Girlstart’s Women in STEM weekly series highlights various women who are making a difference in STEM. Be inspired as these incredible women describe how they became interested in their field, provide insight into a day in the life, and share learnings from their experiences.

Roopa Malavally

Staff Technical Writer for Machine Learning Software Engineering @ Advanced Micro Devices

Roopa was inspired to pursue a career in STEM because of her father who always encouraged her to explore and try new avenues even at the risk of failing. She has received numerous awards for innovation and excellence in software documentation and has a passion for inspiring other young girls to break barriers and pursue STEM. We are thrilled with having her on our blog today to discuss her experiences and to hear about what led her to a career in STEM!

What sparked your interest and made you want to volunteer with Girlstart?

The patriarchal system continues to persist in certain sections of society in many countries. Girls are denied education in families and are encouraged to pursue domestic chores. I am passionate about equalizing educational opportunities and ending gender disparities. Girlstart allows me to eliminate stereotyping, fight cultural norms, and encourage girls to take up STEM.

What would you like to tell girls who are interested in pursuing a STEM career? What words of encouragement would you share with them?

Don’t be afraid of failure and open yourself up to new ideas. Believe in yourself and build resilience. Confidence helps us to try again and again with persistence. Find a role model, and know that you never have to choose between family and STEM!

Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career?

My father was a voracious reader and always encouraged me to explore and try new avenues, even at the risk of failure. While I have two Master’s degrees in English Language and Literature, I am happy that pursuing a career in STEM has brought me immense joy and success.

What are your favorite things about your career?

I enjoy learning new technologies and writing is my passion. My career is a heady combination of the two!!
Technical documentation also requires interaction with people and relies heavily on networking with teams. I enjoy interacting with people at varying levels – from novices to leaders in the organization.

Briefly describe your career.

I get to work with some of the world’s smartest people, learn, and write about things I never imagined!

A technical writer writes descriptive manuals, guides, knowledge bases, and blogs about complex subjects. It includes researching topics, creating videos, tutorials, and editing work for publication. Documentation plays a significant role in an enhanced user experience to a variety of audiences. Our responsibilities are to ensure the most logical way to present information and simplify complex software for easy reading comprehension. Content strategy includes generating innovative ideas and workflow ideas. Technical writers work closely with subject-matter experts, Legal and Support teams, product managers. Sometimes, creating Curriculum and Training documentation also comes under technical documentation.

I work in a dynamic software environment, the Machine Learning Software Engineering (MLSE) team at AMD. I create technical documentation for novice and advanced users of AMD ROCm. AMD ROCm is the first open-source software development platform for HPC/Hyperscale-class GPU computing; it brings the UNIX philosophy of choice, minimalism, and modular software development to GPU computing.

Why is confidence in STEM important for girls?

Girls must know to break barriers. And confidence is key to breaking the subconscious stereotyping of associating STEM with boys and men. Cultural norms and gender bias are deeply entrenched in some societies and having faith in their innate ability to shatter the glass ceiling is important.

What projects have you worked on?

I started my career as a technical writer creating online documentation for an Integrated Development Environment, and have since worked on a variety of technical documentation projects.

These include:

• Led teams to create inline context-sensitive
• Help and served as Information Architect focusing on content organization and structure on websites for enhanced user experiences
• Implemented knowledge bases for Support teams, a self-serve library of product information
• Learned new technologies to document complex Software Development Kit (SDK) guides for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence applications. These include Programming and API guides.
• Worked closely with Universities to create Curriculum documentation for Training teams and student textbooks describing parallel processing capabilities of AMD GPUs on a ROCm platform.
• Participated actively in Women’s Leadership teams in companies to introduce inspiring women leaders in STEM
• Won several awards for innovation and excellence in software documentation
• Volunteer extensively with non-profit organizations for children’s education in STEM and academic welfare of children from underprivileged sections of society

What is your greatest accomplishment?

Mothers are known to be their children’s first role models. I believe in empowering girls to live a life every day that is worth emulating, showing curiosity, building resilience, being self-reliant, exuding positive energy, being empathetic, and reaching for the stars. My daughter wants to pursue an MD, Ph.D. in Reproductive sciences. My high-schooler son conducted summer camps for underprivileged children in India to encourage children to stay in school highlighting the importance of education and STEM.