"I think I was destined, in a way, towards this path," she says as she describes her current work and projects. The joy she gets from both is palpable.
In celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we caught up with Karpat to discuss her work, her career and those who inspired her to choose it.
What do you do?
Under C2, we have numerous applications and services that we are developing that are being leveraged by NATO Command Structure for its core business. We are also working with Nations to provide them with these software tools and services. Under Communications and Information (C&I) partnerships with the Nations, we support them with services to help them use these tools effectively for their own national and multinational purposes. These services can range from installation of a software to enable operational planning for exercises, to application support for planning and executing air operations for combat missions.
This work is important for improving interoperability between NATO and Nations. When we do this work under partnership, it's very cost-effective and coherent. When NATO Allies have the same technology, they can work better together. We help them make use of technology that has been validated at the NATO level, and ensure they work together to share their knowledge and lessons learned.
What was your "aha!" moment, the moment you decided you wanted to pursue a STEM career?
Growing up in Turkey, I had many role models in my environment. My mother studied applied physics, graduated as a physics engineer, and later on worked on geophysics for many years. I remember she had a mainframe computer's punch cards that she used to bring home. Back then, computers were huge, not like the PCs we use now. This might have been what sparked my interest.
Being in those spaces, I came across many moments that allowed me to recognize my strengths towards STEM. I was able to explore the huge museum of geo history my mother worked at. In that museum, I saw things like dinosaur bones and Neanderthals and learned all about them! I also come from a family of engineers so, in my case it was more of a natural flow.
Looking back now, how would you say that your field has changed from the time you were a student and how do you see that change in the Agency?
I studied electrical engineering and I have a Masters and PhD in computer science. My PhD thesis is on optical network restoration and optimization. In my fourth year of university, I surfed the web for the first time and was thrilled with the fact that computers delivered enormous results based on seemingly insignificant data that comes together in a meaningful way.
As students, we were all very impressed by the growth possibility and enhancements in communications and communications infrastructure. Accessing content for learning on the web was very new to us. This type of communications infrastructure sped up scientific advances in all other areas as well.
My work puts me in a position to pursue developments of NATO software capabilities, incorporating the latest technologies. For example, areas such as containerization, data centric security, big data analysis, which are fairly newer areas for what we have in applications at the moment.
Did you know coming out of school that you wanted to work for NATO?
Not really, but I knew coming out of school that I wanted to work on applications and information systems, leveraging on computer science. Back in Turkey, I chose relevant jobs and one of the biggest opportunities available was in the defence sector. They had big projects I could be happily involved in from a technological aspect and a peace aspect as well!
Of course, the multinational composition of NATO was appealing to me as a work environment. We form a multinational unity where we cooperate well in and out of crisis and everyone supports each other.
What advice would you give to girls and women looking to pursue careers in STEM?
We should be confident in the existence of opportunities when one commits fully to a path. I believe commitment is critical, and this can be to STEM or other careers as well. Computer science is a good area because you can contribute to change from the initial stages of your career.
Career Opportunities: The Agency takes diversity seriously and is actively seeking more women to support its work. If you would like the challenge of supporting NATO's mission to protect nearly 1 billion citizens, please bookmark our Vacancies page here. We would love to have you on board!