The EMC Society Podcast: Hear Us Above the Noise
CROSSTALK, The EMC Society Podcast: Hear Us Above the Noise. The IEEE EMC Society Podcast discussing interesting topics on electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), signal integrity (SI), and power integrity (PI) for our technical community. The IEEE EMC Society is the world's largest organization dedicated to the development and distribution of information, tools and techniques for reducing electromagnetic interference.
The society focuses on standards, measurement and testing, instrumentation and systems, interference control, education, computational analysis, spectrum management, and related scientific, technical, and professional activities.
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The EMC Society Podcast: Hear Us Above the Noise
#77 Shielding the Future: Young Ambassador Program in the EMC Society
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Welcome to CROSSTALK - the IEEE EMC Society Podcast!
Hear us above the noise!
The podcast where we discuss all interesting topics regarding electromagnetic compatibility!
In this episode, we take a closer look at the IEEE EMC Society Young Professional Ambassadors Program. We are joined by two special guests: Madhavi Dhara, a Young Professional Ambassador, and Patrick DeRoy, Chair of the Young Professional Ambassadors Program.
Together, we discuss what the program is, how young professionals can become ambassadors, and what participants can expect from the experience. Along the way, we also touch on several technical topics related to EMC and the broader EMC community.
Learn more about the Young Professional Ambassadors Program here:
https://www.emcs.org/benefits-of-joining-emcs/ieee-emc-young-professionals/young-professional-ambassadors-program/
We hope you enjoy this episode, and we look forward to seeing many young professionals get involved in this exciting program!
www.emcs.org
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ieee-emcs/
Welcome everyone to the Crosstalk podcast. We are your hosts. I'm Vasso.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Sebastian.
SPEAKER_02And today we have an episode for you in which we talk about the Young Professional Ambassador Program.
SPEAKER_00Yes, today we are going to talk about the Young Professional Program, and today we have Madvi and Patrick, both part of the program. And we had an interview with them. We think it was very nice, and we get to listen very nice insight from the program, but also about their life and as CMCS products. So we hope you enjoyed the program and let's hear the interview. Matavi, Patrick, welcome to the Crustal Podcast. Thanks for joining us. So how are you guys doing?
SPEAKER_04Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thanks.
SPEAKER_00Thanks again for joining. So yeah, as we mentioned this episode, we want to talk about the Jump Professional Ambassador Program. And for this, at first, we have two nice guests. So maybe Patrick, you can start, you can tell us a bit about yourself, about your experience in the NRC Wolf, and maybe you can try to describe yourself in three words. A little challenge.
SPEAKER_01Sure, I can I can go first. So first of all, thank you for having us on the podcast. It's a pleasure. And I have to say I'm thrilled to see two young professionals taking the initiative and co-hosting the EMC Society podcast. So kudos to you both. It's great to see this. And um, okay, three words is very difficult, but uh maybe I have a couple answers I could I could come up with. Um engineer at heart. That's three words, I guess, and that's uh maybe a good description. Um could also say EMC Society enthusiast, um collaborator, leader, enabler. So there's a few options.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, thanks, thanks, Patrick. How about you, Matt Harvey?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, first of all, thank you for having us. Um, it's an honor to be here today. Um, three words, never tried it before. So yeah, I think the best ones that I can describe myself is a daughter engineer at heart, like Patrick said, and a mother.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks. Then how about your experience in the MC world? Like how did you start it and where are you now? Maybe Madhavi, you can start now.
SPEAKER_03Um, yeah, I I moved back almost 12 years ago from India to Germany with my bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. That I studied master's in electrical power engineering, and also had a chance to do industrial PhD with Bosch and Valio Siemens at that time uh in the field of cable shielding uh in automotive, electric drivetrain. Uh after that, I worked at Valio during my PhD. I already started as an EMC architect for high voltage inverters and uh electric motors, EA cell, etc. Um, since three and a half years I'm working at Robert Bosch in Reutlingen, Germany, uh, working on high voltage uh OBC and DCDC converters, also for electric uh vehicles. That means my job focuses on topology aware EMC design um and integration in electric vehicles.
