coordination with trade partners and driving communication between teams.

Throughout the project, I worked closely with both junior and mid-level engineers on our team to guide them through the technical challenges and client coordination efforts. I made a point to involve them in meetings so they could observe the collaborative process firsthand and begin developing their own leadership skills. I provided regular check-ins and coaching moments, and encouraged them to take ownership of specific aspects of the project with the understanding that I was there to support them if questions came up. This approach helped them grow technically and professionally, while also ensuring the project had consistent, high-quality execution across all phases.

What made this project especially successful was the close collaboration between the owner, design and construction teams. This allowed for real-time problem solving, close coordination across disciplines and efficient, informed decision-making. The success of this project has opened the door to additional work on the campus, including a master planning effort to guide the hospital’s growth over the next 20 years.

What inspired you to launch your own engineering firm and how did diversity and inclusion factor into that decision from the beginning? Were there specific challenges or gaps you saw in the industry that you wanted to address?

I was working for a leading engineering firm where I had built a strong reputation through relationships and quality work. As I advanced further into leadership, I found myself pulled away from what I loved most — engineering and connecting with clients. I enjoyed the business side, but I started to feel like my true strengths were being underutilized. I didn’t want to become disconnected from the work that inspired me in the first place.

Starting my own firm was a chance to reclaim that passion and to help shape a company culture that values people, not just process. From the beginning, diversity and inclusion were natural priorities. As a woman in a male-dominated field, I had seen firsthand how important representation and opportunity are. I wanted to create a space where different voices were heard, respected and empowered to lead, not just included, but truly supported.

When you were building your team, what intentional steps did you take to ensure diversity — in background, thought and experience? How do you measure the impact of those decisions today?

One of my go-to lines when interviewing prospective team members is: “We’re engineers, we like to use our brains.” Our value lies in solving problems, not just drawing lines. That mindset is at the heart of our hiring process. We look for people who think critically, collaborate naturally and bring diverse perspectives to the table. Different backgrounds lead to different ways of approaching challenges and that’s where the best solutions are envisioned. We’re not focused on being like-minded; we’re focused on a shared goal.

At Certus, we emphasize to our team that as engineers, we can make a real difference. Our work in health care impacts the communities we live in. That shared sense of purpose helps unify diverse voices across our team and extends into how we collaborate with clients, clinical staff and contractor trade partners. Our projects are highly technical and demand innovative thinking, so we intentionally foster an environment where that innovation can thrive. The results show the strength of our culture, the creativity of our solutions and the pride our team takes in knowing that our work serves real people and real families.

Describe your biggest engineering challenge or business to date. How did you conquer or resolve it — or what was the outcome?

It’s hard to pick a single biggest challenge. Many of the projects I lead involve complex infrastructure upgrades within active hospitals that are incredibly challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. 

One project stands out that was recently completed. We began designing nearly four years ago to upgrade the emergency power supply system for a 1.2 million square-foot hospital campus. The goal was to increase resiliency and redundancy by planning for a generator plant that supported the campus needs and was expandable up to 10 megawatts. The scope included new paralleling switchgear, automatic transfer switch upgrades, increased onsite fuel storage and the addition of the cooling plant to the emergency power system. At the same time, we had to decommission some of the hospital’s oldest infrastructure including the aged generators and paralleling switchgear, without disrupting power to a 24/7/365 facility.

The greatest challenge was logistics — how to phase the replacement of the entire emergency power system while maintaining service and minimizing disruptions. Through detailed system studies and outstanding team collaboration, we planned a new location for the upgraded equipment and developed a carefully sequenced two-year phasing strategy to switch over services safely and effectively. 

These are the engineering feats I love: solving complex problems with smart planning and great teamwork. While the hospital experienced some short-duration shutdowns, the project went incredibly smoothly. I’ll admit, I lost a few nights of sleep worrying about every possible failure mode, but in the end, everything worked as planned. The hospital now has a much more robust and reliable emergency power system that will serve them well for decades to come.

In your opinion, what more can be done to increase participation of young people in underrepresented communities in engineering today?

