Dr. Golnoosh Kamali, PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering | Technology Development Associate at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV)

In this episode, we discuss how Golnoosh’s dad inspired her to pursue a PhD and a career in academia and what drew her to the field of electrical engineering, the ways her current role at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures (JHTV) has exposed her to the real-world applications of STEM research and technology commercialization and how she plans to use this experience to enrich her teaching in the future, and her take on the importance of self-introspection, mentorship, and finding your community of support.

Hosted by Brooklyn Arroyo

To connect with Golnoosh and to learn more about her story, visit her page on the PHutures #100AlumniVoices Project website.

Transcript

Brooklyn Arroyo

Hello I'm co-host Brooklyn Arroyo and this is 100 Alumni Voices podcast, stories that inspire, where we explore the personal and professional journeys of a diverse group of 100 doctoral alumni from Johns Hopkins University. Today we're joined by Golnoosh Kamali, PhD in electrical engineering, currently working at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. Welcome to The PHutures podcast. How are you today?

Golnoosh Kamali

Hi, Brooklyn. Thank you. I'm doing well. How are you?

Brooklyn Arroyo

I'm doing well as well. So, I want to just jump into it. And what led you, if anything, to go down the electrical engineering path, especially through a PhD, and what was that journey for you?

Golnoosh Kamali

So, I chose a PhD because I wanted to be a professor, and I found that to teach at the college level, a PhD is really what's necessary. And I kind of had that vision of being a professor because I like to teach but also my dad, he's retired now, but he used to also be a professor, though his was in computer science and he was a dean of a university. And I got to see him growing up like the stuff that he would do sometimes. Like, take your daughter to work day I get to go sit in the classroom with him and I really enjoyed that. So, I was like, OK, I think I really want a PhD and I was very ambitious as a child. Like what is the highest degree I can get? PhD. So, let's do that. I chose electrical engineering because so at first, I want to do an MD PhD because I also really liked medicine. So, I wanted to do both. But then I was like, oh, that’s just gonna take a lot of time, a lot of work. And what am I more passionate about? And I really love math and science. And I felt that electrical engineering is pretty broad. So, you can do a lot of different things in that field. You can do power. You can do energy, you can, you know, apply more medical applications to it. And I also thought that there wasn't that many females or people who are identifying as women in the field of electrical engineering. And that was something I kind of wanted to change the narrative of because I feel like if there's more representation there's more likelihood that people want to do that, so that was kind of another reason I chose it.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Yeah, definitely. So, you you mentioned how you sort of saw and were experiencing your father and both of my parents are teachers. So, I think that it's.

Golnoosh Kamali

Oh, nice.

Brooklyn Arroyo

It's funny how oftentimes people who have family in education are also passionate about education in some capacity. And so, did you feel like that was something that was just a part of your household and you became growingly passionate about it and and your relationship with your father and do you think that that passion still exists in, in the work you're doing now?

Golnoosh Kamali

Yeah, I definitely think so. I think one of the things that my parents both taught me was that education is super important. Doesn't mean you have to necessarily go up to like a graduate level, but like having some sort of solid foundation base that that really opens the door for most things that could happen in life. And so, and they're very involved with me like a little kid, you know, helping me learn to read, when I would come home from school with my homework, doing that and my dad being a math guy like he'd always want to help with all the math and like, learn the newest things and be like, well, I know the teacher taught you this. Let's try a little bit more advanced and do that. And so, and then also when I got to go visit him in the classroom like seeing his passion for teaching how he related to the kids. So, like like you said, I think having parents in the education system, they kind of bring that home too. And I even got a chance to teach as a Community College instructor for a year while I was doing my PhD and I like really loved it, cause I always would say I want to be a teacher, right? But I'm like, well, have I do I actually know if I wanna be a teacher? I I've been a teaching assistant or course assistant or tutor. But then that year and a half where I really got to like, teach my own lectures and like create my own curriculum. It was amazing. Like I really felt so passionate, I felt like I had some sort of purpose and it really solidified my viewpoint that I want to keep doing that.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Definitely, so do you think that the education you had for your PhD has well prepared you for the environment of being a professor now or working within the work that you're doing now?

