From Flight Safety to Digital Safety: A cross-industry engineering journey [Career Advisor]

June 8, 2026 by Akshata Kishore Moharir

This article presents practical career guidance for women engineers navigating cross-industry transitions while building explainable AI (XAI) systems. Drawing from personal experience across aviation (Boeing), environmental research (NASA/USDA), and digital safety (Microsoft), I outline actionable strategies for developing transferable skills, leading interdisciplinary teams, and creating human-centered AI solutions. The journey demonstrates how engineering principles from safety-critical systems apply universally, offering a road map for engineers seeking meaningful impact across domains.

For more about this article see link below.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11512010

For the open access PDF link of this article please click here.

https://wiemagazine.ieee.org/wp-admin/edit.php

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine is the first magazine to focus on issues facing women who study or work in IEEE’s fields of interest.

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine strives to recognize women’s outstanding achievements in electrical and electronics engineering as well as enhance networking and to promote membership in IEEE Women in Engineering.

The publication also advocates for women in leadership roles and career advancement for women in STEM professions, and it facilitates the development of programs and activities that promote the entry into and retention of women in engineering programs.

Ramya Thiagarajan: Helping Public Health Officials Track Mosquitoes

When the Zika virus reached Florida in 2015, public health teams faced a big challenge: more than fifty species of mosquitoes live in the state, but only a few, especially Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, spread Zika. Public health officials employed the traditional monitoring methods: placing traps at select locations overnight and catching hundreds of mosquitoes. The next day, teams picked up the traps and identified a small sample under a microscope, searching for the subtle and unique morphological markers that distinguished dangerous species.

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