Daniela Najmias Lang

Curiosity, initiative, and a willingness to learn whatever a problem requires. I’ve never needed to know exactly how to do something before deciding it was worth trying. Science fairs gave me an early opportunity to turn that instinct into projects, and to learn how to explain and defend my ideas. Since then, I’ve kept seeking work that challenges me to connect different fields, take responsibility, and follow an idea through the difficult parts. I’ve also benefited from people who encouraged that curiosity and gave me room to pursue it.

Be the person who connects people who understand different parts of the same problem. An engineer, a clinician, and a founder can look at the same technology and each see something the others haven’t considered. To me, the value of an interdisciplinary background is being able to understand those perspectives and help them inform one another. I want to use that breadth to ask better questions, recognize possibilities across fields, and help people turn their combined knowledge into something they can build together.

Give yourself permission to try something before you know exactly how to do it. Start the project, ask questions, and learn what you need along the way. Take your ideas seriously enough to develop them and put them in front of other people. If you’re one of the only women in the room, you still have every reason to contribute. And you don’t have to change your personality or how you present yourself to fit someone else’s idea of an engineer. You can be ambitious, technically capable, and fully yourself.

I see significant opportunity in combining AI and advanced analytics with systems thinking and engineering to address problems across industries. The challenge is understanding what a technology can reliably do, where it addresses a real need, and what it would take to put it into practice. That requires connecting technical evidence with decisions about product development, users, and commercial potential. I’m particularly interested in that process: evaluating new capabilities, testing assumptions, and helping determine which applications are worth pursuing and how to develop them.

Curiosity, honesty, and taking responsibility for what I do. I value being willing to ask questions, acknowledge what I don’t know, and change my thinking when the evidence calls for it. I also care about doing work thoroughly and being someone other people can rely on. Relationships matter to me, so I appreciate direct communication, generosity with knowledge, and people who take one another’s ideas seriously. I enjoy being part of a team where we build on each other’s strengths, help each other through challenges, and take pride in what we accomplish together. I try to bring that same support and commitment to the people in my personal life.