SAE Media Group announced the winners of its Rising Star Awards: Women in Engineering program today during a live online event attended by participants across the globe.
This prestigious program honors exceptional women engineers who are not only making remarkable strides in their fields but also lighting the way for future generations. Their achievements, leadership, and dedication continue to inspire and elevate the engineering community.
Organizations were invited to nominate outstanding women engineers whose achievements have positively impacted both the industry and society. Every nominee was exemplary, making the selection process both inspiring and incredibly challenging. We applaud all the nominees for their remarkable contributions to engineering and their commitment to shaping a better future.
The entries were evaluated by our esteemed panel of judges and editorial team, and six winners were selected in the fields of Aerospace/Defense, Automotive/Transportation, Electronics, Manufacturing/Materials, Medical, and Robotics, Automation & AI.
The 2025 Rising Star Awards recipients include:
Aerospace/Defense
Keshika Warnakula
Senior Flight Mechanics Engineer
Syos Aerospace
Auckland, New Zealand
Automotive/Transportation
Sadiyah Sabah Chowdhury
Senior Technical Specialist in Technical Strategy & Integration
Cummins
Columbus, IN
Electronics
Samantha Shumberger
Senior Design Engineer
Molex
Welsville, PA
Manufacturing
Mariam Sulleiman
Graduate Researcher
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX
Medical
Debbie Teodorescu
Founder & Board Director
SurgiBox Inc; Invasive & Heart Failure Cardiologist
Seattle, WA
Robotics, Automation & AI
Ipsita Mohanty
Co-Founder and Chief AI Architect, QApp
Vice Chair, IEEE - WIE Santa Clara Valley Section
San Jose, CA
Congratulations to all the incredible young women engineers who have won this prestigious award. Their hard work, dedication, and innovative spirit are not only commendable, but truly inspiring. These rising stars are making a powerful impact in their fields and lighting the way for the next generation of women in engineering.
The Rising Star Awards nominations opened in May 2025, with support from sponsors and partner organizations including Association for Advancing Automation (A3), AUVSI, Women in Automotive, WE United, STRIPES, and SAE International.
This article was written by Chitra Sethi, Editorial Director at SAE Media Group. To learn more about the awards, visit www.techbriefs.com/rising-star-awards
Transcript
00:00:02 Hello and welcome to 2025 Women in Engineering Rising Star Awards online event. I'm Chitra Seti, editorial director at SA Media Group. Thank you so much for joining us today. We are thrilled to kick off the Rising Star Awards, a celebration of innovation, leadership, and the future of engineering. In the next half hour or so, we'll be unveiling the winners of
00:00:24 our 2025 Women in Engineering Rising Star Awards. And trust me, these women are nothing short of extraordinary. These winners have not only had a positive impact on their profession and are making an impact beyond their companies, but their exemplary work also inspires the next generation of women engineers. Before we begin, let's take a moment to thank our amazing sponsors.
00:00:48 Thank you to our platinum sponsors, Interpower, KHKUSA, and Microlin. Thank you also to our gold sponsors AI tech welltech coilcraft and microspec and our silver sponsors crystal confluent and maxon. Your commitment helps us honor excellence innovation and leadership of women in engineering. So thank you so much for supporting us. I would also like to acknowledge our
00:01:15 supporting sponsors A3, AUVSI, Stripes, Wii, United, Women in Automotive, and SA International. Your support fuels this celebration of excellence, innovation, and leadership. So, thank you for standing with us. And a huge thank you also goes to our esteemed panel of judges who are selected who were selected by the editors of SA Media Group. Their thoughtful evaluation and
00:01:42 deep expertise helped us identify the brightest rising stars. You can see their names and faces on the screen right now and we are incredibly grateful to each of every one of them for their time and care that they devoted to this process. Thank you so much for all your help and your time and thank you everyone who supported this program. Also today we have a special guest
00:02:09 joining us the 2024 rising star awards winner for the automotive category Ruk Argo. Ruk is a functional safety engineer at General Motors and was our rising star last year for the automotive se category. Joining her for a fireside chat is Sebastian Blanco, editor-inchief of automotive engineering magazine. Welcome Brook and Sebastian. take it away.
