James Loy:

Major Insight is a production of Miami University. This is where we showcase successful students, their promising new research and its relevance in our world. Janelle Ghanem has become extraordinarily adept at balancing two very different worlds. As a member of the Miami Women's Tennis Team, Janelle was named, an all-academic scholar athlete, while also studying computer programming and engineering. As a computer science major, she's already gained professional experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, otherwise known as DARPA, with the US Department of Defense, and as a software engineer at JP Morgan Chase. And on this episode, she also talks about balancing athletics and academics and the importance of finding strong mentorship in college and in life. Now here's Major Insight host Peter Everett and Janelle Ghanem with more.

Peter Everett:

Hello Janelle, just for everybody listening, just introduce yourself, your major and just some of the things you're about, here in Miami?

Janelle Ghanem:

All right. Well, my name is Janelle. I'm a second semester senior, which is exciting. I'm majoring in computer science and minoring in mechanical engineering. And some of the things I'm part of, I'm on the Women's Tennis Team. And then I had a research project with DARPA through Miami, which is like the advanced tech portion of the US Department of Defense, so I had a cool project there. I just kept myself busy and was always programming, fun things and internships and research.

Peter Everett:

How's that internship at DARPA?

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah, it was really cool. It was more a research opportunity than an internship, and it was a lot of work, especially because when I started it, it was before Corona and I was still doing... The NCAA has you have a maximum of 20 hours a week but the thing is, that doesn't include travel time, it doesn't include rehab, but they say 20 hours, but it probably honestly, was more -- with traveling and everything -- 30 hours or more, depending on where we were going.

Janelle Ghanem:

So for DARPA, it was, I was always going to work late at night, sometimes until 3:00 in the morning, even if it was half an hour a day, because we also had these meetings. So I would always run in these meetings with five rackets and after practice and I looked like a mess, I probably smelled, but I mean, that's what it was really. And I can talk a little bit about what we did, it's called the peach program, so it related to hypersonic glide vehicles, which are just these gliders that travel at super, super high speeds. Yeah.

Peter Everett:

That sounds really, really cool.

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. Yeah. And I used to know the specific speeds that they used to travel at, but it's pretty fast. So I did the machine learning part, which I don't know if you know?

Peter Everett:

Yeah. Please define machine learning because I am the farthest from an engineering major you could possibly get, which is why I was so excited to talk to you today.

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. Oh, thank you.

Peter Everett:

Well, one of the reasons.

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. AI and machine learning is just making smart technology. Any piece of machinery or technology that you can consider smart, is artificial intelligence. So machine learning is where a machine will take in different inputs or different characteristics of a problem or a situation and then it'll analyze that and it will be able to give you a conclusion about those inputs. So a simple example is, if you have pictures of cats and dogs, right? And so you train the machine to say, "Okay, an image with these characteristics is a cat, a picture of a cat, an image with these characteristics is a picture of a dog." And so then later, you can give them a bunch of random images of different variations of cats and dogs, and they can still identify, that's a cat, that's a dog, on its own.

Peter Everett:

Oh, that's so awesome, that you had that opportunity. It sounds like there's been a theme here of just burning the candle at both ends, really trying hard to make it to practice and really do well in practice and also really do well on these different research projects. That sounds super intensive and very difficult. How were you able to balance that time? How were you able to also stay healthy, give yourself some free time? I know a lot of college students really struggle with that time management. But it sounds like this might be one of the more extreme cases we've had on the show.

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. Well, one of the first things I'll tell you before I talk about myself, is it was honestly, I'm really grateful for the people that I've been working with because they were so flexible with me. If I was late to a meeting, people understood and they didn't make it harder than it needed to be. And I honestly think that's a really big part of it, is who's around you and how do they perceive that? And I think part of the reason, maybe they were a little bit more flexible with my time restrictions, is because I would do my homework on the road all the time. In the van, we have this quote, unquote, big red van, but it was cramped inside and everyone would be doing their homework on long drives. So I think they knew that I give a lot of effort and I'm always making sure to be proactive about things.