We need to be intentional about outreach at a younger age such as getting into schools and connecting with students in a way that feels personal and meaningful. Not necessarily through formal seminars, but more like a “big brother/big sister” approach — informal, one-on-one and relationship-based. The goal isn’t just to explain what engineering is, but to show why it matters. It’s about making it real and relevant by showing how engineers impact their communities such as improving hospitals, designing safer infrastructure and solving real-world problems. 

Exposure and access are key. Many young people, especially those in underrepresented communities, don’t pursue engineering simply because they don’t see it as a viable or relatable option. There are small but powerful ways we can change that, starting with early, personal exposure that helps them imagine themselves in these roles.

How do you balance maintaining technical excellence while also mentoring and developing talent from nontraditional or underrepresented backgrounds?

Just as my mentors taught me, I strive to lead by example. I involve team members in real project challenges, provide guidance and encourage questions. With trust and support, diverse perspectives are allowed to thrive and delivering high-quality projects becomes a shared goal, not just a standard I uphold alone.

What unique perspective do you think diverse teams bring to engineering or design projects?

When designing electrical systems for hospitals, there’s rarely one “right” answer. Complex projects benefit from diverse perspectives and each team member may see a different solution. Encouraging multiple approaches leads to more creative, thoughtful and effective outcomes that ultimately serve the facility, its staff and the patients they support.

How can those new to engineering develop confidence in the workplace? What safeguards would you recommend to minorities who are aiming to minimize mistakes? Any comments on learning from mistakes yourself?

I once told a junior engineer — after we’d talked through a mistake and I saw the crushed look on his face — “I get it. It was a tough day for me too when I realized I wasn’t perfect.” Of course, I said it in jest and followed up with a few real examples of mistakes I’ve made throughout my career. 

The truth is that confidence comes from experience and experience includes mistakes. What matters most is how you respond. I make a point to bring team members into the field with me when something goes wrong. Not to point fingers, but to give them firsthand experience in solving problems under pressure, working through solutions and seeing how we overcome challenges together. Mistakes are part of the process. If you show up to fix the issue and support the team, it’s not the error that people remember at the end of a project, it’s the success that came from working through it. 

If you had unlimited time to apply your engineering background, what global challenges would you be interested in tackling?

As an electrical engineer, the obvious answer is clean, renewable power. I live in Texas and if you ever drive through West Texas, you see the landscape dotted with wind turbines, often as far as the eye can see. 

However, I don’t think the general public understands the amount of energy required to manufacture, transport and construct them or the amount of energy production required to charge all these “clean” electric vehicles. I would love to help find truly sustainable energy solutions that not only reduce the strain on limited natural resources, but also expands global access to reliable, affordable power.

What advice would you give to other women or underrepresented engineers considering launching their own firms or stepping into leadership roles in commercial building design? What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your journey?

Lead with integrity, say what you mean and do what’s right — no matter what. Care about the people around you because relationships are key in building your business and will take you further than you imagined, it did with me. So don’t try to be someone you are not. Be a leader who inspires others and focus on leaving a legacy one person at a time. Mentor, train and share your journey because success includes preparing the next generation. Finding and growing the right talent will be one of the hardest, yet most important, parts of building a business. And most of all, keep doing meaningful work that makes a difference so you always enjoy what you do. Life is too short to live it any other way.

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Lisa Eitel • Executive editor

Recent years have seen public and private debates about the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs aimed at promoting the fair treatment and full participation in organizations and industries by people of all backgrounds.

In the U.S., widespread horror at the public asphyxiation of George Perry Floyd Jr. on May 25, 2020 along with anti-Asian violence amid the COVID pandemic spurred a rapid uptick in DEI program introductions and expansions. Cooling these efforts were a spate of 2023 and 2024 state bills prohibiting certain race and gender studies, the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) on June 29, 2023 (ruling race-based admissions policies unconstitutional), and a series of presidential orders starting January 20, 2025.

U.S. statistics from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, and Census Bureau have been subject to dataset-update interruptions, staff and funding cuts, and in some cases the elimination of granular breakdowns of engineering-field information related to race, ethnicity, and gender identity.

So, filling some of the informational gap is DEI-related grey literature in the form of unpublished research, policy documents, theses, conference proceedings, and reports from organizations and researchers not formally funded or distributed via traditional channels.

