Nandini Clifford graduated from Texas ECE in 2009 with an MS in Electrical Engineering. We sat down with Nandini to learn more about what she is doing now and how Texas ECE helped lead to her success.  

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW.

I lead product & business strategy projects for Google Workspace; as a part of my role, I am responsible for establishing and growing product strategies, processes and tools to support the long-term Google Workspace vision. Currently I am driving market expansion strategy for our AI product offering, product growth efforts across Workspace and establishing instrumentation to help our portfolio deliver on commitments. In the coming weeks, I will be starting a new role at Google as a product manager for identity verification.

HOW DID YOU END UP AT UT AND WHAT PATH LED YOU THERE?

Growing up in India, one of my hobbies was tinkering at science experiments and one of my highlights was building an electric battery from scratch using one-cent coins that my father had collected from a recent trip to the United States - listening to electricity crackle through a headset from this scrappy battery I built cemented my ambition to pursue an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in India. My interest in this field deepened through exposure to robotics competitions at school. As I entered the second half of my undergraduate education, I got the opportunity to learn about higher education opportunities in the United States from a library in Mumbai led by the United States-India Educational Foundation. Through various resources at the library, I applied to US universities whose applied research resonated with my interests in the field of electrical and computer engineering. Although I had a great opportunity that was to begin right after graduation, I had decided I would pursue higher education in the United States if I had an opportunity from a top-10 university. Receiving the admission to enroll in UT’s Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate program in 2007 was one of the most pivotal moments of my life.

WHO HAS BEEN A MAJOR INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE?

I am very fortunate to have had 3 major influences on my life - my parents, my first manager after graduation, and my husband. Throughout my childhood, my parents exposed me to a variety of books and experiences that helped me establish hobbies, some of which later shaped long term goals and career aspirations. They taught me that overcoming hurdles were a part of life, and through their positive encouragement, I learned to develop grit and perseverance. They helped me sow the seeds to become a lifelong learner in science, sports, literary & visual arts and music. Right after graduating from UT, I began my first job and my first manager ensured I was always learning and developing by assigning me to stretch assignments; she encouraged me to take calculated risks in my career and had an unwavering belief in me that set my career up for long term success. I am now very blessed to have the best champion and influence in my daily life - my husband; he offers astute guidance when I need it the most and has an incredible sense of foresight which helps us make shared decisions that positively impacts our lives.

IF YOU COULD PROVIDE ONE POSITIVE MEMORY OF YOUR TIME AT UT THAT STANDS OUT WHAT WOULD THAT BE?

One of the most positive memories I have at UT is one where I was a teaching assistant for undergraduate ECE students over the course of my 2-year degree. Teaching not only expanded my own academic skills and helped me learn more about the subjects I taught, but interestingly I also learned early management skills through my tenure. While pursuing my degree, I juggled teaching multiple classes per semester and learned prioritization skills early on that prepared me for my first job after graduation. Also, I realized I innately enjoyed working with large groups of people towards common goals and that later propelled me towards a career in business & technology, and later an MBA (also at UT). Most importantly, I realized that some of the most pivotal learning experiences at school happened outside the classroom and for that I am very deeply grateful.

WHAT IS ONE OF THE PROUDEST MOMENTS IN YOUR CAREER IN ECE?

Building a fully working algorithm for Professor J. K. Aggarwal’s computer vision class was one of the proudest moments for me. My goal was to develop a solution to detect and track speeding vehicles and for this, I first needed to build my repository of training and test videos. I still remember the days when I stood by the side of a road in Austin, endlessly capturing videos of passing cars and feeding it through my algorithm to finally land a working model where I tracked a car that was speeding, frame by frame. Getting commended by Professor Aggarwal for this work gave me an immense sense of accomplishment.

WHAT IS AN IMPORTANT LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNED IN YOUR CAREER THAT YOU WISH YOU COULD GO BACK AND TELL YOUR YOUNGER SELF?

When I was pursuing my MBA at UT, I got a chance to attend a VIP Speaker event at UT and asked the guest speaker a question on how one could navigate big decisions in life as we pursue our career paths. First, the speaker mentioned how it was important to think of where one wanted to be 5 years from now and chart a plan towards that goal. Second, the speaker encouraged me to glean insights from a book by Clayton Christensen – “How Will You Measure Your Life?”. The lessons I gained from this book truly changed my life and how I make daily decisions. The book has taught me principles to help me succeed at work, and to reflect upon what truly matters to me and leverage this to constantly balance the priorities at work and in personal life. I was incredibly fortunate to have gained these insights from UT’s guest speaker and I do sometimes wish I had gotten a chance to read this book earlier in life.

ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO ADD FOR OUR ALUMNI?

When I left Austin, I found ways to stay connected with UT Alumni through local events in the new city I moved to. While connecting with alumni gave me the opportunity to gain diverse perspectives on current events, I was also deeply grateful as they helped me learn more about the city I had newly moved to. Drawing from this experience, I believe that the UT network is a huge asset for UT’s Alumni and continuing to find ways to stay engaged and contribute to the network will deeply enrich our lives.