SPEAKER_00Sounds very interesting. Thanks for having. Thank you. And how about you, Patrick?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I'm uh Massachusetts born and raised. I uh went to University of Massachusetts Amherst uh in Western Mass and was initially studying RF engineering and microwave component design and so forth. And while I was in my junior year of undergraduate, I had an internship with CST at the time. Uh so got involved in computational electromagnetics back then. Um and that's where I was first introduced to EMC, which was interesting because I had never really heard of it at the time. But um, they had a lot of customers who were interested in EMC simulation, which was a new idea and concept. Um and yeah, ever since uh getting exposure to that, I was super interested in it as well as signal and power integrity and worked for CST for many years, uh, supporting customers in aerospace, automotive, and so forth using EMC simulation. But back in 2018, um transitioned to analog devices, and so now I've been working in the A to B transceivers team within the automotive group. So we do digital audio networking transceivers and working on all sorts of fun infotainment applications uh for modern vehicles. Um and um for a long time I was doing the basically EMC technical lead activities for the A to B group, um, and then a couple years ago transitioned to managing the applications engineering team as a whole for the US team. So it's been a lot of fun, and uh all along I've been able to maintain you know a lot of volunteering positions and different leadership positions in the EMC society, which to me has kind of gone hand in hand with uh my career development, both at CST initially and then also at analog devices.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sounds pretty pretty cool. Yes. Um yeah, I think thanks for telling us about yourself. I think it's some pretty nice experience that both of you have. I think also it's quite interesting that both of you now are working close to automotive and so on. So I think we can see a bit of where EMC is pretty relevant.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so and uh Patrick, you uh you have also been involved with the Young uh Professional Program. I think many people already know you. So we we we we wanted to make this episode about the Young Ambassador, uh Young Professional Ambassador Program, to say it correctly. So for for the listeners that are uh hearing about this for the first time, how would you explain the Young Professional Ambassador Program?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, happy to. So maybe just to explain about Young Professionals itself briefly. So um Young Professionals is an affinity group of IEEE of those members who've graduated with their first professional degree within the last 15 years. Um, so it's an international community whose members are made up of those that just graduated or even still students studying higher um higher degrees, or earlier in their career interested in elevating their career, expanding their network, connecting with peers locally on different topics. So it's a quite diverse group. And basically, if you're an EMC Society member and part of IEEE and you have this less than 15 years qualification, then you are a YP or a young professional. And so within EMC Society, um, a couple of years ago we started this Young Professionals Ambassadors Program. So the objective of this program is to actually inspire and inform young professionals on a variety of topics. These can be technical or non-technical topics, basically to enhance their interest and engagement in the field of EMC or SI and PI. And the young professional ambassadors uh deliver presentations at various chapters or sections on demand virtually, or they can also do this in person at the ambassador's local chapter if desired. Uh so it's a it's a fantastic opportunity for both personal and professional growth for the YP ambassadors to contribute to this, to give back to their technical community and to share their passion for EMC and or SI and PI, as well as their learnings, their knowledge, and their perspective with their peers.
SPEAKER_02And uh, how can someone be an ambassador in the young professional this program?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so each year in the maybe fall time frame, whenever we have the US IEEE EMC plus SIPI symposium, at this time is when we open up the call for the following year, YP ambassadors, nominations. Um so there's a nomination process, um, and there's some minimum qualifications there and some requirements that you have to put a package together with the talk that you plan to deliver, um the benefits of that talk to the YP community, and then this is reviewed by a selection committee, and then we announce the new ambassadors at the the start of each year.
SPEAKER_02Nice. So I guess uh Matavi, you were also interested in that uh program, is that right? How did you how did you apply for that?
SPEAKER_03Uh I was actually nominated uh from the German chapter chair at that time, Sebastian Koy. Um, and um as soon as I saw the program, I was also quite interested in that, and I thought I would be a good candidate to apply, and then I went for it. And Patrick on the way supported me a lot with organizational stuff surrounded, so it was quite quite a good ride, I would say. The whole process.
SPEAKER_02Nice. So, how does it feel to be a young professional ambassador? What does it do? What does it involve in practice, if we might may say?