Golnoosh Kamali

So, I will say that I think it really depends by school and Advisor and Department in terms of the teaching aspect, because I feel like PhD is very focused on the research which is understandable. Like the whole point is to, you know, have some sort of dissertation or research project that you're very familiar with. And sometimes the teaching aspect isn't as emphasized, I guess you can say, but then I was very lucky that I had a PI who also really likes to teach, Doctor Sarma. And so, she encouraged me, you know, to, like, seek out those other opportunities. So, whether I was volunteering on the side, like helping, you know, elementary and middle school kids or the fact that I I personally went into that instructor position. I think those are the things that helped me cultivate that more. Though I also know that Hopkins has programs that you can be more involved in, like to get more teaching certificates. And then right now my current role at JHTV Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures, I'm not a teacher, per se at the moment, but I am learning a lot more the different technologies that are available, a lot of the research and how you can translate it, and why I think that's also super important. A) I'm interested in that but B) when I was an instructor a lot of my students would tell me, you know the theory. That's awesome. That's great. But I want to know I'm an engineer, like how do you apply that? Like what's it like in the quote UN quote real world. And I could have some idea, but at the time I hadn't really worked in industry and so I'm glad that I can kind of step back and be on the other side now, like, OK, well, how do I take this really cool research idea, and how do I translate it into that real world? What comes out of it? And then when I go back into teaching, I'm like, hey, this is actually why, you know, learning this mathematic concept, why learning this theory is really helpful, and how you can use it.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Definitely and and being able to bring that back to the students and have those different perspectives, not just the academia aspect and primarily research led like you were saying and and and having that quote UN quote real world experience for, for educating them. So, when going about deciding when you wanted to have that diversity of perspective and choose this career path and this and this job place, was there a conscious decision of wanting to diversify your understanding for the benefit of your students or did it sort of happen and then you realized, wow, this is good for my students?

Golnoosh Kamali

I would say probably the the latter. It had just happened and then I was like looking back I was like ohh this actually it was really helpful later on, so it wasn't a fully conscious decision. I think there were little steps along the way that kind of led me down to this path. So, my PhD took a little longer than I had anticipated, so in my mind everyone has like the timeline and you know, game plan and life never really truly goes that way. And so, for me, I was like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna take this much time you know in my undergrad, my masters, went straight to PhD. I'll be done. Do a postdoc blah blah. And that's not really what happened. And so, I think part of me was like I just need a little bit of a break. I need something slightly different and then you know then I can come back to that and I want to see else is out there. And also, last semester, last year I was at a presidential fellow at Hopkins, so I got to work at the Vice Provost of graduate, the office of Vice Provost of Graduate education, and really kind of see on the other side like the leadership that goes into the PhD program and graduate education. But while doing that in that spring semester, I joined an accelerator program at Hopkins, so it's called Hexcite, excited for healthcare and it's a software accelerator. So, these clinicians come in, they have this idea where, hey, I have a really cool idea based on software, but I need some help like you know, building it out, whether they have a prototype or it's just a pure idea and we help them build a team. So, for 16 weeks to get likr a tech lead, a business lead, design lead and we take that idea and we try to figure out like is there a market, can we create a startup? And so, I did that as a technical lead. And I was like, whoa, this is really cool. Like, you know, I never thought about the startup space. And I take this idea and move it. And that's How I met my current boss at JHTV, like, doing that program. And he was like, I know you’re a PhD student. I know you're really into academia, but have you ever thought about this maybe? And I was like, yeah, actually, this seems really cool. And then so I decided to go in there and then, like you said, I started thinking more about it like this also, you know, would help when I go back into teaching like tell my students, you know, these are the real-world applications that kind of diversifying my landscape.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, you you briefly mentioned how it wasn't necessarily linear and I think for a lot of other PhD alumni that I've spoken to, they mentioned how it's oftentimes not a linear process. So, what advice would you have for people who are currently entering their PhD or working within their PhD and they sort of feel like they're straying from a path that they envisioned for themselves and they're not really sure how to go about that, they don't feel really in control of where they're headed and and and how would you answer that?

