Career Profiles

Explore profiles of real professionals and students to learn how they got started, what they love about computing, and all about the fascinating work they do.
Sajeer Fazil

Sajeer Fazil

Engineer, OpenDSP, Hyderabad, India

Degree(s):

Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology Calicut, INDIA
“Look around and see what issues your society faces; Think about how education and technology can help solve such problems. Technology is most valuable when used to enhance society. ”
Read more about Sajeer Fazil (PDF, 188.29 KB)
How I got here... +

It all started with an interest in Mathematics. Going forward, the relationship became stronger and inseparable. As an electrical engineering student, it became inevitable for me to explore the practical implications. Thus, I came across various challenges addressed and analyzed with very interesting mathematical concepts. In addition, I took on various hobby projects to start with. Eventually, it directed me to the embedded systems industry. Being in this domain helped me appreciate the important role that algorithms and logic play in the organization and development of such systems.

Why I love my job +

I am an Embedded Systems Engineer, specialized in multimedia applications. The main attraction of such systems is the way in which they are developed and deployed on end products that reach real people. The challenging nature of video and audio compression and enhancement algorithms is a fascinating aspect of my work. My activities include development of signal processing algorithms on a Digital Signal Processor, as well as handling the framework on the general purpose processor. Working on a technology which can reach the common people, and improve their lifestyle, is highly exciting and satisfying to me.

An awesome project +

During the final year in college, my main project was the “Design and Development of a Heart Rate Variability Analyzer”. This involved development of algorithms to analyze patients’ heart rate. It also included implementation of an embedded software system that is based on rigorous mathematical operations within constrained memory. The application was to be managed by a handy-battery-driven device. I was proud to develop a product that helps humanity. It was a project which gave me confidence in choosing a career path as well as understanding the importance of teamwork.

Circuit boards

IEEE robotics workshop presentation

Working on a robotics project

Debugging embedded projects

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Sajeer Fazil
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Liz Gerber - Image credit Lisa Beth Anderson
Liz Gerber
Liz Gerber - Image credit Lisa Beth Anderson

Liz Gerber earned her MS and PhD in Product Design and Management Science and Engineering at Stanford. She specializes in design and human-computer interaction, particularly how social computing supports the innovation process. Her current research investigates crowd-funding as a mechanism for reducing disparities in entrepreneurship.
Gerber's work funded by the US National Science Foundation and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, including Transactions on Computer Human Interactions, Design Studies, and Organization Science.
As an award-winning teacher and researcher, Liz has touched the lives of more than 6,000 students through her teaching at Northwestern's Segal Design Institute and Stanford University's Hasso Plattner's Institute of Design and through her paradigm-shifting creation, Design for America, a national network of students using design to tackle social challenges.

Image credit - Lisa Beth Anderson

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CGA palette
Mark Dean

If you have ever used a PC with a color display you have been acquainted with the work of Mark Dean. After achieving a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Dean began his career at IBM. Dean served as the chief engineer on the team that developed the first IBM PC, for which he currently holds one third of the patents. With colleague Dennis Moeller, he developed the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, which enabled peripheral devices such as printers, keyboards, and modems to be directly connected to computers, making them both affordable and practical. He also developed the Color Graphics Adapter which allowed for color display on the PC. Most recently, Dean spearheaded the team that developed the one-gigahertz processor chip. Dean went on to obtain a MSEE from Florida Atlantic University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and is the first African-American IBM Fellow.

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Router
Sandra Lerner

It is difficult to imagine a time when computers were not capable of sharing information and resources with great ease. Sandra Lerner pushed the boundaries of network computing as one of the co-founders of Cisco Systems, which introduced one of the first commercially viable routers. The router was born while Sandra was working at Stanford University in the 1980’s after earning her Master’s degree there in Computer Science. To avoid the tedious task of transferring information between computers using floppy disks, she and co-founder of Cisco, Leonard Bosack, created a local area network, or LAN, between their campus offices using a multiprotocol router that Bosack developed. Shortly thereafter the pair started Cisco Systems, and began selling the router which was a success, because it could work with so many different types of computers. After Leaving Cisco in 1990, Lerner started the trendy cosmetics company Urban Decay and became a philanthropist and avid activist for animal rights.

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Cursor
James Dammann

If you have used a word processor today, moved your mouse on your laptop, dragged an object around on your smartphone, or highlighted a section of text on your tablet, you can thank Jim Dammann. In 1961 during his second year at IBM and just one year after completing his PhD, Jim created the concept of what today we all take for granted -- the cursor. This idea he documented in utilizing the cursor within word processing operations.

After retiring from IBM, Jim went on to inspire future generations of software engineers at Florida Atlantic University. His work there too demonstrated his creativity for he spent considerable effort enhancing their software engineering program by integrating ideas and feedback from local industries into the University curricular. Today, Jim lives in the Westlake Hills west of Austin Texas and spends most of his time in his art studio. He wrote and published The Opaque Decanter, a collection of poems about art, which provided a new view at part of art history.

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First computer mouse
Douglas Engelbart
Douglas Engelbart

In 1967, Douglas Engelbart applied for a patent for an "X-Y position indicator for a display system," which he and his team developed at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. The device, a small, wooden box with two metal wheels, was nicknamed a "mouse" because a cable trailing out of the one end resembled a tail.

In addition to the first computer mouse, Engelbart’s team developed computer interface concepts that led to the GUI interface, and were integral to the development of ARPANET--the precursor to today’s Internet. Engelbart received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in 1948, followed by an MS in 1953 and a Ph.D. in 1955 both from the University of California, Berkeley.

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