杏吧原创

Kripa Krishnan 鈥�02 is suddenly famous, thanks to a children鈥檚 book by a Google colleague. Krishnan is one of four senior women at Google featured as 鈥渟heroes鈥濃€攆emale superheroes鈥� in the book 鈥�.鈥� Komal Singh, an engineering program manager, wrote 鈥淎ra鈥� after her 4-year-old daughter told her, 鈥淓ngineers are boys.鈥�

At the book launch last fall, Singh, Krishnan and the other women were mobbed by 150 children and their parents. 鈥淭hey were just over the moon, they were so gaga to meet us,鈥� Krishnan says. 鈥淭he children are so starved for role models that they treated us like celebrities.鈥�

In the book, Krishnan, whose fictional title is 鈥淧rolific Problem Solver,鈥� helps Ara and her robot friend figure out whether they can count all the stars in the sky. They can鈥檛, but that鈥檚 part of the lesson. 鈥淪he fails鈥攁nd someone teaches her to pick herself up and try again. That鈥檚 so important,鈥� Krishnan says.

Krishnan knows all about trying again. She grew up in Chennai, India, and went to college to become a doctor. At the same time, she sang and played keyboard in a rock band, ran her own theater group and even designed clothing. 鈥淢y heart was not in college at all,鈥� she says. 鈥淎fter 3陆 years, I had a real chat with my folks because I wanted to do performing arts. And they supported me.鈥�

Krishnan studied theater at a small college in Utah for a semester, but found it too small and rural. She transferred to UMass Lowell because the university allowed her to take seven-plus courses each semester and she needed to finish her degree quickly. She sampled theater, math and business鈥攁nd ended up with a degree in management information systems. 鈥淭he MIS degree gave me a little bit of tech, a little bit of science, a little bit of business,鈥� she laughs. 鈥淔ocus was not my strength.鈥�

An introductory computer science class with Prof. Jim Canning鈥攏ow dean of the Honors College鈥攃hanged Krishnan鈥檚 career path, she told him in a recent email: 鈥淢y whole life goal was to avoid tech like the plague鈥攁nd look what you鈥檝e done!鈥� Previously, she鈥檇 found tech boring, but Canning鈥檚 class was different. He didn鈥檛 teach his students how to write code; rather, he taught them what happens inside the computer in response to coded commands. Krishnan also discovered that she likes 鈥済eeky people,鈥� she says: 鈥淭heir humor is dry, and they鈥檙e really bright. I just felt at home in computer science.鈥�

Krishnan went on to earn a master鈥檚 degree in MIS at the University of Arizona, supporting herself with a job as a systems administrator in the university laboratory. She also helped a doctor set up a telemedicine link with Kosovo. After graduation, she applied for a job with Google, but she didn鈥檛 expect to get it, so she started on a second master鈥檚 degree in policy. When Google called her for a series of interviews, 鈥淚 freaked out,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 refused to go because I didn鈥檛 want to be rejected by Google, so literally my advisor had another student shove me into a car.鈥�

Google hired her as a technical program manager, and she rose from there, becoming head of disaster recovery testing for a decade. As Google鈥檚 鈥淨ueen of Chaos,鈥� Krishnan led a team of engineers who deliberately tried to crash Google鈥檚 infrastructure so they could figure out how to fortify it against everything from earthquakes to alien attacks.

Krishnan was appointed senior director of operations for Google Cloud last year. She says she owes much to her mentors, from academics like Canning to higher-ups at Google鈥攂ut that if universities and companies want to get more women and underrepresented minorities into STEM jobs, they need to offer more diverse role models.

鈥淧eople become what they see. So if kids cannot see someone they can relate to in positions of power and success, they鈥檙e going to shut off that path,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e need more women role models.鈥�

Now, she is one of them.

鈥溾€楢ra the Star Engineer鈥� represents a turning point for me,鈥� she wrote to Canning. 鈥淚t turned me from someone who has always looked for role models to someone who is a role model, and I never thought of myself that way. In either case, all of this began with you, and I wanted to say, 鈥楾hank you.鈥欌€