Golnoosh Kamali

That's a good question, I guess now. So, one of things I'll say PhD is supposed to be hard, I guess. That's kind of the nature, but there are different types of hard. So, the academics of it should be hard, the like learning. But it should be hard but invigorating. You should be excited about the topic, but it shouldn't also be hard in that you feel like you're alone. You feel like you don't have support. If you feel like you know your lab or environment is not a very conducive one, so I think kind of distinguishing what types of hard there are. And then, if you do feel like things aren't truly—like one thing I learned later on, like after talking like so, I switched labs a couple of times and I remember my last lab, when I was talking to them, I was like man sometimes, like just seems like really tough. I get really down and then you'll be surprised how many people feel the same way. Like in your head you think it's just you. You think you're the only one that's like this isn't going my way, but if you kind of talk to everyone around you like ohh they feel the same. And I do feel like the research is a roller coaster where one day, like oh, I've made so much progress. This is great and like you're going really fast and then the next it's like, oh, nothing's happening, you know, for the next couple months is like very slow incline. So have some patience and and to kind of take a step back. So, when you feel like some things are really not going so great, like take a step back and realize like what is it? Is it that you're not really as interested anymore in the topic? Sometimes you can do depending on your PI obviously if you do like different side projects that maybe are kind of related but not the direct ones you can do something else for a little bit and then come back. Making sure that you do have like whether it's within your own lab or if it's outside like a support people you can talk to as well as I think with the new ombudsperson at Hopkins so that you can go and talk them confidentially if there's something that's really happening that's, you know, with your PI, but you're not really sure if this is OK if you don't want any like quote UN quote like tattletale on somebody, but you want to have like listening ear and figure out the right steps are I would take use of that resource. And then just know doing that you'll get through it. If you if you really are truly passionate about this, like it'll happen. But then it's also OK if you find that this really isn't, you know, worth it like and that's totally fine too. But I I do think it's a lot of self-introspection you have to do and then find that community is very helpful.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, you you mentioned not only your father but other experiences of meeting people and then having sort of networking or mentorship moments into where you are now, and so I would love to hear more about your perspective on mentorship within your academic and professional growth and and ways that people can better foster authentic mentorship opportunities for them in their in their own careers.

Golnoosh Kamali

So, I think my mentorship is very, very important. I always say that you know, it took a village to get me my PhD. Like yes, I put in the work, but I had that community support. I had that encouragement. So, even from when I was a little kid I remember my 5th grade math teacher, Mr. Kepler, he was super informative, like is super important in my life and like helping me really enjoy math. And besides, you know my my parents as well. Even at like the undergrad level I went to University of Oklahoma, I had a lot of great professors there that I still keep in touch with that like, you know, help me out. And I learned from them. And then at Hopkins, too, besides my own advisor, I sought out other professors like Doctor Iglesias, who'd been, like, you know, kind of been my champions. And whenever I needed somebody to talk to, I could go to them. And because of all those like different support systems, I really want to give back too. So, I like, I've been trying to mentor as well. During my time at Hopkins, I went to there was a Henderson Hopkins school, so I went to go volunteer with like the middle school, elementary school kids cause I think at the very young age, it's also really important to have that mentorship and to kind of help with students and not just like, oh, I'm going to teach you how to do math. But also like I'm here as like a listening ear. You know, I'm here to show you that I do care about your progress in life and how you're doing in school. And then Hopkins also had like a Woman Ex mentoring program. So, it helped women specifically in the STEM fields have, like, maybe a graduate student come talk to undergrad or like higher level grad students with other undergrad students and kind of just like again having that person that you can talk to about not just academics but like professional or personal. And so, you don't feel so alone. And I think giving back is so important. And the way I would say to start mentoring is just find something that you're interested in. Um like OK, I like math or I like science or, you know, writing or whatever. And then try to see if there are groups around you, whether at the university or within your community, and then try just, like, get involved that way, and I promise you'll also feel good about it too. So, it's like a selfish and like selfless thing, like, oh, I'm helping somebody. But I'm also feeling really good about what I'm doing. And I think it's you'll you'll you'll be amazed at how much impact you do make in people's lives that way.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, you mentioned having the opportunity of being a part of women support groups and and mentioning how seeing that there weren't as many women or being represented in engineering sort of led you down the path of pursuing engineering as well. And so, do you feel that you're seeing change in this now as you are growing in your career or do you feel that it's still somewhat of an issue within the next generations of engineers and PhD students in engineering?