SPEAKER_03Uh thanks for the question. It's incredibly rewarding. I I must say that my networking in the past few months inside the community has increased quite enormously. And also it's like Patrick mentioned already, it's about personal and professional growth. And I was always uh interested to do something for the community and also learn from a lot of the experienced professionals in this. And in this regard, I say that it's working quite well. Uh, apart from that, it also means for me personally that mentoring young engineers to show them that EMC is not just a compliance box where we always think EMC testing and validation and that's it, but also a massive um career and learning opportunity where you can. I don't know, I was always my affinity towards physics in school. Um, sometimes I sit and think the field theory I learned or something where I did not know application then. Today, if I sit and think that that's something you apply. And in EMC especially, I think you apply more of your university knowledge to practice in an enormous skill. So I think it's quite rewarding.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, thanks, Madhavi, for your answer. Um, but then now we got the perspective of someone who's just working as the YP ambassador. But then what about you, Patrick? Because you are the chair of the YP ambassador YP Ambassador Program in the EMC society. Can you tell us about it and what do you seek in a good YP ambassador?
SPEAKER_01Sure, yeah. So um for a good YP ambassador, uh I guess I would see someone who's experienced and accomplished in the field of EMC andor SI and PI. So, in fact, there are some minimum qualifications, let's say, like, and one of those is that you have five or more years experience reflecting professional maturity. So that's one thing, of course. Um, but also uh when I'm looking, uh it's you know, somebody who's motivated and passionate about this field and willing to invest their time and get back to the YP community. Um, of course, they in the nominations that are submitted, we look for also their presentation skills, um, a growing trajectory of accomplishment in the field, and the quality and the relevance of the proposed lectures to the young professionals. So those are some things we'd be looking for. Yeah. And I've actually so I'm I'm the chair of the program, but I've not actually been involved in the formal review process or the uh the judging, let's say, of the candidates, as there's a different selection committee for this. But but those are the things you know that I can speak to as a whole from my perspective.
SPEAKER_00Uh yes, Manhavi, do you want to say something?
SPEAKER_03I just wanted to correct the pronunciation of my name. It's Madhvi, not not Madhavi. Sorry, I should have told in the starting.
SPEAKER_02Well, we're very sorry about that.
SPEAKER_03And then it's a normal normal mistake, everyone does it, but I should have told it before. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So it's Madhvi. Yeah. Great. So we apologize for the for our previous pronunciations, but uh, I also have a difficult name, so I feel uh I feel you. Okay. Um yeah, so we we discussed a little bit about it. Uh the program, I think Patrick also mentioned, includes uh technical and non-technical topics. I think it's a great combination. And why do you think that uh this is uh viable for the for the young professionals? To combine these two aspects, let's say. Maybe Patrick, you can uh go first as the chair.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Yeah, so you know, despite the primary objective of engineers being to solve technical problems, you know, the reality is that our non-technical skills can be equally important, especially if you consider, you know, the evolution of work, how we're working uh with AI, transforming industries, and you know, something that AI can never replace is our soft skills and our face-to-face human interaction, emotional intelligence, honest, authentic communication. So all these skills are equally important for engineers to practice and to master in order to scale up their impact and their contributions as they advance their careers. So I want to make sure that um engineers in the community are understanding this and also having opportunities to learn how they can improve those skills and basically see the YP ambassadors lead by example on that and show them.
SPEAKER_02Nice. And uh, how about you, Madvi?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, I second what Patrick said, um, because in real world, physic does not exist in vacuum, right? It exists on a budget and space issues. So, yeah, if you can build a filter as good as possible and it can comply with all the limits, not only Europe, more US or the whole world thing, but if it does not fit the budget or the space, it will it is never going to be produced. In this aspect, like Patrick mentioned, it's very important to have the negotiation skills to either convince your project manager or might be your OEM customer or your supplier to for a component change or a design change. It's very important to have communications, negotiation skills, and the strategic thinking skills. So in this regard, YP program actually recognizes that a leader should speak not only fluent physics but also fluent business. So this is my perspective.
