SS TT EE MM TRAILBLAZER BBIIOOSS M P U T E R C O E N G I N E E R RUCHI SANGHVI laura hamilton waxman This Page LefT BLank inTenTionaLLy STEM TRAILBLAZER BIOS COMP U T ER engineeR RUCHI SANGHVI LAURA HAMILTON WAXMAN Lerner Publications Minneapolis For Caleb, my computer wizard Copyright © 2015 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Lerner Publications Company A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA For reading levels and more information, look up this title at www.lernerbooks.com. Content Consultant: Robert D. Nowak, PhD, McFarland-Bascom Professor in Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Waxman, Laura Hamilton. Computer engineer Ruchi Sanghvi / Laura Hamilton Waxman. pages cm. — (STEM trailblazer bios) Includes index. ISBN 978–1–4677–5794–2 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) ISBN 978–1–4677–6283–0 (eBook) 1. Sanghvi, Ruchi, 1982–—Juvenile literature. 2. Computer engineers—United States— Biography—Juvenile literature. 3. Women computer engineers—United States—Biography— Juvenile literature. I. Title. 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ConTenTs ChaPTeR 1 Facing Her Fears 4 ChaPTeR 2 Finding Her Way 8 ChaPTeR 3 Working at a Start-Up 12 ChaPTeR 4 Doing More for Facebook 18 ChaPTeR 5 Taking New Risks 22 Timeline 29 Source Notes 30 Glossary 30 Further Information 31 Index 32 Chapter 1 Ruchi Sanghvi discusses online media during a conference in Munich, Germany, in 2013. FACING heR feaRs W hen Ruchi Sanghvi was growing up in India, computers weren’t a big part of her life. In fact, she didn’t use them regularly until she went off to college in 2000. In 2004, a small, unknown social networking site called F acebook was just 4 getting started. Little did Ruchi know that she would go on to become a technology whiz and develop several key Facebook features that millions of people now use every day. A MAN’S WORLD Ruchi was born on January 20, 1982, in the industrial city of Pune, I ndia. Her father was a hardworking businessman who owned his own company. The company leased heavy equipment for industrial building projects. As a young girl, Ruchi dreamed of taking over her father’s company. Ruchi grew up in Pune, India. 5 TECH TALK “My dad owns a company that lends equipment to industrial projects. I’ve been obsessed with taking it over since I could talk. I’d follow him and repeat conversations about how many tons of cranes were arriving. He said it was a man’s world, so I studied electrical [ c omputer] engineering because it was related.” —Ruchi Sanghvi Ruchi’s father knew about her dream, but he warned her that the construction business was a “man’s world.” A woman would have a hard time getting into that kind of work. Ruchi could have let the fear of failing stop her from dreaming, but that wasn’t her way. She was determined to do everything she could to have a career she loved. When Ruchi finished high school, she told her family that she wanted to go to college in the United States. Then she could move back to India and apply her new knowledge to her father’s business. Ruchi was eighteen years old. Her parents agreed but on one condition. They made her promise to come 6 home and get married a year after she graduated. In India, it’s considered very important for a woman to be married by the time she’s in her mid-twenties. Ruchi’s parents wanted to make sure that their daughter honored this tradition. COMING TO THE UNITED STATES Sanghvi attended college at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She chose to study c omputer engineering . She also had an artistic side and planned to study set design for theater productions. She wanted to make time for both interests, but it turned out to be too much. In the end, she decided to focus just on computer engineering. She hoped her studies would lead to the kind of life she had been dreaming of. Sanghvi moved to the United States to attend Carnegie Mellon University. 7 Chapter 2 Computer engineers work with hardware (computer parts) and software (programs). FINDING heR Way a s a computer engineering student, Sanghvi found herself once again in a man’s world. She was one of only five women in Carnegie Mellon’s engineering department. Sanghvi worked hard and earned a bachelor’s degree and 8