Juniors and seniors at Boston Latin Academy had an informative visit from Pathfinder Ashish Shah on April 4th. Biology teacher Kelly Gordon requested a visit from a professional to highlight “any and all” career pathways in STEM, so her class was paired with Ashish, an electrical engineer. During the visit, Ashish shared his personal journey, why he chose a career in STEM, and what the future holds for biotech.
Ashish’s interest in math from an early age led him to an engineering career specializing in circuit design. Ashish spent many years in various capacities at Analog Devices, a multinational semiconductor company, working on developing semiconductor chips. As Ashish explained, these chips are the basic building blocks for most electronic devices used today, including cell phones.
Though engineering requires a strong grounding in math and science, Ashish urged students to infuse their technical competence with soft skills, such as presentation and communication capability. Ashish attributes his long career to honing these skills, which have allowed him to maneuver from the technical side into the marketing end of the industry, opening the door for his current role at Global Foundries.
Since a majority of the students in Ms. Gordon’s class were interested in pursuing STEM careers, Ashish’s visit was very interactive; students asked pointed and probing technical questions about his work and its applications. Ashish shared an example of a startup which focuses on the creation of a sensor that measures cortisol levels in a person’s sweat, an example of how advancements in bioengineering will continue to usher in new job opportunities.
From applications in prosthesis, surgical advances, to drug discovery, careers in STEM are diverse; when paired with the booming artificial intelligence sector, the industry has the potential to make groundbreaking discoveries to improve lives. With Ashish’s visit and shared insights, students in Ms. Gordon’s class are poised to take their next step in career discovery.
