Women in STEM Education (WISE) recently hosted Chitra Venkatraman, Co-Chair of Women in Engineering for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), who was on campus to present Sylvie Yao ’27 with the IEEE’s North Jersey Young Engineer Award. Sylvie won for her project titled “A Video-Based Tennis Recommendation System via Navigating a Learned Latent Space.” She described it as a machine-learning model that detects what is a good tennis bounce serve. Following the presentation of Sylvie’s award, Ms. Venkatraman spoke with members of WISE, advised by Ms. Patti Barrett, Upper School Math and Computer Science Chair, on her career journey.

Ms. Venkatraman retired after a 40-year long career, during which she worked in a variety of roles at AT&T Bell Labs and pioneered concepts of Wireless Base Station Integration testing. She says the IEEE exposes students and teachers alike with opportunities for networking in the engineering field and to further innovative thinking.

During her talk, Ms. Venkatraman discussed challenges women in STEM may face in their career tracks, how to seize opportunities, and the importance of sponsors and mentors. She also offered advice using anecdotes and her own life experiences, including learning to compartmentalize, listening to your own path, and valuing people for who they are. “There’s nothing that should hold you from what you want to do,” she said.