00:02:37 Thank you, Chitra, and thank you for setting us up and explaining a little bit what RSA is all about. Um, hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. As Chitra said, my name is Sebastian Blanco. I'm the editor-inchief of uh Automotive Engineering Magazine here at SAPE. And Brooke, I'd really like to thank you for joining us today. It was exciting ride last year as we got this
00:02:57 this award show started. Um, thank you so much for coming back and telling us a little bit about um yourself and the awards. Yeah absolutely. Um, as a little bit of background for those of you watching today, Brook was a civil engineer before joining the automotive industry uh with a job at GM in 2015 and worked in various positions
00:03:18 at GM since then. As you can imagine, she was an interior studio design engineer, a pneumatic seat comfort systems design release engineer. And we don't we can't know for sure what our independent judges were thinking once they were scoring things last year, but I can't help but imagine that your broad background was an asset both to those scoring judges and also in your daily
00:03:39 life as an engineer today. Um let's start with with your job. You're a functional safety integration engineer. What does that mean? What does day look like for you these days? So, every day is a little bit different, but at the core, my job is making sure that vehicles are safe. I'm the point of contact for overall vehicle safety for certain uh vehicle products, both uh our
00:04:03 development vehicles and also uh customer vehicles. Um, the highlight of my job is the hands-on part of it where I get to do vehicle assessments on our test tracks um, almost every day. Uh, for people who love driving cars and like to just get away from their desk for a little bit. That is one of the one of the better parts of the job is just to take some time and get in a vehicle.
00:04:27 Um, it's also helped me uh, learn our vehicles like from a software standpoint. Um, all the features and functions. Um this role really gives me insight to that I work crossf functionally um across many teams. So that's exciting. I get to interact with a lot of different people and again it just gives me insight into uh different parts of our company that I didn't have
00:04:51 before such as our software integration which now I almost feel like an expert but overall um I do just want I do make sure that um when we're testing vehicles and we have development software calibrations in them um that our engineers can use them safely and not put themselves at risk um or any of our facilities at risk. So overall, I just make sure that people stay safe, our
00:05:18 engineers and our customers. I know all of us are very thankful for you and other people doing those kind of jobs. I just wanted to mention to the crowd um or to the audience, I I believe my video camera is acting strange. Sorry about that. Having some technical difficulties, but uh we will continue in it because the important part is not me. It is uh the the award winners that
00:05:38 we're we're focusing on today. Um, Brook, can we go back uh to the beginning for you? What can you say um sparked you your interest in engineering and can you pinpoint when you thought engineering was a field you wanted to pursue? So, that's a funny story for me. It actually started uh with an army aptitude test that I took in the 10th
00:05:59 grade. I was invited to a rec a recognition ceremony where um the presenter uh told us that everybody in the room which was a small group of students um had the top scores in the 11th and 12th grade. I rose my hand. And I was like, I'm in the 10th grade. And they said, you must have accidentally checked that you were in the 11th or 12th grade
00:06:23 because the the way they did the scoring and um how they did the recognition was different between freshman and sophomores versus junior and seniors. So that mixup uh gave me access to a deeper conversation about my test scores and the speaker was able to go in uh and to talk to each one of us and go through those and show us like where our strengths were. And through that test I
00:06:50 found that engineering was where I had um the strongest um capabilities. And so I told my mom when I got home and she was like, "Yeah, I'm not surprised." And we had we had that discussion, but um it really made it clear that, you know, engineering was the career field for me. I'd always loved math and science. I liked taking things apart and figuring out how they worked and putting
00:07:17 it back together, but I hadn't I hadn't necessarily thought of like a career path that I wanted to take. And so after having that mixup with with the test which worked into my favor, I was able to align what I was good at, what I like to do to an actual career ba career path. And ultimately um I did pursue a degree in engineering. I love the idea of the the happy
00:07:41 accident sometimes turning into something beautiful. You never know quite what what might happen. Um but you've been in the auto industry long enough now that I believe you've probably been able to see at least some changes. Um, and if you think back to, you know, how you started, you always had an aptitude as you said, but some there was this like, you know, beautiful
00:07:59 little mixup that helped spark your your path. How different, if at all, do you think it is for, you know, young women or like female graduates today starting out their career um, compared to when you when you graduated, when you were looking for a job back at the beginning? Yeah. So, I think there's been a lot of progress um, with just representation in general. Um, I believe since I graduated
00:08:22 till now, there's been more women that have obtained engineering degrees and entered the workforce. Um, which is awesome because now that means that younger engineers who are coming in, they now have role models and someone they can see actually doing the things that they want to achieve. And that visibility is incredibly empowering. Um, it helps young women see all the
00:08:45 possibilities in front of them in a almost tangible, you know, way. um and gives them more access to mentors who can understand mentors and coaches and even sponsors that can understand you know the things that they go through as women and their perspective. So I really think there's been a lot of progress just from the standpoint of more representation in the workforce.
