Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in CAS (DEICAS) event at the 2023 IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems
“Spill the Tea: Professional Confession Session”
A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Circuits and Systems (DEICAS) event occurred at the 66th IEEE International Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS 2023). The event was named “Spill the Tea”, inspired by the technical confession sessions held at past CAS society meetings.
The session was a forum for sharing personal stories and hard-earned advice about career mistakes and challenges, what worked – or not – and how to solve problems. It featured diverse panelists at different career stages (academic and industry), sharing experiences and incidents.
The following seven panelists shared their experiences with the audience:
- Colin McAndrew, NXP Fellow, and an IEEE Life Fellow;
- Chaitali Chakrabarti, Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University;
- Douglas Garrity, Faculty Associate in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University;
- Jennifer Hasler, Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology;
- Todd Hylton, Executive Director of the Contextual Robotics Institute and Professor of Practice in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UC San Diego;
- Sule Ozev, Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University;
- Glen Uehara, Senior Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and Associate Director of the Quantum Engineering Center at General Dynamics Mission System.
The panelists spoke about several anecdotes from their careers, including challenges they faced from a technical and non-technical perspective and their takes on learning from mistakes.
The panel was moderated by Mst Shamim Ara Shawkat (Florida International University) and Vidya Chhabria (Arizona State University). Fig. 1 shows a picture of the seven panelists and two moderators, and Fig. 2 shows the panel in action. The Spill the Tea hour took place on Monday, August 7, 2023, at 7 p.m. and was well attended by students, faculty, and industry members in the audience. The session was interactive, with several discussions with the audience and panelists. The audience enjoyed drinks and high-quality dessert snacks during the event and also got the opportunity to network with the panelists shortly after the event.
The DEICAS event co-chairs and MWCAS 2023 organizing committee members express their gratitude to the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for the financial support for this event.
Many thanks to Vidya Chhabria, who contributed to this report.
This reported was written by
Vidya Chhabria, Arizona State University