IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2020 - 12

Gokhale was a keynote speaker at the International Conference on Knowledge
Engineering and Applications, held in London in October 2017.

project funded by the National Science
Foundation that recently concluded
was part of the Computing Education in the 21st Centur y program.
That research focused on enhancing
students' critical thinking skills, creating an inclusive environment, and
growing the computing discipline,
especially by preparing teachers to
teach computer science in middle and
high schools.
That's in addition to grants Gokhale
brings in for her more technically oriented research on algorithms and data
analytics. These projects are international, with Gokhale coleading teams
in India, where she was a Fulbright
Specialist in Cybersecurity in the summer of 2017; Brazil, where she was a
Fulbright Distinguished Chair in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM)+C from 2016-
2017; and China, where she was a visiting professor in the spring of 2017. All
of the teams work separately on applications such as computer networks or
software safety but fall within the realm
of algorithms and data analytics. Her
most recent research focuses on implicit
bias in algorithms.
B ein g involved w it h so m a ny
teams and project responsibilities
beyond her coursework has ser ved
Gokhale well, and it's something she
advises others to consider. "Things
change so quickly in STEM fields, so

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

find a focus area. But if you think it
will not play well with developments
in the field, then be ready to pivot
quickly so that you can still capitalize on your credentials and move
forward," she says. "Be vigilant; new
oppor tunities come a nd you may
think you don't know enough about
something, but if it's still in its infancy, then everyone is still learning, and
you can be a pioneer in the field."
One prime example of a need to
pivot quickly and be a pioneer was the
COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on
student learning. Having earned Quality
Matters certificates, Gokhale had already
been teaching online classes for roughly
a decade before the pandemic hit, due to
a strong belief, supported by her university, in making effective virtual classes
accessible to a wider population. "When
the COVID-19 situation happened, I
took a lead role among the faculty for
making sure the classes we would now
be offering online met quality standards," Gokhale explains.
Although her program prides itself
on offering the industry perspective via
adjunct instructors, this understandably created a significant workload in
migrating courses online and supporting instructors to deliver courses virtually. "It's all in the interest of delivering
quality education for our majors, that's
what drives all academics really," shares
Gokhale. "If you want to be a profes-

DECEMBER 2020

sor or a teacher, you have to care for
students."
With the impact of the pandemic
very much reverberating around the
globe, Gokhale's designation as a Distinguished Professor becomes almost
prescient in its acknowledgment of her
contribution to the university, her students, and her field. However, she still
wants to do more. "I very much wish to
continue with teaching and research,
but I'm also open to opportunities
that would allow me to make a greater
impact on the university or on academics as a whole, possibly in administration," she says.
No matter what comes in the future,
Gokhale credits much of her success
back to her major supporter: her mother. "When I applied to The College of
William & Mary back in 1984, there
were hardly any students coming to the
United States from India and certainly
not many young women crossing the
ocean," she recalls. "It was especially
difficult because I had lost my father just
a few years before. So I always want to
credit my mother; it's because of her letting me come to the United States that I
am where I am today."
It's a beautiful tribute by a woman no
doubt being credited by many others for
her support of their education and helping them get to where they are today.
-Leslie Prives

Seeking Energy and
Automotive Solutions
Downey looks to leverage digital
software technology

For Liang Downey, pursuing a future in
engineering was an obvious choice for
many reasons. One was cultural: born
and raised in China to parents who were
both mathematicians, "math, science,
and STEM were highly regarded and

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2020.3020519
Date of current version: 4 November 2020

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2020

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