Distinguished alumna visits ECS on National Women in Engineering Day

ECS alumna Shirin Dehghan visited ECS today (Monday 23 June – National Women in Engineering Day).

Shirin graduated from the University of Southampton in 1992 with an MEng degree in Electronics, and began her career by working for MAC (Multiple Access Communications) with Professor Ray Steele at Chilworth Science Park. Shirin developed radio propagation products and became the manager of the consultancy division of the business, leading projects involving major operators and manufacturers.

She then became research engineer at Vodafone Group and was responsible for the development of WCDMA simulation and business modelling. She was part of Vodafone UK's UMTS auction team, where she acted as technical expert on systems and technology issues, providing technical liaison to the UK board. In 2002 she founded her own business Arieso, with the vision of enabling self-optimizing networks. Under her management and guidance the company achieved great success and was sold last year to US mobile technology group JDSU.

Shirin is the author of several technical publications and has been a speaker in numerous technical conferences. She has also won a string of awards for her contribution to business and enterprise.

Today's visit to ECS was hosted by Professor Michael Butler and the Athena Swan group, and the audience included a school-group, visiting ECS for an outreach event led by Dr Reena Pau, who were able to hear Shirin’s inspiring talk – ‘Women Lead Technology Businesses’.