In addition, surveys by professional associations such as the Society of Women Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and National Society of Black Engineers (along with independent research from Deloitte, McKinsey, RAEng, and others) often yield valuable particulars about groups’ perceptions of STEM-career challenges and benefits.

In Canada, a leading data source remains Statistics Canada or StatCan — the country’s federal statistical agency tasked with regularly publishing in-depth data on ethnocultural diversity, Indigenous peoples, immigration, and other statistics related to demographics.

Compared to those in the U.S., Canadian DEI programs are older (especially as evidenced by the 1982 Multiculturalism Act), more developed, and entrenched into cultural, legal, and governmental bodies to ensure representation of women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities.

Though subject to setbacks and challenges, DEI spending as well as Federal Employment Equity Act and diversity disclosure rules are less controversial than similar programs in the U.S. Perhaps it’s no wonder with Canada’s population of 23% immigrant, 26.5% minority, and 5% Indigenous peoples as of 2021.

Following are statistics on DEI programs, minority involvement, and other demographic trends in the field of engineering and manufacturing for both Canada and the U.S.

Percent of U.S. engineers 55 or older: 25

Percent of U.S. manufacturing workforce 55 or older: 25

U.S. manufacturing jobs to go unfilled in the U.S. by 2030: 2.1M

Minimum cost of unfilled manufacturing positions to the U.S. economy over 10 years: $2.5T

Potential cost for each instance a federal contractor billed the U.S. federal government and violated Executive Order 14173 outlawing programs for women and underrepresented minorities: Treble damages plus $14,000 to $28,000

Cost to train a CNC machine operator: $3,000 to $13,000

Percent of U.S. tool and die makers, CNC operators, and machinists aged 50 to 64: 38.8

Percent of machinists who are men: 92.6

Suicide rate of U.S. working males: 32.0 per 100,000

Overall suicide rate of U.S. females: 8.0 per 100,000

Hours of sworn testimony Boeing whistleblower and quality-control manager John Barnett gave in the days before his 2024 suicide: 11 to 14

Suicide rate of U.S. males working in aerospace products and parts manufacturing: 147.5 per 100,000

2023 compensation of Boeing’s CEO (2020 to 2024) and board of directors member (2009 to 2020) David L. Calhoun: $32.8M

Calhoun’s minimum 2022 compensation counting stock positions: $22.5M

Percent by which real wages (adjusted for inflation) of U.S. working men stagnated or declined since 1979: -4 to +8

2024 net worth of all 1,135 U.S. billionaires: $5.7T

1970 percent of U.S. aggregate household income going to middle class families: 62

2022 percent: 43

Minimum years that the disparity between working-class and middle to upper-class employees’ financial satisfaction and work exhaustion increasingly diverged: 52

Percent increase of white male leaders’ trust and integrity ratings by direct reports after participating in diversity and inclusion labs: 6 to 10

Percent of manufacturers that say they will have ongoing difficulties in attracting and retaining workers in 2021 and beyond: 77

Percent of U.S. architecture and engineering professionals who are Black: 5.9

Minimum percentage of U.S. population that is Black: 14.4

Minimum percent by which U.S. primary and secondary-school budgets in White neighborhoods exceed those in neighborhoods serving students of color: 16

Return on investment for every $1 spent on early childhood programs: $4 to $9

Number of children losing access to afterschool STEM programs due to recent cuts affecting semiconductor-focused CHIPS Act budgeting: 1.4M

Percent by which students in private-school voucher programs rose 2020 to 2025: 100

Percent of voucher dollars spent at religious schools (Catholic or evangelical Christian-affiliated): 88.9

Difference between private and public-school students’ mathematics scores when accounting for socioeconomic background: 0

Percent increased likelihood a student will stay in an engineering track if supported by an intervention to impart feelings of belonging: 15 to 20

Percent by which DEI mentions in S&P 100 firms’ 2025 filings dropped from 2024 mention counts: 68

