In this episode, Francesca Vipiana, Full Professor at the Politecnico di Torino, speaks with Lei Guo, Associate Professor at Dalian University of Technology. Francesca shares her inspiring journey in engineering, emphasizing passion-driven career choices and the challenges women face in academia, particularly with regards to work-life harmony. She highlights the importance of networking, external support, and diversity in engineering while encouraging young researchers to believe in themselves, seek mentorship, and pursue their goals with confidence.
Main points of the discussion
| Timestamps | Questions |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | Introduction |
| 01:10 | Introducing Professor Francesca Vipiana |
| 03:11 | Could you share your career journey, key lessons, and advice for those just starting out, including how to determine their research direction? |
| 07:48 | Could you share your experience and advice on balancing career challenges- career bottlenecks, judgement from others, or managing the family responsibilities- as young women in academia and what strategies have worked for you in managing these problems? |
| 12:22 | What advice would you give to young women professionals on finding opportunities to accelerate their growth? How can they identify key moments or avenues to help them thrive? |
| 16:15 | As a mentor, how do you support students in finding their research focus, exploring their interests, and achieving their academic goals? |
| 20:32 | From your perspective, how can we promote diversity and contribute to breakthroughs in fields like antennas and propagation? |
| 23:47 | You have been a strong advocate for increasing the diversity within this field. Could you share some of your experiences or efforts in fostering diversity, and why it is so important to you? |
| 29:20 | What advice would you give to young researchers facing doubts about pursuing a career in engineering and staying motivated to make an impact? |
About Francesca
Francesca Vipiana is a Full Professor of Electromagnetic Fields at the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.
Her main research activities concern numerical techniques based on integral equations and method of moments, with a focus on multiresolution and hierarchical schemes, domain decomposition, preconditioning and fast solution methods, advanced quadrature integration schemes, and glide-periodic structures. Moreover, her research interests include the modeling, design, implementation and testing of microwave imaging and sensing systems for medical and industrial applications.
She received the Lot Shafai Mid-Career Distinguished Award from the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) in 2017, she was an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (2018-2024) and the founder and responsible of the Women in Engineering Column in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine (2019-2024). She is the Vice-Chair of the IEEE AP-S Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Sense of Belonging Committee, and a member of the European Association on Antennas and Propagation Board of Directors.
About Lei
Lei Guo received the B.Eng. degree in communication engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, in 2016. From 2016 to 2019, she was a postdoctoral research fellow with City University of Hong Kong, China and Poly-Grames Research Center, Polytechnique Montreal, Canada. She is currently an Associate Professor with the School of Information and Communication Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China.
She has authored/ co-authored more than 60 articles, and holds 12 patents including 6 US patents and 6 Chinese patents. She received the Student Best Paper Award in iWEM-2015 and her student won the Third-Place Prize in IEEE MTT-S FLASH Competition. She served as the organizing committee member in multiple international conference, e.g. 2018 IEEE MTT-S WPTC, 2022 ICMMT, 2023 MTT-S IWS, 2024 MTT-S IWS, and etc. She has been involved in organizing several Women Special Sessions in the IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation (IEEE OJAP). She served as a Guest Editor for a Special Section in the IEEE OJAP (2021) and for a Special Issue in the IEEE MTT (2023) and IEEE AWPL (2024). She also takes lead in the launch of a WeChat Channel in China, for the promotion of IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (IEEE TAP) in China. Dr. Guo currently serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE TAP and IEEE OJAP. In 2024, she was selected as an AP-S Young Professional Ambassador and is now a member of the AP-S Young Professional Committee. Her current research interests include wireless energy harvesting techniques, dielectric resonator antennas, wireless sensing technologies, and millimeter-wave antenna arrays.
Recent research published by Francesca and Lei in TAP
- New and Emerging Directions in the Fields of Antennas and Propagation, C. Pichot, G. H. Huff, Y. Yang, Z. H. Jiang, X. Tong, T. H. Loh, A. Alemaryeen, M. Wagih, S. Noghanian, R. C. Paryani, Y. Huang, K. Sakakibara, F. Vipiana, E. Fear, S. C. Bakshi, R. Waterhouse, J. Urbina, S. Meinrath, B. P.-J. Shih, R. Sharma, V. Manohar, F. T. Dagefu, and K. Ito, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 566-581, Jan. 2025
- Numerical Modeling of Higher-Symmetric Periodic Structures With a Hexagonal Lattice, M. Petek, J. Rico-Fernández, J. A. T. Vásquez, G. Valerio, F. Mesa, O. Quevedo-Teruel, and F. Vipiana vol. 73, no. 3, pp. 1650-1661, March 2025
- A Multiresolution Domain Decomposition Preconditioner for the MoM Solution of Multiscale Complex Structures, V. F. Martín, D. M. Solís, J. M. Taboada and F. Vipiana, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 2986-2991, March 2024
- Broadband Ground-Embedded Dielectric Resonator Antenna With Half-Space Coverage for 5G Applications, L. Guo, Y. Qiao, W. Yang and K. Wa Leung, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 1191-1196, Feb. 2025
- Compact Aperture-Shared Tri-Frequency Antenna Based on Partial Structure Reutilization for Millimeter-Wave and Sub-6 GHz Applications, B. -T. Chai, X. Geng, W. -W. Yang, W. Qin, L. Guo and J. -X. Chen, vol. 72, no. 10, pp. 7460-7469, Oct. 2024
- A Rectenna Design With Quasi-Full Spatial Coverage Based on a Compact Dielectric Resonator Antenna, L. Guo, H. Fang, X. Li, W. Yang and K. Wu, vol. 71, no. 10, pp. 7870-7880, Oct. 2023