Sharada Bose spoke to engineering students while in Oregon to receive an award from the College of Engineering.
At age 19, Sharada Bose moved from India to Corvallis, Oregon, having never been in the U.S. before. It was 1981, and she recalls being amazed at the cash registers in Fred Meyer, thinking they were computers. It was her lack of knowledge that inspired her to pursue computer science.
“I didn’t want to be in the I-don’t-know camp,” Bose said.
Alumna Nadia Payet returns to Oregon State to inspire students to stay with engineering and to give advice about how to land a job at Google.
Nadia Payet did not expect to find herself at Google when she was growing up in Réunion, a French island near Madagascar. But Oregon State University expanded her vision of what she could become. Her story is one she hopes will inspire others, especially other women in technology fields and young people from her home town.
Paul McKenney arrived on the Oregon State University campus 40 years ago as a freshman majoring in computer science. Computer science was so new he decided to also pursue a second degree in mechanical engineering in case computers did not pan out. Although the mechanical engineering degree came in handy over the years for computer projects that required mechanical knowledge, computer science panned out just fine as a career.
Marcus Turner has no doubt as to how he managed a successful career in computer science, which began at Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis.
“The best thing my parents ever did for me was to instill a drive and passion to be the hardest worker,” Turner said.
It paid off on his first day at Hewlett-Packard, when he was instantly promoted with new responsibilities. In preparation for his new job he had completed the work they wanted him to do in his first month.
As a first-generation college student, Brandon Greenley didn’t have footsteps to follow, so choosing Oregon State University was based on the quality of its engineering school. Still a Beaver fan, he also has a deeper connection to his alma mater in his role as Tektronix liaison to Oregon State.
Fascination with electricity started Oregon State alumnus, Doug Fisher, on a path to becoming the top manager for Intel’s software and services group.
“I was intrigued with how electricity, although invisible, could create action, and by understanding how it worked you could have the ability to control things — almost like a puppeteer,” Fisher says.
