Richa Daga is working as a Software Engineer at Cisco and has vast work experience in the telecom and optical networking domain. She also worked at Ciena and has developed cutting-edge products supporting data traffic up to terabits of speed.
Richa is also a core member of the ‘She Speaks Bureau’ global initiative, supporting the cause of Diversity and Inclusion. She believes in investing in knowledge and sharing it with other technical communities globally.
Especially for the WomenTech Network, Richa agreed to give an interview and share her story.
Join the Women in Tech Global Conference 2022 to hear Richa's talk "Network Modernisation for 5G and Beyond", and other inspiring sessions.
Are you excited to be among the speakers at the Women in Tech Global Conference 2022 and what motivated you to join our community of 100 000 women in tech, minorities, and allies?
Yes, indeed, I feel ecstatic to be selected as a speaker at the Women in Tech Global Conference 2022. It’s a privilege for me to be a part of this community that empowers women in technology, a cause for which I have been so passionate since my engineering education days.
I have witnessed the gender gap in my alma mater, with the number of girls being less than 5% of the batch size. And as the diversity ratio in tech continues to be dismal, this became a reality in my corporate career too.
From living a life in which I was mostly the only woman in technical meetings in my office to being among the few female technical speakers at global conferences, it feels different and wonderful this time. It gives me immense joy to be a part of a mission that features and unites 100,000 women in tech, minorities, and allies. It’s like living my dream, and thanks to the Women Tech Network Team for making it possible.
Share with us about your background, your journey in tech, and what inspired you to develop your career in this direction?
If today, I can say that I am a global technical speaker, author, and mentor, there is a story of passion and perseverance behind it.
After finishing my engineering education, I embarked on the journey to realize my dream of connecting people faster. I saw this dream in my childhood in the early 90s as I witnessed my parents face tremendous difficulties talking with my elder brother living thousands of kilometers away. We used to walk for an hour to reach a PCO booth in the wee hours of the morning for decreased calling rates and write postcards that used to get delivered a week later. Observing technology trying to make our lives easier but at an unaffordable cost of time and money laid the foundation of a very early thought in me to do something towards getting people connected faster with reduced costs.
Professionally, I grew up to become an engineer who is passionate about chipsets and technologies that connect the world. With a decade-long experience in Research and Development at the world’s top telecom firms such as Cisco and Ciena, I have worked towards developing multiple products that support 5G, terrestrial, and submarine fiber-optic networks powering the internet of the future.
Today, I follow my passion for technology through my participation as a speaker in different technical conferences and as an author in technical publications. I got selected and received recognition as an IoT Thought Leader for delivering multiple talks at international IoT Slam conferences on disruptive technologies which make the world smarter, safer, and more connected. I became one of the core members of She Speaks Bureau, a non-profit initiative to elevate female speakers globally and address the under-representation of women speakers.
From serving as the IEEE Women in Engineering Chairperson of my alma mater to getting invited for interviews on globally acclaimed telecom and women in tech talk shows, I have made it this far with my goal to give back to the tech community.
Who would you advise to attend the Women in Tech Global Conference and why?
I would advise every person to attend the conference who wants to explore their limitless potential and take a step closer to a gender-equal world. The inspiring sessions, a plethora of networking opportunities, and technical talks provide an insightful forum to grow, engage and become a better version of yourself.
You need to take two steps – believe in yourself and attend with the eagerness to learn. The rest will follow. I would invite all the readers to be a part of the purpose and contribute towards creating a global impact. It all starts when each of us takes a step forward.
From 1 to 100,000 – let’s take it higher and carve our own Women Tech Universe.
🎤 In her #WTGC2022 session "Network Modernisation for 5G and Beyond", Richa Daga will establish the future possibilities that 5G can bring for us, and also highlight essential steps that should be taken so that 5G can achieve what it promises. As the fifth generation of mobile internet connectivity promises greater bandwidth, after this talk, you’ll understand how the future lies in fiber-optic technologies to achieve an ever-connected world.