00:09:10 Can we dig into that just a little bit more? Can you talk about the importance of either a role model for you or potentially people being role models for younger generations? Yeah. So, I I learned that I had to have role models. Um, I think it's so important. I I believe, you know, trailblazing is awesome and there's definitely much needed um that's much
00:09:35 needed is to have trailblazers who just go and figure it out. um I probably would eventually have gotten to where I am um without mentors or coaches, but I know it would have taken much longer and there would have been a lot more trial and error. So I any role that I'm in, any space that I want to go to, I go and seek out mentors um to help me and help me understand some of my blind spots
00:09:59 where I can grow um encouragement um affirming, you know, if I'm doing something well. Um, and I have I have numerous examples of those, but um I I have one example where uh my former uh executive director uh she reached out to me when I was in a different role and she since retired, but um she always holds a special place in my heart because she never gave up on me. She
00:10:27 reached out to me maybe a year prior and she's like, "Hey, I think there's this role that you might enjoy." And I was nervous. is I was scared. I didn't think it was something that I wanted to do. I didn't know much about it. It was safety. And I was like, I don't know. And it took a year before I finally um she circled back around. I was like, hey, there's another role for you. I I
00:10:49 think this is something you should look into. And I finally was like, okay. She encouraged me. She's like, look, you you got to step out of your comfort your comfort zone. Um try new things. and this role based on everything that you told me it it check boxes all the things that you're looking to grow in. So, you know, apply. She's like, apply for it. Do it. And so, without having that
00:11:12 encouragement, you know, I I probably would have been in the same role I was before. Um, but since she encouraged me, she, you know, affirmed that, you know, this is something that I can do, something that aligns with my goals for myself and my career. Um, I made the leap over into safety. And I'm so thankful that I had her as a mentor because not only was she able to bring
00:11:33 me over, she also um connected me with other mentors um to help continue to build me, especially after she after she retired. So, it's always great to have those mentors in your back pocket um to help you through your journey. And I think the younger you are, having a coach, mentor, and role model, the better. even you know young girls it's it's on our it's on us uh women who have
00:11:58 graduated or have gone through the experience to reach back go back to the elementary schools even um be that role model for the young girls and young women who may not know that they have talents and skills that actually align with the STEM with the STEM field they just don't know it because they haven't seen the representation of it um so I think it's s super important to have
00:12:19 role models and also seek out mentors and coaches and sponsors Yeah, I like that. That's that's sort of on the the one end of of people who are already in it trying to bring in other people. Can we can you add talk a little bit about you know the reasons for doing that? You talk about like trailblazing is cool and all but it's also kind of difficult but there are benefits to
00:12:40 having a broader you know engineering works work uh st you know work team um people from different perspectives. Can you talk a little bit about the ways that you feel your gender gives you a different perspective and perhaps different, you know, things you can bring to the previously more male-dominated areas. Yeah. So, I I think I mean I love being
00:13:01 a woman in engineering because I I'm super big on giving back and being, you know, representation to to pull people along the journey um and encourage them. So, I love that I can do that um for younger engineers and younger uh ladies and girls. Um, I think as a woman, individuals in general, we have lived experiences that are unique to us and that perspective that we have gives us
00:13:27 skills, talents, tools that bring value to a team no matter what table that you go to. Um I think as women uh we have lived experience versus being you know cousins and sisters, mothers, aunts um things that we wear, things that we like to do all that gives us a perspective that is lived experience that others may not have. And so having that perspective really brings that value. And I can
00:13:57 remember when I was um in my master's degree uh one of my professors um for a product development course I was taking um gave an example which was it was kind of funny but I won't name mention any brands or names. was not GM, but he gave an example of how um getting in and out of a certain vehicle might have been more difficult for um a woman due to the fact that she may be wearing
00:14:26 a dress or she might have on heels or something to that nature. And when you have a male-dominated workg group, that might not be the forefront of your perspective. So having a woman in the room to say, "Hey," or to be there to do hands-on um demo demos of, you know, the products that you want to develop just gives a perspective that others may not have.
