Young Professionals Forum
Description
Our Young Professionals program provides a platform to connect and share the experiences of experts from the industry, government, and academia. The young professionals and recent graduates will be able to interact and learn from experienced professionals and entrepreneurs from all over the world, including their career journeys, and offer opportunities for mentorship and collaboration.
During the sessions, we will cover the topics of career development for young professionals and the experts talks about the IoT:
- Insightful talks on the latest technology trends in IoT
- Career coaching and professional development
- Panel discussion scope:
- Career growth and networking
- Transition from academia to industry
- Individual contributor and management career paths
- Job rotations
- Role of networking in landing new roles, transitioning into new industries
- Navigating ambiguity in career path
The sessions are open to all attendees. We especially welcome young professionals, college students, and teachers from throughout the world to join our sessions.
Schedule
The detailed schedule for the Young Professionals Track is available here.
Chairs
YP Co-Chair: Preeti Chauhan, Technical Program Manager, Data Center, Google
Dr. Preeti Chauhan is a Technical Program Manager (TPM) in the Data Center Quality and Reliability group at Google. Previously, Dr Chauhan was a Quality and Reliability TPM at Intel and led the Assembly and Test certification of Foveros 3D packaging technology and Server microprocessors. She is a senior member of IEEE and co-editor of the data column in the Computer magazine.
YP Co-Chair: Hadeel Abdah, Ph.D. in Telecommunication Engineering, Tishreen University
Hadeel Abdah graduated from Tishreen University in Syria with a bachelor's degree in telecommunication engineering. She received a master’s degree in computer networks and telematic services from the University of Minho as well as a Ph.D. in telecommunications from the University of Aveiro, Portugal. She has previously taught at Latakia's Intermediate Institute of Computer Engineering and Institute of Computer Technology. She worked as a researcher in the Networks and Multimedia research group at Centro Algoritmi and the Instituto de Telecomunicaçes of Aveiro. She is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Tishreen University.
YP Co-Chair: Abdullah Al-khatib, Research Associate, Landshut University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Abdullah Al-khatib received an M.S. degree in network technology from the National University of Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia, in 2017. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, specializing in communications engineering. Additionally, he works as a Research Associate at the Institute for Data and Process Science (IDP) at Landshut University of Applied Sciences, Germany. His research interests include wireless communication systems, Internet of Things, fog/edge computing, as well as economic models and time-critical applications in wireless communication networks.
Speakers
Steven Li: IEEE, USA
Dr. Steven Li is with the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Western New England University in Springfield, MA, USA. Dr. Li’s research interests include AI/ML, data analytics, applied statistics, operations research, and reliability engineering. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Washington. He is an ASQ Certified Reliability Engineer (CRE) and Caterpillar Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB). He is serving on editorial boards for IEEE Transactions on Reliability and IEEE Access Reliability Society Section. He is a senior member of IISE and IEEE. He has served as a board member of IISE Quality Control and Reliability Engineering (QCRE) Division and IEEE Reliability Society. Dr. Li is currently the President of the IEEE Reliability Society 2022-2023.
Janet Lin: IEEE, Mälardalen University, Sweden
Dr. Lin is a dedicated researcher with a primary focus on five inter-dependent and complementary disciplines, namely Asset Management, RAM4S (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety, Sustainability, Security, Supportability), e-Maintenance, PHM (Prognostics and Health Management), and Operational Research. Her applications span diverse sectors, including Metallurgy, Cement, Mining, Petroleum, Power, Automotive, Food, Railway, Vessels, Paper, Ports, Lighting, and more. Dr. Lin's expertise in these areas has allowed her to tackle complex challenges and develop practical solutions that address industry-specific needs.
Daniel Nunes Corujo: Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal
Dr Daniel Corujo is an Associate Professor from the University of Aveiro and the Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, where he concluded his PhD on Communication Middleware for the Future Mobile Internet, in 2013. He has been an active researcher and contributor to standardization in the IETF,IRTF and IEEE. He has pursued research concepts under the scope of a broad range of FP7, H2020 and Horizon Europe programmes. More recently, he has been developing work on the areas surrounding the upcoming 5G architecture, Software Defined Networking, Network Function Virtualization, Internet of Things, Information Centric Networking and Software Defined Networking, deploying new visions and enhancements of such concepts over wireless networks, in national and international research projects.
