How IEEE Awardee Karen Panetta Became Bewitched by Engineering

When considering the 1960s sitcoms Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, both of which featured women with supernatural powers navigating life with mortals, most people wouldn’t connect them with pursuing an engineering career. But Karen Panetta did. The sitcoms’ main characters—Samantha Stevens, a witch; and Jeannie, a genie—were “strong, empowered female leads using magic,” Panetta says, and they inspired her to become an engineer, as it was like sorcery to her. Panetta, an IEEE Fellow, is dean of graduate education at the Tufts University engineering school, in Medford, Mass., outside of Boston. Karen Panetta

Employer Tufts University, in Medford, Mass. Title Dean of the engineering school’s graduate education Member grade IEEE Fellow Alma maters Boston University and Northeastern University in Boston Like Samantha and Jeannie, Panetta has made magic happen, such as when she helped to invent the first CPU digital-twin simulator. Digital twins are computer simulation programs that track and adjust the operations of a physical device in detail. Her simulator has been adapted for several industrial uses, including by NASA to help design spacecraft. Panetta also mentors young women to encourage them to pursue a STEM career through the Nerd Girls program she launched at Tufts in 2000. Engineering undergraduate students work on technology for socially conscious projects such as environmental cleanup, renewable energy, and the development of assistive devices to improve mobility for people with disabilities. Panetta received this year’s IEEE Mildred Dresselhaus Medal for “contributions to computer vision and simulation algorithms, and for leadership in developing programs to promote STEM careers.” The award, sponsored by Google, was presented at the IEEE Honors Ceremony on 24 April in New York City. Receiving the medal is particularly special to Panetta, she says, because she knew its namesake: Mildred Dresselhaus, an IEEE Life Fellow who pioneered the study of carbon nanostructures at a time when researching physical and material properties of commonplace atoms was unpopular. She was a MIT professor of physics and electrical engineering, and died in 2017. Panetta nominated Dresselhaus for the IEEE Medal of Honor, which she received in 2015. “Millie was a rock star,” Panetta says. “I can’t think of another medal that really encapsulates her spirit and what I’ve dedicated my life to.” Finding a creative outlet in engineering As a child growing up in Boston, Panetta built trapdoors and other features in her treehouse, she says. “I also explored fashion and sewed my own clothes,” she adds. “I wasn’t very successful, but I was very creative.” She was a top performer in math and science classes in high school, so her father encouraged her to pursue civil engineering. “I didn’t know what an engineer was, and my father, who was a mechanic working on heavy construction equipment, only knew about civil engineers,” Panetta says. “I started taking computer pro