00:14:51 Thank you. Yes. And I think my my last question here is kind of tying all these things together, the things you talked about this morning, the things that the RSA is trying to do. Um do you have thoughts on what can be done to improve the numbers of women participating in engineering, in business, and academia? and if for no other reason, so that we can have a larger crop of potential
00:15:10 nominees in the coming years. Yeah. So, kind of as I I've touched on, um I think it's super important to to reach back. Um I'm a part of a nonprofit um that's based in Memphis, Tennessee, and I make sure there's a session on STEM every year. Um, I think that representation matters, that people can see, um, and have examples of things that they may not even have known their
00:15:36 skills and their talents, um, can align to. So, I just believe that on us, uh, it is on us women to to reach back. make sure that you know at least one person that you're mentoring or coaching or encouraging um to to either join the STEM field or just continue because even in college it's hard. You need encouragement to stay in it. I know I had plenty of friends and and mentors in
00:16:01 college that kept me on track even when I I was having bad days or bad weeks or didn't do so well on an exam. Um so I just feel that um it's super important to make sure that you're being that person to to reach back. I think that will strengthen us in um academia and in business um because you know you have people cheering you on and making sure that you are successful.
00:16:26 Well, you have been successful. Thank you so much for joining us again today. Congratulations again on the award last year. We look forward to uh announcing the awards uh for this year. And to do that, we will turn it back over to Chitra. Brookie, thank you very much and let's move forward. Thank you both for a great conversation and and Brookie rightly said
00:16:45 representation matters and I really appreciate you sharing snippets from your career journey with us and being a role model for other women engineers. And um now on to what everyone has been waiting for. Let's find out who the 2025 winners are. We have selected six winners who have demonstrated outstanding innovation and leadership as well as enhanced the engineering
00:17:10 profession through their contributions to the society in six powerhouse categories. Aerospace defense, automotive and transportation, electronics, manufacturing materials, medical and robotics, automation and AI. And now I would like to invite the senior editor of aerospace and defense technology magazine Woodro Bellamy to announce the first award.