Peter Everett:

So they saw how dedicated they were. They saw that you really were working hard. It wasn't like you were just slacking off. She just had tennis practice for solid, straight four hours or something?

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. And that's part of it. And then the other part is, knowing how to manage your time. I got really good at finding even 10, 15 minute windows, where I could just crank something out and also, my mind is always working. So if I have a problem, I'm always going to be thinking about it in the back of my mind, while I'm doing something. Or when I was learning mechanics and materials or statics and dynamics, everything I looked at was a forced body diagram. And it helps you apply what you've learned and then in turn, you think of things that strike a light bulb.

Peter Everett:

Were you always wanting to be an engineering major? Was that always something that was on your horizon or was that something you had to discover?

Janelle Ghanem:

It was interesting because growing up, my dad is an engineer and I look up to him so much, he's my biggest role model. He's super humble and he doesn't like when I talk about him, but I'm going to talk about him anyway. He moved to America when he was 17 and he studied mechanical engineering and math and he didn't know English and he is one of the smartest people I have ever met. And it's just incredible, because he has that passion and he worked so hard and I think I saw that day in and day out. And I think, just being with him through that and watching all the late nights and I don't know, I think seeing his love for it-

Peter Everett:

Contagious passion?

Janelle Ghanem:

... yeah.

Peter Everett:

I like that.

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah.

Peter Everett:

Once you got to college, did you have any experience here, that really just solidified that, this is definitely what I want to do?

Janelle Ghanem:

Well, I started out as a major in mechanical engineering because I wasn't sure what type I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be engineering. And then I took one computer science class in high school and the teacher actually said... It was an AP class and it was the first class that I really, really struggled with. And he was like, "Yeah, she probably won't even pass the AP exam. I don't think she should take it." And then I got a three on it, it's out of five.

Peter Everett:

Yeah.

Janelle Ghanem:

A three isn't an amazing score, but I passed it.

Peter Everett:

You get credit.

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. So I was proud of that.

Peter Everett:

Yeah.

Janelle Ghanem:

And then I didn't really think much of it and in sophomore year, I started taking some computer science classes and then it was like, "I want a double major." But then I decided, I'd already taken so many mechanical engineering classes that I was like, "Okay, I'll just minor in it and major in computer science." In computer science, at first it was a little difficult because if you take time off programming, wrapping your mind around those concepts, it takes some getting used to. Again, I think there's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get past that, I don't know, I just really loved the homework assignments. I really like programming, even if it's something trivial like a chess game. I don't know, I just think, my mind thinks like that now.

Peter Everett:

Yeah. And I also have read about you writing a research paper, that actually got used in a project. Can you talk a little bit about that because that sounds really exciting?

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. For my senior design project, I worked with two other students on creating a PLC to FPGA converter. So the project was unique in the sense that, it was a combination of computer science and mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, a little bit, because there's a software component and a hardware component. So mine, I got to collaborate with people from different departments and it was a really cool experience because in the industry, that's probably how it's going to be, learning to work with people from other teams.

Peter Everett:

What exactly, what's your research project? So what was the start point, end point? What was the goal? What were you trying to create?

Janelle Ghanem:

So the goal of what we were trying to create, in manufacturing, they use something called a PLC, which is a programmable logic controller and basically, it has a bunch of inputs and outputs and you can control machines with it and signals and things like that. So you program it in, something called ladder logic, which it's just a bunch of logic statements, but it's more like a graphical thing, as opposed to actually programming, as what you're probably thinking, in a bunch of words.

Janelle Ghanem:

So there's another piece of hardware called an FPGA, which is a field programmable gate array. And it's not really used in industry because it's harder to program, the language for it is Verilog, which not many people know how to use that language. So the benefit of using FPGA over PLC is, you can run multiple things at the same time, like simultaneously, which obviously increases efficiency and saves time. So because people don't know how to program in Verilog to allow them to get the benefits of the FPGA, we created a language compiler, which just think of it like Google Translate, for ladder logic to Verilog.