SPEAKER_02Nice, yeah. No, it's a great, great combination uh and set of skills, definitely. Um great. Uh Sebastian, do you want to uh take over?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so one thing that you guys both mentioned was that yeah, the YPA ambassadors ideally also help or try to um mentor these students or very early professionals we can call them like that. So, and it's true that for at least for EMC and uh CNN integrity and power integrity, these two fields can feel very intimidating. So, maybe Madhavi, from the point of view of YP ambassador, what can you do or what are you guys doing to make this more accessible for the people who maybe are not also yet in the EMC world?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So I think that we need to demystify this black magic perspective that we have about EMC. Uh, when people hear about EMC, they imagine complex equations or complex electromagnetic waves or coupling issues that no one understands. And that's where this point of black magic comes, right? So the fun um my perspective is that the we have to achieve in young engineers the fundamental understanding of EMC concept and the requirements of this soft skills that we spoke about before. Then I think it's more accessible for the young engineers to enter the field and to achieve something here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, thanks. It sounds quite nice. Then what about you, Patrick, from your point of view? What else can you guys do?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I agree with Madvi, and you know, the a lot of the YP ambassadors' talks are on um technical topics, of course. And in in those presentations, from what I've seen a lot, um, it's always you know emphasizing the fundamentals. Um so over the years I've become quite um vocal about knowing your fundamentals, even with the the engineers in my own team, um, because really that's just the foundation of everything. And I think spreading and educating on those fundamentals of the physics and that's relevant for EMC or SI and PI can help um you know break down the barriers that a lot of engineers feel when diving into these fields.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, good, good, thanks. Then you both mentioned this part of knowing well your fundamentals that this will take this black magic away. But then from the point of view guys both starting your career, what was one of these fundamentals that you'd say, okay, this changed my way that I was looking at EMC? Maybe Patrick, you can start and then we continue.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um it's funny because uh so I'm helping to chair the fundamentals um session at the upcoming EMC plus SIPS symposium. So in the past days, in fact, I've been reviewing and working with the presenters on the materials for this. Uh, so it's all kind of fresh of mind. But um one of the things that I probably repeat the most to engineers learning about EMC is that you can only have these four types of coupling paths or four coupling types, let's say, right? So you have conducted coupling or common impedance coupling, and then you have inductive or magnetic field, you have capacitive or electric field, and then you have radiated. And just I think helping people understand that, like whenever you've got any sort of EMC problem, it can only be one of these four things, right? That helps to maybe demystify uh the black magic, so to speak, for some people. So that's one of the things that I usually lean on the most is the four coupling types.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's I think it's very, very important. And once you also get to understand that you also see a lot more clarity in the pollen sort of when you go to do some troubleshooting and stuff like that. So thanks, Patrick. Now, uh Madvi, how about you? What would you like to have listened maybe before Patrick spoke about the causes?
SPEAKER_03I speak about the remedies. I think in the remedies you always have four principles, right? You have filtering, shielding, grounding, and EMC sons. So you understand the coupling first and apply one of the methods according to the coupling, and that's the fundamental. I would say that young engineers should concentrate, whether it is RF or it is low frequency EMC, these are the things which will help to know it fundamentally correct.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, thanks, uh Madvi. Yeah, I think it's important for also people who's listening like to remember these things because I also think that that's very important, and many of the EMC pros that you can find, you probably can reduce them to this uh at the end eight categories or four four and four categories that both Madvi and Patrick mentioned. Maybe Basso, you want to add something uh now to them?
SPEAKER_02Uh yes, so you are both involved within the EMC um EMC world, which I guess is one part of your of your lives. But you also, I guess you're spending also time in uh doing other things. Would you like to share some of your hobbies or activities that you would like you like to do in your free time just to change a bit the the topic? Patrick, you want to go first?
SPEAKER_01Sure, yeah. Um so I'm I'm super fortunate to have an amazing family. Uh so I've been married 10 years this summer to my wife Ashley, and we have three beautiful kids. Uh so they keep us very, very, very busy. Um, but when I when we do find some time uh you know for hobbies and things, I enjoy playing drums. Um I like to stay active primarily with um distance running, but also enjoy cycling, kayaking, skiing in the winter months. Um and yeah, all the while we're always uh planning activities and fun vacations together, lots of good family time, sharing new experiences together. So that's what takes the vast majority of my time outside of each.
SPEAKER_03Nice. And for you, Madvi? Yeah, me too. I'm blessed to have a family. Ma'am, I've been married to my husband Agnee for about seven years now, or maybe eighth running. We have one one and a half years old daughter, so she occupies most of my time. So my new hobby is going to playground with her. She started walking, so cat trying to catch her all the time and so on. But otherwise, normally I would like to run in winters. And I also ran a marathon before, so I keep running not so much now, but a bit like 5k, 10k or so. And in summer, we would like we will really like to go to hiking in most of the places. For last two years, none of this have happened, but we hope to do it from this year.
