Nayana Patil

I attribute my success first of all to my parents. They have done a lot for me, and then to my complete family support - my parents and my husband. Right now, I'm working in a different city while my family, my daughters and my husband, are in a different city. He's taking care of my daughters and supporting me to achieve great things in my career. They have supported me in every situation, and that family support has been the foundation of everything I've been able to accomplish.

The best career advice I've ever received was 'never stop working.' This came from one of my female managers. There are some days where you feel like you should stop working and just sit at home and enjoy your family time, and sometimes there are days where you are literally frustrated with your work and all those things. But she always told me to just get up and show up at your workplace. That advice to never stop working, even when things get tough, has been the greatest guidance I've received.

I would say that I have observed over the years that after starting their career in the mechanical field, some women feel this is not the field for us. They slowly get diverted towards the software or the computer side of the industry. But I would say it's not like that. Once you get that expertise, knowledge, and go ahead in your career path, it's one of the most amazing fields you can be in and achieve your greatest heights. So I would highly recommend - do not get diverted from this mechanical field. I have seen some women think that this is a very male-dominated field and they don't belong here because there are some work, or at some point of time, it's a little heavy work, and they get moved away from this field. Some families also push girls or women saying no, you shouldn't be entering into this field because this is not something for you, this is for boys or males. They say you will have to lift heavy weights and do typical shop floor work, but this is not like that. If you are into it, you can do that.

The biggest challenge I see right now is how to incorporate AI technologies in machine design. With these new AI technologies, AI is becoming the new normal going forward, and we need to think about how we can incorporate these AI technologies in machine design. At the same time, some of the techniques or technologies that I have learned over the 15 years need to be renewed and upgraded with this new technology - machine learning and AI. That is one of the challenges, but the opportunity is also the same - learning these new tools and technologies.

In my work, I always believe that you should never give any false commitments. If I'm tasked with some projects and I'm not able to do it, I should speak about it rather than giving false commitment. In my personal life, I would say the most important value is to have that communication with all your near and dear ones, as frequently as you can.