Peter Everett:

So we have the more general, the more widely used code system, then we have a less widely used, less known code system, however, that code system actually has a higher efficiency, it functions better in certain situations. So you want to still be able to use it, so you guys created a translation process to move more generalized, regular code, into maybe a less well-known code, but it's going to be very useful code for certain projects?

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah.

Peter Everett:

Okay.

Janelle Ghanem:

And that's where our testing got cut off because of Corona. So we know it works, but that's what the research was-

Peter Everett:

Awesome. Okay.

Janelle Ghanem:

... to find out, if we create the compiler, is it actually more beneficial? Which we found it is.

Peter Everett:

So other than your dad, who you so beautifully talked about, your guys' relationship together. Do you have any other mentors, maybe professors here at Miami, that have really influenced you and helped you really discover this passion, that you've been talking about?

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah. So my first one is Professor Dave Hartup, he's in the electrical engineering department, but he really helped me segue over into computer science from mechanical engineering. He was the one that helped me get the DARPA opportunity and I would be in his office hours for hours, asking questions. And in the computer science department, Professor Vendome, he really helped me a lot, I had him for systems. And then, Dr. John Femiani, he is extremely, extremely smart, but he's also, been very patient with me and he's really helped me grow as a computer scientist. So I've been really grateful to have them throughout my career.

Janelle Ghanem:

And one thing I'll say about having a mentor, I'd say, always find a mentor in everything that you're doing. In tennis, I had my own mentor, in mechanical engineering, I found one, in computer science, I found one. Because it's like The Karate Kid, he wouldn't have been The Karate Kid if he didn't have his-

Peter Everett:

Mr. Miyagi.

Janelle Ghanem:

... yeah, exactly. And I think people say, the most important teacher is your mistakes, but I think it's also learning from other's mistakes. So having a mentor that can help guide you through that and keep you from falling in the same spots. Instead of reinventing the wheel, moving it forward and learning to apply your knowledge that you learned from that, I think that's the most important thing. Another thing that I would advise and I told my little brother, well, he's not little anymore.

Janelle Ghanem:

But he's going to go to college next year and I told him and his friend, they came to Miami last weekend I think. And I was like, "Be the nerd in the classroom." I think being a nerd is the best quality you can have in a student. Sit in the front row, ask all the questions. I just think that's so valuable and it's so rare because I feel like some people are afraid of being that kid. But I just think it's very valuable and it really helps you learn to be proactive and build good characteristics.

Peter Everett:

Yeah.

Janelle Ghanem:

And I feel like Miami, especially, I know we get those teaching awards for best professors and I really do believe we have really good professors-

Peter Everett:

I agree. Absolutely.

Janelle Ghanem:

... and they care so much and they're so passionate about what they do. So we've got to appreciate that and reciprocate a little bit.

Peter Everett:

Awesome. And then, what are your plans after graduation?

Janelle Ghanem:

After graduation, I'm working at JP Morgan Chase as a software engineer. I interned there last summer and I absolutely loved it. Yeah. I'm hoping to be on the machine learning team, but yeah.

Peter Everett:

Hey, it must be awesome having that job security, right out of college?

Janelle Ghanem:

Yeah.

Peter Everett:

That's super exciting.

Janelle Ghanem:

Thank you.

Peter Everett:

Thank you so much for coming on.

Janelle Ghanem:

Thank you for having me.

James Loy:

Janelle Ghanem is a senior, studying computer science and mechanical engineering, while preparing for her job as a software engineer at JP Morgan Chase, after graduation. If you've enjoyed this episode of Major Insight, please share with a friend, with your students or with anyone who hopes to make a powerful impact on their world. More episodes are available right now, wherever podcasts are found.

SHOW NOTES:

Featured Majors: 

Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering

Featured Organizations and Internships:

• Miami Women’s Tennis Team

• DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency with the U.S. Department of Defense)

• JPMorgan Chase

Faculty Shout Outs:

Dave Hartup, Assistant Teaching Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Christopher Vendome, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering

John Femiani, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering

Career Clusters:

Engineering and Technology