Percent of S&P 100 firms that shrunk or removed DEI-related targets: 21

2020 peak of U.S. corporate spending on DEI programs: $7.5B

Percent of science and engineering workforce who are women: 28

Percentage of engineers in the U.S. who are women (2024): 17.4

Percentage of mechanical engineers who are women: 11

Percent of U.S. population that is Hispanic: 19

Percentage of mechanical engineers who are Hispanic: 7.1

2025 federal earmarks for DEI according to Christian nationalist thinktank Center for Renewing America — $1.1T

Authoritative federal budgets or department audits that track total dollars for DEI: 0

Maximum number of employees at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) after recent reductions: 20

Percent by which LGBQ students are less likely than straight students to complete STEM programs: 10

Percent by which LGBTQ STEM professionals are more likely to experience workplace harassment compared to peers: 30

Percent of Canada’s population that is female: 50.34

Percent of licensed engineers, engineers‐in‐training, and student members of Engineers Canada who are women: 15.4

Surveyed Canadian manufacturer losses in one year due to projects unfulfilled resulting from labor and skill shortages: CAD $12.6B

Canadian companies participating in the 50-30 Challenge promoting gender parity and 30% representation of equity-deserving groups in leadership: 2,853

Canada’s 1.5M workers in the science and technology sector 55 or older: 320,000

Percent of surveyed Canadian employers reporting 2023 DEI budgets had stayed the same or increased over the previous year: 81

Percent of surveyed Canadian employers reporting 2024 DEI budgets had stalled or rolled back as compared to the previous year: 38

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Juniyali was raised in Dehradun, India, a northern city near the Himalayas. Her intrigue with engineering and science began with lessons of Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. To her, they demonstrated, “A single person can create so much impact that even now, we are reading what they first thought about.” In high school, her father began bringing her to a public event called “Chai and Why?” where those who attended had their choice of Chai or another tea and sat to listen to whatever scientist had come to speak. These events dovetailed a growing love of science and engineering for the young Juniyali.

Soon she started watching shows about science and engineering marvels, slowly realizing she wasn’t as interested in the theoretical work her inspirations did so much as their ability to leave an impact. She was better suited to hands-on work. She walked past a bridge and wondered how it was made, not how gravity acted upon it. 

Her curiosity about how things were made is what eventually drove her to the engineering field. “I always liked the thought of building something from scratch and not just reading about it,” she says. She went on to complete her undergraduate degree in engineering from MCT’s Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, part of Mumbai University, before venturing on to the University of Rochester. There, she received a graduate degree in optics and completed a PhD thesis in the field of Integrated Photonics with Professor Jaime Cardenas. 

This same professor would later co-found her company, based on their research in the photonics field. In simple terms, photonics is all about using light (photons) — how to create it, shape it, and put it to work in technologies like communication, sensing, and imaging. 

Building Photonect

Though her path to founding Photonect was not as easy as it may appear. To attend the University of Rochester, Juniyali had to leave her support behind. She rebuilt her life from scratch before ever building a company. This was hard, she explains, “It was challenging being an international student, person of color, and also a female, to get into the field and actually build something from the ground up… I was not somebody whose parents were here who could guide me as I was building, I had to develop my own support system of a network of mentors and advisors who could help me.” 

This was made even harder by the fact that Juniyali is a petite woman who has been mistaken for much younger than she is more than once. She admits, “[People] always think I’m a kid.” But she wasn’t a kid. She, through her research into connecting fibers to chips with low loss, had identified a need and was looking to build a company to fulfill it. Unfortunately, this task was made more difficult by an astounding lack of role models within the industry. 

“Being a female, when you don’t look old and you’re starting a company, it’s hard, but it was also very difficult to find similar-looking people in the positions where I wanted to be. This industry is very male-dominated. And yes, there are a lot of Indians in the field who are male at higher positions, but I could not see a female startup entrepreneur in the field whom I could look up to and actually see that that is possible.” There was no example for Juniyali, so she had to become the example herself. 

Through perseverance and the support of the network she crafted in her years at the University of Rochester, Juniyali was able to create Photonect Interconnect Solutions; a company focused on sustainability, diversity, and the future of photonics. 

Prioritizing diversity in the workplace

Although it’s not part of the official tagline, diversity has been an integral part of her company from its inception. Rochester’s resources and help from people with a shared interest in her work is how she was able to hire herself full-time after graduating. Now, she carries that energy forward in her company with how she hires and conducts her team. The small team varies in age, race, and background. 