Golnoosh Kamali

That's a good question. I feel like it's starting to get better. I think that we still have a decent way to go. But I think from at least my time and just to now, there has been definitely an improvement. Like I remember when I was an undergrad, I could walk into electrical engineering class and I could either be the only female and maybe like one other female and then I had no professors who were females or you know, identifying electrical engineering professors. And so, sometimes that can be really hard, because then if you don't see someone that looks like you in some way, then you may not think that I can do the same thing. So, I think representation is very important, but I think that the newer generation, there's definitely a lot more like there is more than there was. I do think that they're starting to grow. I right now serve as a judge for the Science Ambassador Scholarship where we're trying to you know help High school students, as well as like freshman, sophomore college students, want to go into STEM. And so, one of the ways we can help them is by providing a scholarship. And it's been really really great to actually watch all these videos that they they produce about explaining a really complicated subject like solar sails for example. But doing it in 3 minutes for anyone to listen to and then seeing their passion. There was one girl during COVID. She had extra time. She went and got her pilot certificate like the Student Pilot Certificate and now wants to go into you to become a pilot in aviation because there's not that many. And so, I actually feel very hopeful and I think that it's getting a lot better, especially with social media. I don't use TikTok, but I know a lot of people do. It's a great platform to like produce these videos and explain things. Or the Instagram or Facebook and just I think having that visualization out there like. Oh, look, there's someone like me who's doing this. So, I do think it's getting better. I I don't think we're quite there yet, but I do see that the change is moving that way.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Definitely and and bringing up the point of social media too, I think that that is a significant part of we may not have all of the representation that we would like, but just seeing the opportunities that exist in sort of behind the scenes that not everyone has the opportunity to even realize are an option, I think that that is extremely important and and like you said, bringing up about passion, you know, sometimes people don't even realize that that's something that they're willing to consider. Not only because they haven't necessarily seen themselves, but they haven't seen the the possibility of the joy that it could bring them, the passion that they could have pursuing that. So yeah, I think that that's all really amazing in in those opportunities. So, within the work that you're doing now and whether that be at, you know, at Johns Hopkins or on the boards that you serve on, what has been some of the most surprising things that you've you've grown from or experienced and and I'd love to hear about that.

Golnoosh Kamali

Oh, that's tough. I feel like I'm constantly learning things, which is great. So, with my current role at Johns Hopkins Tech Ventures, I'm on the technology development team, so our work is really in trying to find high value, high impact research that we think can be commercialized. And so, it's been just like I always knew there's a lot of great talent I mean, in Hopkins about abroad, obviously, but, it's just been so cool to see, like all the things that people are coming up with professors and grad students and the ideas they have and then getting to learn. So, my focus is most electrical engineering with the aspects being more on the biomedical side. But I've been now looking at technologies like in carbon recapture like energy, things that I really didn't know much about before, but now I'm learning all about it so I can understand the tech so I can help them with the commercialization process and then now seeing the business side of things. So, things that I never really consider, especially when you do research, it's really about the publications and you know seeing if it works your model or the data is there. But then once all that's happens, that's great, but it's like, OK, how do I market that? You know how to commercialize that? So, I guess to be part of this program called the NSF Innovation ICORE, we did 100 interviews in like 7 weeks. Actually, we ended up doing like 130 I think interviews about different people that we thought might be interested in specific technology and to really learn like like we think it's really cool, but do other people think it's cool? And then if they do like, what would it take for them to purchase this? And so really understanding customer discovery and with the business model, it's just a lot of things that I never really thought about. And so now every time like I go and I see like a news article, that's like cool technology or even anything I've purchased, I’m like there was so much time that was put into just figuring out, like, you know, what's the right price? Like how do I market this? Like who is my user? Who is my customer? And like these might be all different types of people, so just it's been really interesting and really like eye opening to see that whole process put into play. But I am very grateful for it because I feel like I know a lot more than I started. And then just be able to be part of all different types of technologies out there and just kind of having a little piece of that, you know, like, oh, it to talk about some more AI machine learning and ChatGPT stuff or now talk about energy or talk about, you know, medical diagnostics. So that's been it's been interesting.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, I would love to know what sort of advice you would have for those who are currently developing technologies and hoping to to market them at some point and step into that space because you do have a lot of experience in sort of the behind the scenes and the business and and so I'd love to hear what advice you'd have for people who are currently developing these technologies.