Randy Levensalor: CableLabs, USA
Randy Levensalor is a principal architect at CableLabs, a non-profit research & development lab funded by the global cable industry. As a principal member of the Future Infrastrcutre Group (FIG) team, he is responsible for creating the edge, wireless-wireline convergence architecture, and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) infrastructure reference platform and progressing orchestration capabilities based on service providers’ needs. Randy was recognized in Fierce Telecom’s "The top 25 movers and shakers in the telecom industry." Prior to joining CableLabs, Randy gained extensive experience leading R&D, DevOps, and product management across several Hewlett-Packard divisions focusing on successfully delivering its public cloud, Linux and converged management solutions. Randy is actively involved in CNCF, OPNFV, OpenStack and OpenDaylight and contributes to key industry standardization efforts including ETSI NFV. A subject matter expert, he has spoken on a broad range of topics at several conferences including the Open Networking Summit, OpenStack Summit, OPNFV Summit, Big Communications, SCTE Cable Tech Expo, NFV World Congress, SDN World Congress, Linux Conference Australia, Automation Everywhere and many more. Randy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Virginia Tech.
Christina Peabody: Google, USA
Christina Peabody is the lead engineer for UPS batteries for Google’s data centers. She received her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University studying degradation mechanisms in Li-ion batteries. Prior to working at Google she developed fast charging algorithms for Li-ion batteries in consumer electronics with a Bay Area startup company. Christina has also taught graduate level courses in battery technologies and manufacturing as an adjunct faculty member for San Jose State University.
Rakesh Kumar: IEEE, USA
Dr. Rakesh Kumar is a semiconductor industry veteran, an entrepreneur, and an educator. He is the founder, President and CEO of TCX Technology Connexions. Currently he Chairs the IEEE Data-based Business Strategy Ad Hoc and Roadmaps committees. He has been an HKN Governor, and on the Adcom’s of IEEE SSCS, TEMS, and SSIT. He educates and mentors potential entrepreneurs at UCSD. Dr. Kumar authored the book “Fabless Semiconductor Implementation”, published by McGraw Hill. He is an IEEE Life Fellow. During 40+ years in the semiconductor industry he has been VP&GM at Cadence Design, and has held various technical and management positions at Unisys and Motorola. He received the Ph.D.. M.S. and B.S diplomas in EE in 1974, 1971 and 1969 respectively, and an Executive “MBA” from UCSD in 1989.
Roger Garcia: IEEE, USA
Roger Garcia received his undergraduate degree in Materials Science from The University of Michigan. Upon completion, he received a national fellowship to attend Arizona State University and received a doctorate in semiconductor materials. He has worked at Intel and Motorola where he learned Six Sigma and worked on high-speed and optical GaAs-based devices. At Sun Microsystems he worked as senior reliability engineer and was instrumental in the qualification of four generations of the SPARC CPU, as well as managing quality for Intel and AMD CPUs. Later as Oracle acquired Sun Micro, Roger formed a component engineering team as Sr. Manager to support design engineering on component selection, supplier vetting and root cause and failure analysis of component failures. He later joined the Oracle Cloud group and built a LaaS (Lab as a Service) team to qualify networking equipment for the cloud. At Google he built a unique data center facing quality team to manage the hardware quality for Google's entire fleet. While at Google, Roger started thinking about the impact emerging technology like AI and AI/R will impact the poor. Upon leaving Google he founded a non-profit dedicated to the impact of emerging technology on poor communities. Also as part of his social responsibility, Roger serves on the board of directors of Sacred Heart Nativity School and Our Lady of Grace, a middle school for under-privileged kids. He has also been active and has held several leadership positions in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and is a senior member of IEEE. In his spare time, he likes hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains and spending time on the beach.
Farnoosh Naderkhani: Concordia University, Canada
Dr. Farnoosh Naderkhani is currently an Associate Professor at Concordia Institute for Information System Engineering (CIISE) at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. Prior to joining CIISE, she was a Post-doctoral Fellow at H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). She has completed her Ph.D. at Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) department at University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, in 2017. Dr. Naderkhani is highly recognized in her field and has received several prestigious awards. Her outstanding contributions to research and teaching have been acknowledged through her receipt of the Concordia University Research Award and the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science Teaching Award. In addition to her academic achievements, Dr. Naderkhani plays an active role in various professional organizations and conferences. She currently serves as the General Chair of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Prognostics and Health Management (IEEE ICPHM). She fulfills the role of an Adcom member within the IEEE Reliability Society. Also, she serves as student outreach chair for the Montreal Section of the American Society for Quality (ASQ).
