IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2022 - 8

The goal of all the programming was
to strengthen the WIE community and
communication among members, something
that Da Vià kept in mind when
planning the celebrations of innovation,
science, and leadership. December 2021
kicked off the fanfare, a panel discussion
among past WIE chairs. " It was irresistible,
we had to call it Past 25, Next 25,
she laughs.
Next came the call for entries into
the " Women-to-Women Tech Ideas
Dedicated to Women " competition, a
celebration of ingenuity and innovation
dedicated to addressing issues particular
to women. This was an idea that
was proposed previously, but including
it in the 25th Anniversary Celebration
allowed it to come to fruition with
resources and promotion.
Extraordinary Women Extraordinary
Science (EWES), the year-long seminar
series, came about thanks to a conversation
Da Vià had with a WIE colleague
whose Society was inviting interesting
speakers in to give presentations. For
EWES, each IEEE Society and Council
were invited to provide a speaker in an
effort to broaden perspectives and introduce
new ways of cross-fertilizing problem
solving. " We really wanted to gather
women from all the Societies, " says Da Vià.
" This is an important benefit of IEEE; it is
an environment with incredible reach, but
we cannot always process this enormous
amount of information because we are
dealing with our own experiences and specialties.
Some problems require solutions
coming from different points of view. "
Da Vià is proud that the seminar
series produced speakers each month
and considers it successful because " not
only has the link with the recording
been rather hot, but several people from
outside IEEE have now requested to
become speakers, " she shares. " So, this
shows me the quality of the speaker we
had was indeed outstanding. "
Another idea that had been around
for a while was the marathon: a day to
bring together all WIE members from
around the world to celebrate networking.
It was decided that this would take
place on 8 March, International Women's
Day, and the 12 h of planned presen8
tations
(which ended up becoming 14 h)
was an enormous success.
It is Da Vià's hope that all of the efforts
around the 25th anniversary celebrations
will encourage other ideas that are percolating
to come alive and keep moving
the network forward. " My hope is that we
will now be in contact more and network
better, " she says, sharing an example of
how she was recently introduced through
a WIE member to a student from Bangladesh,
who is now doing her Ph.D. degree
under Da Vià's supervision after they proposed
a project together. " Getting to know
other Societies and the work women are
doing through programs like the seminar
series is really incredible. During one of
the seminars, the chair of the Uganda
WIE session got in touch and few months
later a meeting was organized with all of
the African WIE chairs to discuss how to
better network, " she describes.
" Really getting to know each other
and start small project or conversations
is the point, " concludes Da Vià. " I hope
the 25th anniversary celebrations plant
little seeds of ideas among the members. "
-Leslie Zucker
cumulative effort of so many volunteers
who continue to passionately and diligently
serve the Society across many
valuable team projects that came to fruition.
I am more motivated than ever to
continue to serve our volunteer base, to
empower them to lead, collaborate, and
drive innovation in the field of emerging
technologies. "
That motivation led her to run for
IEEE Computer Society 2023 presidentelect
(2024 president) 
this fall on a platform that included
promoting collaborative research
between industry and academia; nurturing
emerging technology initiatives such
as standards, publications, workshops,
and conferences; and empowering the
volunteer base via mentorship, training,
and development for students and young
professionals. She also strongly supports
diversity and inclusion and mentoring
efforts as key inputs for a vibrant, inclusive
future membership.
" I have never experienced such an
Building Safe, Robust
Autonomous Vehicles
Athavale propels emerging
technologies
c
Congratulations to 2022 IEEE Computer
Society Golden Core Award recipient
and 2023 President-Elect Candidate
Jyotika Athavale, a longstanding IEEE
volunteer and IEEE Senior Member
who serves as a senior technical
leader in automotive functional
safety at NVIDIA.
" I was deeply honored
and humbled to receive
the Golden Core Recognition
Award from the IEEE
Computer Society, "
open, collaborative, and inclusive environment
as that which exists within the
Computer Society, " explains Athavale,
on why she decided to run for presidentelect.
" It's humbling to work with such
extremely knowledgeable and passionate
members across committees, who are
always willing to volunteer their time and
efforts to drive and contribute to various
activities across regions. I have learned so
much professionally and personally from
the valuable experiences and engagements
I've had these past years. "
A Focus on Safety
As someone who has been active in
standardization initiatives-she chairs
the IEEE P2851 standard and
serves on numerous IEEE
standards
and industry
committees-Athava le
is committed to emerging
technology in functional
safety and credits
says
Athavale. " It symbolized the
Jyotika Athavale
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2022.3203133
Date of current version: 7 November 2022
her IEEE Computer Society
colleagues with keeping the
space engaging. " Through
the standardization initiatives that
I am driving, I have had the honor to
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2022
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2022

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