The dearth of an engineering mentor whereas rising up didn’t hinder
Anna Zakrzewska from having a profitable profession in telecommunications. She is a senior principal engineer at Dell Applied sciences in Dublin. However Zakrzewska wonders how completely different her journey would have been if she’d had a mentor to information her when she was youthful.
“None of my members of the family or household associates have been engineers,” she says. “I additionally didn’t have any mentors at college, and I typically take into consideration how my profession can be completely different if I used to be uncovered to STEM earlier in life.”
The IEEE senior member has made it her mission to introduce youngsters to science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic careers and to nurture their curiosity in STEM fields. She volunteers for organizations that do exactly that reminiscent of
Technovation Ladies, which focuses on getting extra women interested by STEM. The nonprofit holds an annual competitors at which groups develop cell apps that tackle real-world issues. Zakrzewska helps decide the entries.
She additionally supplies steerage to school college students and younger professionals by means of outreach packages at Dell reminiscent of
STEM Aspire.
For her work in STEM outreach and technical contributions to telecommunications analysis, Zakrzewska is the recipient of this yr’s
IEEE Theodore W. Hissey Excellent Younger Skilled Award. The consideration is sponsored by IEEE Younger Professionals and the IEEE Photonics and Energy & Power societies.
Receiving the award, Zakrzewska says, motivates her to proceed her volunteerism, mentoring, and technical profession.
Mentoring the subsequent era of engineers
When Zakrzewska was rising up in Poland, she and her household typically listened to the radio. Their radio was in regards to the measurement of a microwave oven, she says, and she or he believed there have been little individuals dwelling inside whose job was to entertain and inform listeners.
Zakrzewska says when somebody lastly defined to her the engineering that makes radios work, it was an summary idea.
About Anna Zakrzewska
EMPLOYER Dell Applied sciences in Dublin
TITLE Senior principal engineer
MEMBER GRADE Senior member
ALMA MATER Technical College of Denmark, in Kongens Lyngby
“Since I couldn’t truly see how the system labored,” she says, “to me engineering was magic.”
Zakrzewska initially wished to turn into a radio broadcaster, however she additionally appreciated the concept of changing into an engineer so she may create know-how that folks would think about magical like she did. Finally she selected to pursue engineering and figured she may write about know-how in her spare time.
After graduating with a grasp’s diploma in telecommunications and pc science in 2008 from the
Wrocław College of Science and Expertise, in Poland, Zakrzewska initially didn’t know what kind of profession to pursue.
“I loved engaged on scholar analysis tasks however felt that the tutorial world was not for me. I couldn’t see myself as a lecturer,” she says. “However I wasn’t certain if I wished to be an industrial researcher both.”
She determined to offer analysis a try to in 2009 turned an intern at
Nippon Telegraph and Phone Corp., in Atsugi, Japan. She left after a couple of yr to take the same place on the European Fee’s Joint Analysis Centre in Ispra, Italy. It conducts telecommunications analysis and helps the European Union set coverage.
Discovering that she loved the work, Zakrzewska enrolled in 2010 in a doctoral program in wi-fi communications on the
Technical College of Denmark, in Kongens Lyngby.
Whereas there, she had her first expertise of being a mentor to undergraduate engineering college students as a member of the college’s
IEEE scholar department.
“If a door to a sure alternative is closed, don’t let that discourage you. Discover a solution to open the door, or [find] one other approach in.”
“The Ph.D.-level members of the department began a mentoring program as a result of we realized we may assist youthful college students with their research or give them recommendation about internships and profession paths,” she says. “The department additionally invited established professionals from a wide range of electrical engineering fields to talk to college students.”
Collaborating in this system made Zakrzewska notice that many preuniversity colleges didn’t promote careers in STEM, she says, and that mentoring younger individuals about such careers once they’re already college college students is “too late.”
After incomes her Ph.D. in 2013, she joined
Nokia Bell Labs in Dublin as a analysis scientist working in wi-fi communications and self-organizing networks. She has been granted a number of patents, which have been commercialized.
She additionally began to volunteer for STEM outreach organizations and packages. In 2015 she started managing the Nokia Bell Labs sales space on the
BT Younger Scientist & Expertise Exhibition (BTYSTE), an annual Irish science truthful. She informed kids who visited the sales space about her job and answered their questions. They requested her questions reminiscent of “Have you ever ever damaged something within the lab?” and “What do you do if issues don’t work—does your boss yell at you?”
“I answered their questions as honestly as I may,” Zakrzewska says, laughing, “whereas nonetheless making them really feel enthusiastic about working in STEM.”
Her volunteering at BTYSTE got here to an finish in 2021, when she left Nokia Bell Labs and joined Dell as a principal engineer at its
Telecom Co-innovation Skilled Centre. She helps develop technical requirements for telecommunication know-how, particularly for open radio entry networks.
Growing fairness within the technical workforce
Zakrzewska turned lively in 2017 with the annual
Grace Hopper Celebration, a gathering of girls technologists. The occasion is organized by AnitaB.org, a nonprofit that’s working to extend intersectional fairness (equity with respect to each race and gender) within the international technical workforce. Zakrzewska is a committee member and is on the panel of reviewers for the scholarship program.
In 2020 she started volunteering for
I’m a Scientist, an enrichment program designed to attach college students with scientists and engineers. The mentors and college students have interaction in on-line chats on this system’s web site, and mentees can ask their mentor questions on their job. Zakrzewska says she enjoys serving to encourage the subsequent era by sharing her real-life experiences.
She additionally started lively in 2020 for the annual Technovation Ladies competitors. Groups of as much as 5 women between the ages of 8 and 18 develop a know-how that might tackle challenges of their native communities.There are three divisions: newcomers, juniors, and seniors. Along with growing a cell app, the groups current a marketing strategy and a pitch video.
“I’m extraordinarily impressed by these tasks,” Zakrzewska says. “The scholars are capable of determine the important thing issues, which regularly relate to their respective age group and will not be seen by adults, for instance local weather change nervousness or social media dependancy. Many have formidable plans to companion with the native authorities and search sponsorship for his or her apps.
“Fixing these issues not solely supplies a motivation to be taught new expertise in coding or teamwork, but in addition empowers the scholars to steer the change of their native communities.”
As a participant in Dell’s mentoring packages, Zakrzewska visits preuniversity colleges to clarify to college students how she turned an engineer and what her job entails. She additionally supplies profession steerage to the corporate’s interns and younger professionals as properly.
“I problem my mentees to step out of their consolation zone and, for instance, seek for job alternatives overseas,” she says. “I don’t imagine in individuals limiting themselves.
“I attempt to point out them how their expertise are extensively relevant and that they’ll dream massive when it comes to the place their profession could lead them.”
Zakrzewska’s greatest piece of recommendation for her mentees, she says, is to create alternatives for themselves.
“If a door to a sure alternative is closed, don’t let that discourage you,” she counsels. “Discover a solution to open the door or [find] one other approach in.”
She is ready to obtain the Hissey Award on 5 Could on the
2023 IEEE Imaginative and prescient, Innovation, and Challenges Summit and Honors Ceremony, to be held on the Hilton Atlanta.
The views expressed on this interview are Anna Zakrzewska’s private opinions and don’t essentially mirror the views of any group talked about.