SPEAKER_02Nice, that's great. Running a marathon. It's very difficult, but uh it's great that you're doing it.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, it's an emotional thing. First five kilometers, you're very energetic, and then the energy comes down and last five kilometers again. So it's it's it's it's good.
SPEAKER_02Great. We have to ask you for some tips uh to give us definitely nice. So now uh Matvi, you're you are an ambassador, and congratulations also for that. Thank you very much. Uh but before that, when you were uh starting your EMC career, as you told us, what you would you have wanted to listen or know? When starting, like first steps or some advice that you would give.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh one advice I would have liked to have is not to get scared when I fail. Because DMC is an iterative process, whether it might be simulations or it might be measurements or something. You don't always get it right the first time, and you should fail confidently to learn from it. So this is something that I would like to say today that confidently fail and trust the process to learn. This is something that we have to keep in mind.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's definitely true. Failure is in the game, definitely. And I think it helps to go further and further. So I agree, I agree with you uh definitely. And uh, Patrick, for you as the as the chair, uh you have seen many, many young professionals by now, I believe, over the years. We have also met in uh some conferences in some nice nice events that you have organized for the young professionals, and thank you very much for that because it was great. I remember when I I joined and I met a lot of uh a lot of experts on the field, and we spent some very nice quality time doing uh also um nice activities like uh playing different games, and it was it was very nice. So, for that, uh thank you very much as a young professional during my PhD. Um, so I I I we would like to ask you what is a misconception about the EMC and CP career, and what advice would you give to either uh young people that are starting now or to people that are already in the business for a while so that they keep continuing and developing uh their career?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thanks for the the question. Um so I would say, you know, every very senior EMC expert or EMC guru that we that we look up to and recognize in the field, right, they all started just like you and me, right? And I think it's a common misconception that you have to be some very senior person, some esteemed expert to be involved in this and make an impact. But the reality is that we actually need participation desperately from the younger generation, and we need the perspective of the young professionals within these technical committees, within standards development, and so on. So I just encourage everybody to get involved and you really get out of it what you put into it, and it can be really rewarding and really a lot of fun to dive into it. And the you know, the community on the other side is very willing and eager to support you as a young professional in developing your career, and you feel that as soon as you get involved. So that's what I would say is you know you don't have to be somebody very senior or already having 10, 15, 20, 30 years experience to to do this, and you can you can get into it and make an impact right away.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true, that's true. And uh what advice would you give to someone who is listening now and wants to apply for next year to be a young professional ambassador? Do you have any questions?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yeah, so of course, there's you know, we we talked about it, and this is also on the on the EMC Society website. We can provide the link, but of course, there are those minimum minimum qualifications that exist, and it may feel intimidating um or you're not sure about it, but um, I would just say like putting yourself out there, being vulnerable, being courageous to do it. Um, it can be so beneficial for you and for your personal development, for your professional development. Um, so I guess my advice would just be um be brave and go for it. And um, like I said, there's a there's a wonderful community willing to support you on the other side of it. So um, yeah, seize the opportunity.
SPEAKER_02True. I I think uh yes, there are many opportunities in the EMC society. You're absolutely right, and I think you just have to to to catch them. So I think there are many many things happening, and that's great actually for the for the whole society. And you can um try different things and see what you like, and yeah, be in a program like that and meet so many people, like also Matthew said. So that's that's great, I think, for the for the society. Uh Sebastian, you wanna uh take over the mic?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Um yes, then continuing a bit of some dispatch, so because Patrick, you not only have been involved as the YP ambassador program chair, but or also or only in the MC Society, but you also have been part of other parts of the uh IEEE and so on. So yeah, how has been your experience with that? And what would you say to someone who is not taking the chance to delve deeper into the IEEE world or in specifically the IEEE EMC society?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's there's so many different opportunities within EMC society, right? So, you know, there's what makes up the society are um these many technical committees, and you're bound to find a technical committee or maybe multiple technical committees that are of interest to you that are looking at you know things like computational electromagnetics or AI and machine learning in EMC SIPI, looking at interference control, mitigation techniques, looking at low frequency EMC and power electronics, um, high power electromagnetics, you know, just to name a handful of them. Um but the again, the the technical community there and the perspective and the exposure that you gain from talking to not only like-minded experts, but people that are very knowledgeable and have a lot of experience in the field. Um, that's a really great opportunity for engineers to participate in this. And then besides technical committees, we have the standards committees, um, standards development and education committee, there's the education committee who works together at the you know, EMC Symposium each year to put on sessions like the fundamental session or others. And um yeah, all of this, you know, communities there and many, many opportunities. Outside of the major events of the year, there's also the chapters. Um, so there's probably a chapter local or relatively nearby to you, wherever you happen to be in the world. Um, and that's where you can also participate in attending presentations or networking with people that are close by in your region and learning about all different types of cutting-edge topics from distinguished lecturers and invited speakers. Um, so yeah, just a handful of things off the top of my head.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thanks, thanks. I think you mentioned some very important things that people who's listening should take into account. Like, for example, the part about the local chapters. I think this is something that sometimes we don't know, but most probably you'll have an IEEE local chapter, and or specifically I EMC Society local chapter, and then you can get to meet a lot of nice people and also a lot of experts around you, and a lot of collaborations can also arise from that. So thanks, thanks, Patrick, for that and for everything else. Uh Madvi, do you have a question for Patrick now?