When asked about her interviewing process, Juniyali said, “Diversity is definitely a consideration…we’ve always paid attention to how we can be more proactive in reaching out to different types of all the sectors and being as diverse as possible… having no bias while we interview, and just purely based on skills and their outlook, making a decision.” 

To her, diversity changes a team for the better: “I think it’s super important to have a diverse team in engineering and research projects, because the background or how people grew up impacts and influences how they make decisions…there are ideas that you only get once you have really contrasted and diverse individuals in a team. Then you can listen to everybody’s feedback, because everybody brings great ideas and new thoughts into the company.”

Juniyali values her team and does her best to support them like she was supported in Rochester. They have weekly lunches with a focus on collaboration, and annual reviews that pinpoint what success means to them beyond their role at the company.  She believes, “My priority as their CEO is to help them develop, not just at Photonect but wherever they are in their career. I want to make sure that every day they learn something new, and they keep growing.” 

The future of Photonect

The Photonect team’s overall goal is to see photonics everywhere. Openly cautious about its repercussions for the next generation, Juniyali leads her company with sustainability in mind, but with the main goal of “photonics” being a household term. 

She hopes to see photonics-based cell phones and photonics-based laptops. “I want to make consumer photonics a thing as compared to consumer electronics, and that is what I think is the future of photonics. Not just somewhere in a data center, but we want it more widespread and approachable to everybody.” 

With Photonect’s technology of packaging the fibers to chip, the cost of their devices is almost on par with the packaging cost of an electronic circuit. So, while photonics does raise sustainability questions — like energy-hungry fabrication, scarce materials, and tough recycling — the company has set out to tackle these head-on.

“It’ll be a long process, but in a few years, I can see the industry working together. It would not be that you completely get rid of electronics. No, it would be a co-existing partnership between electronics and photonics, and you would see it in consumer devices as well.”

With her eye on success, driven by dedication and the desire to echo the impacts of greats like Einstein and Newton, Juniyali became a role model for a whole new generation. Maybe one day she’ll be a household name herself.

If you want to stay updated on her or Photonect’s journey, you can follow her on LinkedIn or visit the Photonect site: photonectcorp.com.

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Like Matthew, I attended college many states away from home. At freshman orientation, my father had a program of his own to attend. Georgia Tech gave parents a rundown of what to expect, including the fact that their straight-A high school students might bring home Cs, Ds, or Fs. After all, college is a different animal than high school, and Tech has always been a “weed-out” school for engineering students, especially the first year.

My experience in Tucson was quite different. There was no program for me to attend. Instead, I was relegated to being the driver, credit-card holder, and luggage carrier … which might be expected, I suppose. But during dorm check-in, I felt truly invisible. After years of check-ins for library storytimes, elementary-school homerooms, and lacrosse camps at which I was given instructions or asked to sign forms, now I was entirely unimportant to the process. No one interacted with me, looked at me, introduced themselves, or paid me any attention. It was a profoundly alienating experience.

Members of minority communities often speak of being unheard or unseen. My elderly family members often talk about feeling invisible in our youth-focused society. While I’ve empathized with the concept, it seems we must experience irrelevancy firsthand to truly understand what it’s like.

The same imbalances can arise in work settings requiring group collaboration. Sometimes certain voices (often the loudest though not necessarily the smartest or most thoughtful) dominate conversations. What’s more, on engineering teams, the oldest and most experienced engineers are often perceived as most valuable. So, the input of the youngest engineers can go ignored … even to the detriment of important projects.

In fact, diversity goes beyond race, gender, and orientation heterogeneity. Teams ideally consist of qualified people with a diversity of backgrounds, cultures, ages, and physical abilities.

Especially in engineering, diversity can also include divergent personalities. That’s why the leaders among us would be wise to keep an eye on that cloak of invisibility. Ensure each member on your team feels welcome. Ask the quiet ones for their opinions. Seek feedback from any colleagues who may feel afraid or awkward to speak up. Do this because at one point or another, we’ll all be that invisible one who could benefit from a champion.

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