During the first week of October, I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration in Orlando, Florida. The Grace Hopper Celebration is an international conference focused on supporting and inspiring women to further their careers, break boundaries, and transform the world of technology. The three day conference entailed a large career fair, brilliant speakers, and demonstrations of cutting edge technology for 25,000 women under one roof.

Ohio State students at GHC19

GHC 19 changed what I thought was possible for myself. I am currently co-oping in surgical robotics company as an electrical engineer. Spending a month and a half in industry before attending this conference allowed me to benefit in a different way than if I was just a student. Previously, my scope of women in tech and engineering came from my Women in Engineering Learning Community and female mentors in student organizations, as faculty members, and the few I had interacted with in the workforce. When I came to GHC, I was welcomed by a sea of amazing women who were leaders in their respective fields.

I realized through my interactions that I could do anything. No, I can’t fly or anything defying laws of physics, but I learned that anything I could dream can become a reality. I had always had aspirations of being a project director of a large engineering team or be a lead researcher on a high level project. But because of the people I met, I realized I could do it. Years ago, these women who stood in front of me were just like me, with large ambitions.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter After Hours

One of the amazing events I was able to attend at GHC was programming and touching a quantum computer with IBM. IBM’s booth allowed people with a basic computer science background to learn about their interactive quantum coding with q-bits, similar to binary bits known to electrical and computer engineers. After successfully programming in quantum, GHCers were invited to an after hours event at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with IBM’s top engineers and scientists. I was given the opportunity to ride rollercoasters with female senior engineers who helped develop the quantum computer, a once in a lifetime experience. The most amazing aspect was having conversations with these real women. It made the scary world of corporate life and complex technology seem simple. I had the opportunity to empathize with women who had jobs I could only imagine and they were transparent with the process of how they got into their roles. Whether it was by mistake that they landed in this up and coming field, or they had prepared their entire career to lead a group of people, they outlined the most important things a young women in her career should be doing to stay ahead of the curve.

Another amazing woman I met was Katie Schuman, a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Labs in computational data analytics. Specifically, the research group she leads focuses on neuromorphic computing which sees to more efficiently create computer architectures that mimics the most efficient circuit of all time- the brain. She gave a lecture on her research and the usefulness of hardware. As someone with a major in electrical engineering and a minor in neuroscience, this research was partially what inspired the peculiar academic combination. After her lecture, she mentioned she’d be in the career hall at 9 AM the next day, so I woke up bright and early to find her and discuss her works. I sat with her and talked for about an hour about how she stumbled upon an amazing field of research, how she ran a lab, and how she as an individual found herself able to do it all. She learned about my current position and thought it was interesting as well. This woman, a role model and mentor, was interested in what I was doing too! While I had become confident in where my career was leading me, she assured me I could always spend time in her lab or just talk some time. She offered her time as an informal mentor as a women in STEM but also a formal researcher in the field.

One of the best things I saw was not a human at all, but a robot dog named Spot. Boston Dynamics, a company that’s gone viral on the internet for its human-like robots that can do flips, demoed their bright yellow dog, Spot. They had a test engineer and electrical engineer with them. I picked their brains for hours about the different problems that arose from their robotic systems. I learned a lot about automation and process development and production as well as systems engineering. I had watched their videos online many times, looking at how cool robots were and marveling at them like some modern day miracle. However, at GHC, it dawned on me that it wasn’t a miracle, it was just science applied by everyday engineers. Based off of my passion and curiosity, their team encouraged me to seek positions with them once I graduated, which is something I didn’t realize I could do.

Ever since I’ve started college, I’ve accumulated a long list of things I thought would be cool to do. From surgical robots to leading a project team, investigating neuromorphic computing or working for Boston Dynamics or a top tier medical technology company, I always thought these were fevered dreams. I never put much thought into them. I was always confident I’d end up in engineering, but just find whatever came my way. GHC gave me the confidence and the ability to actively chase my dreams, in a full sprint forward. It’s allowed me to fully develop my professional goals and personally give me the drive to achieve them. Mostly, because I know I am not alone. These dreams I had have become real attainable goals that other women have achieved. GHC 19 has helped realize how I can affect other women in STEM and lift others as I rise.