SPEAKER_03Yes, uh, Patrick, um, because you have such enormous experience in the field and you have seen so many young engineers, I just want to want to ask you today when we see the advertisements, for example, or the job postings, let's say open position postings or so, everyone needs some sort of experience, right? For someone who has just come out of university or so, what is your advice as a leader or a manager to stand out? Or how do you say, I mean, what is your advice for them to be more confident for applying for positions that they are passionate about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's a very good question. Um, so I guess uh maybe speaking personally for me, uh I'm I'm always looking to see um that you know they're doing um trying to stretch themselves as an engineer and as a person. Um and you know, part of that would be these type of these outreach type of activities, be it within IEEE or maybe some other org organization locally and things like this. Um because the the technical skills are you know a critical piece of what every um employer is looking for, right? To do a certain job. Um, but they also want to you know hire somebody who um has the the potential to grow and the potential to learn and also to lead eventually in their career, right? Um so just um yeah, putting yourself out there and uh making sure that you um try to seek out those opportunities and also make them well known in your resume and in your interviews to you know communicate that um you'll be a you know valuable employee beyond just the the day-to-day technical activities that you need to do or that you the equations you need to solve, for example.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, Bradid. That's a very good advice.
SPEAKER_04Sure.
SPEAKER_00Yes, indeed, like it was very nice advice, so thanks a lot. Now I would like to also kind of yeah, flip the question kind of back to you, Madhvi, because you also have overcome many challenges. Again, you mentioned that uh you're from India, and then you went to Germany to study part of your career, and you have also working in a career or in a field that is has a strong male presence. So, what would you say to people to motivate them who are willing to take or wanting to take this next step in their career?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, uh, I was looking forward for this question, Sebastian. Thanks a lot. Um, because moving from India to Germany a decade ago alone was just terrifying, right? I did not know what would be next, how I mean, if it would be as I imagine or so. But luckily it worked out well for me. Um, but what was more terrifying at the moment I started my career was being an being a single woman in the meeting room with 20 men who has varied experience, people with 20 years experience or people with two years experience who would be more knowledgeable than me. But what I used to tell myself was EMC or physics uh doesn't know, doesn't care about your gender, background, or your accent in Maxwell's equation brutalizes everything. So to someone who is who is at my position, what I was, I don't know, six, seven years before is what I said don't hesitate. Uh don't let this being alone in the room stop you because EMC is such a rare field where you have incredible opportunities to grow. And once you master the scale, you will be asset to the company more than you realize. That's that's why I would say don't be afraid, just go for it. And I think Vasu, you can also add your thoughts on this because you're in the same field.