00:17:37 Well, thanks Chetra. And yes, I just want to follow up what you mentioned in the uh first part, Chetra, by thanking the judges that uh volunteered their time for the selection process this year for the aerospace category, including Rebecca Lemon from SAPE International, Sabine Goodwin from Seammens, and Kimberly with AUVSI. So without any further delay, the 2025 aerospace
00:18:01 defense category winner is Kashika Warula. She is the senior flight mechanics design engineer with Scios Aerospace. Scios Aerospace is a robotics engineering company based in New Zealand that develops and manufactures dualuse autonomous vehicles and drones for air, land, and sea applications. Earlier this year, Scios was awarded the NZ High-Tech Company of the Year for the 30th annual
00:18:30 Enzy Hi-Tech Awards contest, and many of Kashika's colleagues attributed that award to her leadership within their lead flight uh mechanics design engineer. Kashika is responsible for flight mechanics calculations and design optimization of the uncrrewed helicopters and drones that are developed by Scios. She also is a volunteer in the Wonder Project, which
00:18:54 is a free program for schools that inspires young students to pursue STEM careers throughout New Zealand. And she regularly travels to schools throughout New Zealand and participates in events and information sessions that inspire students to pursue STEM careers. uh based on her lead and success in recruiting volunteers to the volunteer to the wonder project, her company
00:19:17 actually introduced a new program where SCIOS aerospace employees can use some of their volunteer hours from the wonder project as part of their standard work week every month. One of her career goals is to help expand the overall presence and global recognition of New Zealand as an aerospace hub specializing in the development of drones and advanced air mobility aircraft among the
00:19:42 global aerospace industry. So congratulations Kashika on winning the 2025 Rising Stars Award for the aerospace and defense category. I will now hand it back over to Sebastian to present this year's automotive category winner. Thank you, Woodro. And moving things right along, this year's winner in the automotive transportation category is
00:20:08 Cadia Saba Chowry. Saba is a senior technical specialist in technical strategy and integration at Cumins, Inc. in Columbus, Indiana. She has a PhD in mechanical engineering and works on AI enabled modeling strategies and simulations. She has led modeling and integration for six clean sheet engine programs that meet EPA27 and Euro7 compliance for on and off highway
00:20:32 vehicles in North America and Europe. She currently focuses on intelligent automation frameworks for advanced fuel technologies and she leads Cummins women in technology initiatives which build pathways for women to lead in the evolving transportation landscape. One pivotal moment in her career came during her time at Michigan State when she joined the energy and automotive
00:20:54 research lab. That was when she was first exposed to powertrain and engine systems and when she realized how her work on material science and biomechanics could translate into real world impact. Modeling and systems thinking became tools to solve industry challenges, not just academic ones. She told us that early experience laid the foundation for
00:21:17 how I approach AI and simulation strategies at Cumins grounded in applied problem solving and cross-disciplinary thinking. That was her quote. This is me now speaking again. I wanted to highlight this aspect of her work as part of the rising star awards this year since in response to one of our questions, Saba told SA media that she has often encountered unspoken bias
00:21:38 being un underestimated before she even started on a project. Saba said she Sabah said she learned not to internalize it but to quote lead with consistency, technical rigor, and empathy. That approach has helped me to build trust, grow cost cross functional influence, and create space for others who felt overlooked. We're glad we didn't overlook you, Sha Shaba. And
00:22:03 congratulations. And up next is Sherry, the editor and director of content for medical design briefs, who will announce our electronics winner. Hello everyone. I'm Cherry Trigg, editor and director of content for medical design briefs. Uh and I am excited to announce the electronics rising star award winner. Samantha Shamburgger,
00:22:26 senior design engineer at Molex is specializing in device connectors. With over eight years of engineering experience, she holds two innovation patents recognizing her contributions to new product development. Um prior to joining MUX, she worked in R&D at Phoenix Contact and TE Connectivity. She holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. But
00:22:51 Samantha is passionate about STEM outreach and she's previously volunteered her time with First Robotics and various other local STEM outreach programs. Her advice to young women engineers aspiring to be leaders is to recognize that leadership isn't defined by a title. Rather, leadership is about taking initiative, having integrity, and providing mentorship. Leading by example
00:23:17 is powerful. Trust your voice and your values. Speak up and build strong relationships. According to Samantha, that's great advice. Uh, and with that, now I'm going to turn it back over to Chitra for our next award. Thanks, Sherry. Thank you. Um, it's my pleasure to announce the rising star award winner in the manufacturing and materials category.
