Curiosity, a Growth Mindset and Happy Accidents

I'm honored to work with incredibly talented technologists like? Asmae Mhassni ?here at 英特尔 .

As the sponsor of our internal initiative in Data Center & AI to highlight our technologists, I want to share her story with others. I'm inspired by her innate curiosity, tenacity and determination to find solutions.

As she references in her article (which I'm reposting below with her permission), understanding our customers' needs, architectures and their workloads is critical to developing the solutions they need. Her customer-first mentality and holistic thinking is one of the many reasons why Intel will remain the leader in #datacenter solutions, and why I love working here!

?#womenintech #IAmIntel??

Curiosity, a Growth Mindset and Happy Accidents

Asmae Mhassni, Principal Engineer, IBLC and NIA member

by DCAI Communications

Asmae Mhassni has had an uncommon career path. As the first member of her family to graduate from high school, Mhassni blazed her own trail rooted in her innate curiosity and love of problem solving.

When she was in her last semester of community college, a comment from her business calculus professor changed the trajectory of her intended path of business school. “During my spring term, my professor told me that I was at the top of all of his classes, and he felt I should be an engineering student,” recalls Mhassni. “My curiosity kicked in and within a week I walked into my dean’s office to get clearance to take a huge load of pre-engineering classes during the summer. I told him I had a good foundation of math and science and wanted to try it before transferring to public university. I became very curious about my knack for math and problem solving and just let my curiosity lead me. I really enjoyed it, immersing myself in the calculus courses and allowing myself to dream big. That was the force multiplier.” Happy Accident.

Originally, her thought was to study aerospace, and she got into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. However, after seeing how expensive it would be, even after scholarships and aid, she decided she didn’t want to take on that much debt and opted for mechanical engineering at University of South Florida.

Another happy accident, mechanical engineering appealed to her joy of hands-on learning. During her sophomore year, she joined the Society of Women Engineers where she heard a talk from an engineer about medical devices. “I talked to the speaker and earned an internship. I needed to see the practical applications of engineering. I ended up participating in co-ops and internships in automotive and medical to learn more.”

Her path ultimately led her to pursue a career in medical devices and then her graduate degree in systems engineering at Cornell before joining Intel in 2011. “It’s been a very fulfilling journey stoking my natural curiosity. As a systems person, I am intrigued by complex adaptive systems and delve into various technical domains, as well as the interplay between these systems, end-users, and customers. I am continually seeking to connect the dots and uncover the relationships between them.”

Mhassni's journey at Intel started with her interest in personal computing, where she co-developed a system optimization tool for the PC ecosystem. Her collaboration resulted in a successful full-day workshop on outside-in design, which scaled to dozens of instructors and reached thousands of attendees across the company. She then leveraged her systems engineering expertise to tackle next-gen supercomputers and stumbled into a role in microprocessor security.

“Immediately after Spectre and Meltdown, I delved into the deep layers of security and provided technical direction as part of Intel’s Security Architecture team. I had a series of great managers and champions who understood what I bring to the table and saw I provided a set of transferable skills that are applicable to any technology area.”

For Mhassni, security is about understanding the world and connecting the dots across ingredients and the entire ecosystem, not just isolated pieces. This mindset is exactly what lead her to her current role in DCAI focusing on cloud software, performance, and security.

“As one of my mentors, Tod Byquist, used to say, build technical depth, but learn your adjacencies. Understanding customer architectures and the realities of their workloads is crucial to our business. The future depends on our ability to seamlessly connect the dots from chip to cloud and beyond to the edge. This presents a complex systems optimization challenge, where customers strive to balance between performance, cost, security, and other considerations. It is imperative that we think holistically, transcending boundaries of individual domains.”

While Mhassni sees herself as simply an engineer, she has encountered obstacles and biases that others might relate to. "I'm proud to be African. Being a woman in a male-dominated field can be tough and sometimes it feels like I'm the only one in the room. Watching the majority group and established communities lifting each other up can be difficult, but I've learned to focus on what I do well and talk to others. Having the Intel Black Leadership Council (IBLC), Network of Intel African Ancestry (NIA), coaches, and sponsors has been a big help for me. Sometimes I feel like I must prove myself over and over, but I remind myself that others have already seen my worth and I focus on what I can bring to the table.

“I've learned that having the right people who believe in me and give me a chance to shine is just as important as my own skills. During times of change, such as a reorg or when a sponsor leaves, having strong relationships with people who support me is crucial. And when that support isn't there, I know it's time to move on. Building those relationships is so important, especially during tough times when you need someone to lean on."

When asked what keeps her up at night, she jokes, “I try to sleep, but then my mom voice pops up asking if I’m setting my kids up for success and my work voice asks if I’ve defined the right problem and if I’m working on the right thing.”

All in all, Mhassni finds joy in progress. “What brings me joy, especially in this environment, is that I just want to be a little bit better and make a little more progress each day.”

Book recommendation:?Atlas of the Heart?by #BreneBrown