SPEAKER_02So yes, no, absolutely. I was also looking forward to this question and answer because indeed not only this field, but many uh many fields are uh male dominated. But uh I I think that uh within the EMC society we are very lucky. We also have uh women in engineering um uh event and uh not only the events but also the the whole um organization which uh brings some light to the to the females on the in the field. But like you said, yes, I feel like the I feel like we are seen in our in our EMC society and I hope it stays this way. Yeah, that's true. Yes. And uh yes, definitely don't be afraid and go for it and be visible, I would say, to exactly great, very interesting uh answers. Um uh I'm looking uh forward to the next answer actually, because it's uh more of a funny one, if we we we might say. We mentioned uh EMC being uh black magic, and I think many people uh especially people that have no idea about EMC, they think of it like the like like this. So how about you? What is something about EMC or uh CP that feels like black magic? Like Patrick, would you want to go first? Something that it's your yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes, it's it's uh so I I I think I think Madvi alluded to it earlier, but I I dislike this, and I usually when somebody talks about it as black magic, I try to tell them that it is really not black magic, it's all fundamental physics, right? Uh but it's it's it's funny because I I still hear it, and a colleague, you know, maybe two, three weeks ago said this to me. Um so it's still a message that's out there and that people think of it this way. Um so I and I mean I've learned a lot about it over the years, and but there are still some times where something might happen, I think, um where it might feel like that way. And usually in my experience, it's to do something with software. Um so I'm I'm uh primarily focused on hardware and the physics background um and modeling of it, but um in terms of coding and programming, I'm I'm pretty useless to be quite honest. Um always trying to upskill that a little bit. But um, you know, software, especially in today's um electronic systems, it's becoming so complex. And I think there's still oftentimes where it's a combination of an EMI problem, but also something inconsistent happening with the software, or there might be some intermittent type of EMI event happening. So maybe this software-dependent nature of it a little bit still feels like quote black magic to me.
SPEAKER_02Um even though you mentioned about CST in the beginning in your career, you mentioned CST. I did, I did.
SPEAKER_01I was on the applications engineering side of it. So not so much doing the the program and the software development, but the the application usage, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Nice. And uh how about you, Madvin? What is your project?
SPEAKER_03I mean, I totally agree with Katrik what he said, because as an EMC engineer, it would be like, okay, software is something that would not affect us, right? I don't know, switching from one-phase DCTC to do two-phase DCTC when there is a bit of delay and you switch on your measurement at that time, you don't know what happens. So this is something uh that I also agree with him. But I have a second thought on that also. Again, I feel reproducibility in measurements. That's one of the still back black magic things that I think when you work in lab and tomorrow you switch on, you don't know why it went up two dbs or three dbs, especially when you're near the limit, that can be horrifying. So that's that's the thing. A small change can cause huge issues, and sometimes 90% of the solution is not enough because you need, I don't know, 100%. Uh, that is something I think as EMC engineers, we should bit work on the reproducibility. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's that's yeah, that's true. I think the small kryptonite of the EMC engineers and the yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, it's also fascinating, right? What all you should know. It's not enough to know just physics or like a theoretical background where you solve the problem, but you should be also knowledgeable about the whole topology, what hardware engineers does, what changes they were going. It's a huge system that is implemented into it. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think something that sometimes here, at least here with my colleagues, is that sometimes EMC or like CP can be a bit humbling because you see a problem, and sometimes you even if you know the fundamentals and you know the physics, you are like capable of why is this happening? And also going back a bit to what Patrick mentioned about the software. One of them was sometimes you were also talking about this, and one of them mentioned, oh, it's just that now you are adding the human factor, now you cannot explain it with physics anymore. So yeah, uh, but thanks, thanks for your answers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I am probably and if we keep on the same track now, we we talked about what is black magic for you. But uh what would you like to if there was one topic in EMC uh or CP or this these areas that you would know everything about, what would that be? Maybe Matvi, you can start first now. I mean I did not copy your question completely. If you if if you could know one aspect or one topic on EMC or CP, like for example, uh I don't know, working with reverberation chambers, for example. It's not a bias mentioned, but for example, I work with them, so I I know about them. So I would like to know something about another uh another topic on EMC that I don't know so much about. For example, to program like perfectly, or uh yeah, anything else, or like about filtering, or about shielding, or maybe about doing experiments or something, any any topic that you would like to know more.