00:23:47 And the winner is Miriam Sullean. Miriam is a first generation college graduate and the first female engineer from her community in Guagalada, Nigeria. She's a control engineer currently at process and control engineering and she starts her doctorate in mechanical engineering this fall at the University of Texas at Austin. Her long-term ambition is to become an
00:24:09 industrial engineer and mentor driving innovation in automation. Mariam is also the co-founder of the Females in Clean Energy Foundation, which supports SGS 4, five, and seven. After completing her doctorate, she plans to establish a research and training division within her foundation to equip students, especially women, with tools and community support in
00:24:32 engineering design and human robot collaboration. She's also committed to advancing Africa's robotic sector through workforce training, innovative research, and impactful educational programs. More is an impactful role model who uplifts other women through intentional mentorship, advocacy, and example. Through her structured mentorship group, she provides academic,
00:24:54 career, and personal guidance to 22 female student STEM students across six Nigerian universities, offering the support she once lacked as a woman in a male-dominated undergrad program. Her own traje trajectory from her first generation student to an engineer and PhD student has challenged cultural norms. By openly sharing her journey and championing access to fully funded
00:25:17 graduate programs abroad, she has inspired many young women to pursue higher education and professional goals. Mentees regularly credit her support in securing scholarships, internships, and research opportunities. Marim's passion for m for paying it forward coupled with her advocacy for gender equity and engineering is helping build a new generation of confident
00:25:40 capable women in STEM. Congrats Miriam on this well-deserved recognition and continue the great work you are doing. And now I'll hand it back to Sher for the next award. Thank you Chidra. So this next one is our medical rising star award winner. Uh Debbie Tio Durescu is an invasive and heart failure cardiologist and she's founder and board director of Sergebox.
00:26:08 She earned her MD and her masters from Harvard and her masters of engineering from Boston University. Debbie completed her medicine and cardiology training at Brown and Cedar Sinai and previously served on the Harvard faculty. She practices cardiology at the Pulseheart Institute where she leads cardiovascular research and innovation. and her company Sergeabox is a multinational company
00:26:34 that is transforming surgical safety at the point of need. Her advice to young women engineers aspiring to be leaders is key. Figure out what rules and boundaries that you cannot break, those that you can break and you but usually at some cost and those that you must break and then proceed accordingly. Congratulations Debbie. And uh with that now I turn it
00:27:00 back over to Chidra. Thanks Cherry. And uh last but not the least the winner in the robotics automation and AI category is IPSA moanti who is a co-founder of QAP and vice chair of E women in engineering Santa Clara Valley in California. An AI entrepreneur researcher and industry leader. Ipsida previously served as principal ML engineer at Salesforce
00:27:29 where she spearheaded the launch of Tableau agents a multimodel multi-agent rack system transforming natural language to visualization. She has also led AI initiatives at Walmart labs and Goldman Sachs and has been honored with multiple global AI leadership awards. The most exciting part according to Ipsida about her work is transforming how people and organizations engage with
00:27:51 data through agentic rag and multimodel AI systems. When asked for her advice for other women engineers, she said, "My advice to young women engineers is to lead with both innovation and responsibility. Technical excellence is essential, but authentic leadership in AI means designing systems that are ethical, inclusive, and trustworthy. She added, "Stay curious, speak up for
00:28:18 fairness, and embed integrity into your work. As you grow, remember that leadership is not just about solving problems, but about ensuring technology benefits all all communities and future generations." Thank you, Sitha. Congrats. I love what you said about ensuring that technology benefits all communities and future generations. Spot on. You're truly
00:28:43 inspirational and congrats again for winning the rising star award for robotics, automation and AI. And congratulations to all the incredible young women engineers who have won this prestigious wh rising star award. Your hard work, dedication and innovative spirit are not only commendable but are also truly inspiring. These rising stars are making
00:29:06 a powerful impact in their fields and lighting the way for the next generation of women in engineering. We will also be honoring their remarkable achievements in our publications, tech briefs, medical design briefs, aerospace and defense technology and automotive engineering magazines and websites this month. So if you want to learn more about these trailbasing women, please
00:29:27 check out our publications and websites. Thank you all for joining today's event. Let's continue to celebrate brilliance, cheer for innovation, and be inspired by the future of engineering, which starts right here, right now with our rising stars. Thanks again.
