There is no single route into STEM, and there is no reason a career must follow a straight line.

For this edition of the CompSTLar Women in STEM campaign, we hear from a researcher whose career has evolved from mechanical engineering and robotics towards the digitalisation of industrial manufacturing. Today, her work focuses on developing digital twins of industrial assets and manufacturing processes, with the goal of standardising them across industries and facilitating their adoption in real-world settings.

Her work brings together engineering, robotics and digital technologies, but collaboration is equally central to what motivates her.

Her career is also a reminder that finding your place in STEM does not necessarily mean choosing one field and staying there. Sometimes, the most interesting opportunities appear when you take what you have learned and apply it somewhere new.

The Summer Course That Changed Everything

Her interest in STEM began with a natural attraction to problem-solving, analytical thinking and understanding how things work.

She always knew that she wanted to pursue a STEM career, but choosing the right discipline took some exploration. Engineering Physics was initially one possibility, but she soon realised that she was looking for something more practical.

Then, while still in high school, she attended a summer course on robotics. It became the turning point that helped her decide where she wanted to go next.

“I have always been interested in STEM-related fields because of their emphasis on problem-solving, analytical skills, and critical thinking. I never seriously considered pursuing a career outside of STEM, although I was initially unsure which discipline to choose.”

The robotics course gave that interest a concrete direction.

“While I was still in high school, I attended a summer course on robotics, which proved to be the turning point in my decision. That experience solidified my interest in Mechanical Engineering and motivated me to pursue the field with the goal of later specializing in robotics.”

That decision eventually led to a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and a research career in robotics. But, as her career shows, choosing one direction does not mean committing to it forever.

Your Old Skills Might Be More Useful Than You Think

Her research has since moved towards the digitalisation of industrial manufacturing, particularly through the development of digital twins.

Rather than leaving her previous expertise behind, she has been able to build on it. Her background in robotics and mechanical engineering now provides a foundation for exploring new digital approaches to industrial processes.

This ability to move between disciplines is becoming increasingly valuable as engineering and digital technologies converge.

Her current research focuses on developing digital twins of industrial assets and manufacturing processes that can be standardised and applied across different industries.

“What excites me most about my current role is collaborating with people from diverse backgrounds and countries to create standardized models that can be applied in real-world industrial settings.”

The practical dimension is particularly important to her. Research becomes most rewarding when it can eventually change something outside the research environment.

“I find it especially rewarding to develop solutions with practical impact that have the potential to improve the way people work and contribute to more efficient manufacturing processes.”

Don’t Trust AI Too Easily

Artificial intelligence is one of the developments transforming STEM that excites her most.

She is particularly interested in how AI can accelerate scientific discovery, pointing to breakthroughs such as AlphaFold as an example of how these technologies can help researchers tackle complex problems.

But the more powerful AI becomes, the more important it is to know when not to take its answers at face value.

For the next generation of STEM professionals, she believes that critical thinking will become even more important, particularly as AI-generated information becomes increasingly common in research and professional environments.

“As AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, it is more important than ever for people to develop and apply strong critical thinking skills. This includes approaching AI-generated outputs with a healthy degree of skepticism and verifying important information using reliable, independent sources.”

Being able to use AI effectively therefore means more than knowing which tool to use. It also means understanding its limitations and recognising when another approach may be more appropriate.

And as digital systems become increasingly embedded in society, their development needs to take wider responsibilities into account.

“As society becomes increasingly data-driven, we must also be more intentional in the design and deployment of the systems we build, with particular attention to data privacy, security, and safety.”

For her, technological progress and responsibility need to move together.

The Best Solution Might Come From Someone Else

Research can sometimes feel like a solitary activity, but some of the most useful breakthroughs can start with a simple conversation.

A supportive laboratory environment has played an important role in her development as a researcher. Colleagues have provided not only encouragement, but also different perspectives when she has encountered difficult problems.

“I have lost count of the number of times that conversations with colleagues have helped me overcome problems that I had been struggling with on my own.”

Her supervisor has also been a consistent source of guidance, first mentoring her during her master’s thesis and continuing to support her throughout her PhD.

The experience has shown her the value of having people around you who are willing to exchange ideas, challenge your thinking and help you see a problem differently.

“This supportive and collaborative environment has played a central role in sustaining my motivation, broadening my perspective, and inspiring new approaches to challenging research problems.”

In increasingly interdisciplinary research environments, collaboration is not simply about dividing tasks. It can fundamentally change the way a problem is understood.

Does Diversity Really Compete With Excellence?

One misconception about women in STEM that she would like to challenge is the idea that diversity and excellence are competing goals.

For her, bringing more women into STEM is not about lowering standards or meeting quotas. It is about making sure that scientific and engineering communities benefit from the widest possible range of perspectives, experiences and ideas.

“I would challenge the misconception that diversity and excellence are competing goals. Bringing more women into STEM is about ensuring the field benefits from the widest possible range of perspectives, experiences, and ideas, not about meeting quotas.”

Different experiences can influence how people approach a problem, what questions they ask and which solutions they see as possible.

That becomes particularly important as research increasingly brings together multiple disciplines.

“If we want to build stronger, multidisciplinary, and diverse teams, we need people with different backgrounds and life experiences. Talented people come in all shapes and forms.”

But diversity can only make a difference if people have genuine opportunities to contribute.

For her, that means addressing the barriers that can prevent talented people from entering STEM or progressing within it.

“We need to focus on making opportunities more equal and accessible to reduce barriers for people with the capability to find new ways to drive innovation and advance both science and society. These are people who might otherwise be overlooked.”

The argument is therefore not simply about who is represented. It is about whose ideas get the opportunity to shape the future.

Changing Direction Is Not Starting Again

Her most powerful advice comes from a perspective that runs through her own career: changing direction does not mean starting from zero.

Interests evolve. Technologies change. New opportunities emerge. What made sense at one point in a career may not be what feels most exciting several years later.

“You should pursue work that genuinely interests you, while recognizing that changing direction is often a worthwhile investment rather than a setback.”

The important part is recognising that previous experience does not disappear when you move into a new field.

“Choosing a different path does not mean that your previous efforts were wasted. The knowledge, skills, and experiences you acquire remain valuable and often provide a unique perspective that can be applied in new contexts.”

Her own move from robotics towards digitalisation illustrates exactly this principle. Rather than abandoning her previous expertise, she has used it as a foundation for exploring new questions and technologies.

And in a STEM landscape where disciplines are becoming increasingly interconnected, that ability to transfer knowledge can be a strength.

Forget the Perfect Career Plan

There is often an expectation that we should know where our career is heading, particularly when starting out in a highly specialised field.

Her experience suggests something different.

A career can evolve as the world changes and as we discover more about what interests us. New technologies can create opportunities that did not exist when we began our studies, while experiences along the way can reveal interests we did not know we had.

“As the world is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace, new opportunities continue to emerge, and it is natural for people’s interests and goals to change alongside them.”

The answer, therefore, may not be to have a perfect plan, but to remain open enough to recognise when a new direction is worth pursuing.

Your previous choices are not wasted simply because your next choice is different.

They become part of the foundation that allows you to move somewhere new.

At CompSTLar, we are proud to highlight the different paths women are taking through science, technology and innovation. Their stories remind us that there is no single way to build a career in STEM.

Sometimes, moving forward means changing direction.

And sometimes, the experience you thought you were leaving behind is exactly what helps you build what comes next.