Golnoosh Kamali

So, one piece of advice I have is I'm sure the technology you're building is really cool. Like I have no doubt about that. But you have to make sure you're not the only one who thinks it's really cool. So, I the biggest thing I can tell you is to go talk to lots of people like and talk to more than you think you need to talk to. Just like, keep talking to people and really getting their perspective on is this something that is actually a necessity? Like will this solve a problem that's there? Or are you just trying to create a problem to hopefully get it solved? So, I would and that's one of the biggest things that I've learned so far talking to a lot of people and to make sure that what you build there really is it's really solving something and then once you can validate that it's solving something, then you have to really find out are people actually willing to pay for it? So, one of the funny things we'll find, sometimes someone will be like in an interview, ohh, this is the coolest thing since like sliced bread or like I love this. This is all amazing. OK. Awesome. Would you buy it? Would you be willing to pay for it? Oh, actually, no. I wouldn't pay for it. It's like they may think it's really cool, but they don't actually want to put the money up. So, you need to figure out like, OK, who's your first willing paying customer. So, once you know that it really does solve a need, well, then who's really gonna be willing to pay for it? And I think that'll help and to be very open to pivoting your idea. So, you may think that ohh, you know this piece of tech is going to be really great for, I don't know like this specific type of surgery. But then you go and talk to a lot of people and like actually, it might be more helpful if you use it for this other type of surgery. So, being willing to pivot and shift your idea doesn't mean that what you come with is bad. It just means that maybe the market is dictating something different, so that's why I think it's very good in the beginning to just start talking and get those conversations going, so you can know if you need to change things slightly and how to pivot and shift.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Yeah, that's that's all really great advice. And so, you're currently working in this space now, and you've mentioned how you would like to go back into becoming a professor and be able to use this knowledge to better help your students. And so, what would the next phase look like for you specifically for your career?

Golnoosh Kamali

Yeah, I I keep trying to. It keeps shifting all the time. I think because as we said earlier, things never seem to be really a truly linear path. So, I think I'm trying to lay a lot like a timeline for myself, but being open to things might change throughout the process. So, I think once I feel like I've had a good feel of learning about technologies commercialization and you know being at JHTV then I think eventually I would want to go to a university that's more teaching focused. So, one that maybe doesn't necessarily have to have like graduate degree programs, but would be a four year universities or potentially four years of masters because I do like research, but I'm also very excited about the teaching component of it. And so, sometimes I think that might get a little bit lost in the you know higher up institutions. So, I think my focus would be more on the teaching focus institution as for universities and teaching electrical engineering courses and then I like to advise students as well. To help them, you know, whatever path they want to take. And then I would love on the side to have some sort of whether it's my own startup, you know, if I can. I've like been meeting a lot of cool people like, you know, learning about the stuff they're doing. Just been come up with something later, or if not a scholarship fund. I would like to start that one day because you know, as I said in the beginning, I really do think education is super important. And I don't want that financial barrier that to be the reason you can't get that education. So, bring some sort of merit-based scholarship would also be ideal, but yeah. So, I think I saw it a couple more years, you know, to be in this space and then eventually I would like to potentially shift back to academia.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Yeah, and and be able to share all the experiences and knowledge that you've built and accumulated and and bring that back to academia and to the next generation of students, whether that be just through teaching or scholarship fund or yeah, that's I think that that's really amazing. And I can see you pursuing all of that. So, the final question of this interview, and it's sort of the grand finale of each episode, and that is what inspires you right now?

Golnoosh Kamali

Oh, oh man. So many things. I guess because on my forefront of my mind right now is watching. I watched like a lot of those scholarship videos I was talking about from these like high school students, undergrads, and I think it's the the younger kids. I think they really do inspire me just like how passionate they really are about this stuff. And just like how willing they are to like one person, she told me that or in the video she was explaining how during COVID that she felt a lot of misinformation out there and she had family members who were more high risk at COVID. So, she was A) like not doing a lot of things that she could or she would do normally because she didn't want to expose her parents to that, which is like, you know, it's really hard as a kid. But she was very conscious about that. But then she started creating videos to put out on the Internet to kind of inform people like, you know, do fact checking. And I was like, wow. Like to be able to just take that on your own just because you're like, you know what? I want to inform people out there about it or just like hearing like how passionate they really are about one has, like, started they're at, they're at Columbia right now, I think they said or some university, and they started their own like STEM Outreach program to help you know kids within the city learn about STEM topics and be more involved. Like just all the things that they are doing because they truly want to, not because anyone told them to do it, not cause getting paid because it's just it's true passion. And I think seeing that sometimes the world can seem a little bleak. So, it's nice to see that especially the younger generations who have taken upon themselves to like kind of make good and do good. So, I think that's really right now inspiring me.

Brooklyn Arroyo

Definitely the passion of people and the passion that people have for STEM or anything that they care about is truly inspiring, and I think that I, including the audience, have really seen your passion for education in the work that you're doing. 

Golnoosh Kamali

Thank you. 

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, you have inspired me. 

Golnoosh Kamali

I appreciate that. Thank you.

Brooklyn Arroyo

So, thank you for coming to the PHutures Podcast.

Golnoosh Kamali

Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.