SPEAKER_03Understood. I would like to diverge a bit and um as my talk says, because uh having a high-intensity career in EMC requires very high negotiation dynamics because uh one can simulate with high accuracy or solve a measurement problem. Because if you have deep thinking, which all most of the EMC engineers do, they have high analytical problem solving skills and they can solve the problems. But if you cannot convince your team uh to go for it, I mean not the EMC team, but the interdisciplinary team, the hardware engineer, the software engineer to implement the change that you need for EMC, it's it's very difficult. Then you end up in task force and that's going to cause huge I mean, that's going to cause huge cost for the company. So um for me it's hands-on negotiation dynamics. Nice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, great. Well, I hope you will uh become even more skillful towards that. Which I believe you are already already, but uh yeah. And how about you, Patrick?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think that's a great answer. Um maybe I'll I'll take a on the technical side of it. Um one area where I have a limited knowledge and I think is more and more important is on the materials side of things. So just material science. And maybe I can put in a plug for one of the technical committees in the EMC society is TC11 on nanotechnology and advanced materials. Um there's a whole technical committee looking after this topic, right? But you know, in terms of future solutions for the designs we work on, whether it's for shielding or for new packaging technologies of integrated circuits or um you know maybe uh solving manufacturing tolerances with new materials and things like this. Um That's a whole very interesting, very interdisciplinary area that I would like to learn more about as time goes on.
SPEAKER_03It's a very interesting topic, Patrick, to be honest, because we always see this RF shieldings, right? There is so much on going on in the radio frequency range, but what about low frequency? And there's still a lot to learn about it. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04For sure.
SPEAKER_02Great. Thank you very much, both of you, for the very interesting answers. I think we are slowly um going towards the end of the episode. But before that, we would like to ask you if you would like to add anything, give any advice to the people listening. Um we will add all the information about the Young Professional Ambassador Program. Um everything will be explained in the description. But anything else that you would like to add? Maybe, Patrick, you want to say something?
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, sure. So, you know, I think we talked a lot about the benefits of the YP Ambassadors Program. I would encourage everybody out there listening to look for a YP Ambassadors talk online or you know, reach out to the YP ambassadors and try to schedule them for a talk for your chapter because they're ready and willing and very happy to share their knowledge with you. Um and then for those that might be uh intrigued or feeling motivated by the program and maybe thinking about applying for a nomination for next time, um I would just say there's limitless possibilities for you in your career. And when you consider all these benefits we discussed for pursuing the program, um, you know, why wouldn't you seize this opportunity and go and try to become a YP ambassador? So go for it and elevate your career to the next level, is what I would say.
SPEAKER_02Great, thank you. And uh how about you, Madhvi? What advice do you have to give to people as the young professional ambassador of 2026?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I want to say that don't just build your career but design it intentionally because EMC is such a rare field where you have all sorts of experience from theoretical physics or simulations, hands-on experience in the lab. And like we said, software or massive, you will also be involved in the corporate business strategy meetings or so on. It's something that I have not seen in all the fields. So if you learn correctly or if you just master these skills, you will be an asset to your company and you will gain a lot of things. And with this, I look forward for my talk. Uh and whenever in the last months I've been pretty busy, but I look, I I want to concentrate more on my next half of this year on the talks and to motivate more young engineers like me and you guys. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Great, yes, you're doing already a great job, Madve. Thank you. Thank you also. That's a I'm already inspired by your by your talk. So uh thank you. Yeah, yeah, thank you very much, both of you, for joining. Uh Sebastian, I don't know if you have anything to add.
SPEAKER_00I also just like say thank you both for joining, and thanks for all the nice advices, nice words that you mentioned. I'm pretty sure the people who's listening will get to learn more about the YP Ambassador Purum, but also in general, about like what it's like to be an EMC engineer, what things they can take on to take the next step in their career. So thanks, thanks a lot for all these valuable advice. Um, yeah, any final message, anything, last thing you want to say to the listeners? Small thing or whatever.
SPEAKER_01If you're attending upcoming events like the symposium in Dallas or EMC Europe, definitely register for the young professionals event.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I agree. I agree. I encourage this.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I would like to say look forward for the professional talks with me. There are so many other incredible engineers who are um uh equally eager to present their talks in the few in the coming future.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yes, great. Thank you very much. And uh yeah, until next time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, thank you for having us. It was a great pleasure, pleasure talking to you guys.
SPEAKER_01Likewise, thank you.
SPEAKER_03Bye.
SPEAKER_00And that was the interview. What do you guys think? I hope you enjoy listening to it and then you learn many things from the episode.
SPEAKER_02Yes, we cannot wait to hear about your opinion in the comments below, or you can also send us an email in the email that is provided in the description box below. If you want to learn more information about the Young Professional Ambassadors Program, then you can also check that out in the description below. And uh we are looking forward to the next episode. Until the next time. Bye.
SPEAKER_04Bye.