Girija is the founder of a specialist engineering firm, Forcing Function LLC based in Maryland. She has over 25 years of experience in the technology sector in USA, UK, Canada and India. A practicing engineer, Girija's real world experience spans 2 major industries - telecommunications and transportation. Her systems experience includes satellite systems, Voice-over-IP, Switching, Signal processing and vital safety-radio communication systems. Since 2011 Girija has been serving as an SME in the rail industry for trackside and on-board integration of wired and wireless systems. As the Principal Investigator of Forcing Function, she has won multiple innovation grants for developing solutions that adapt emerging technologies (sensors, signal processing, wireless communications, energy harvesting, GPR) to the transportation sector.

Girija has an undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Bombay and a graduate degree in Signal Processing and Communication Systems for the University of Virginia. She is licensed in Maryland and California and is currently the President and Social Media chair of her local engineering chapter. She is also a member of the Emerging Technologies committee of NSPE.

Presenting:

• Getting It Right the First Time - Applying Systems Engineering to Transportation Systems