Niloofar Yazdani

As part of our Role Model Campaign, centred around International Women’s Day 2023, we are getting to know Role Models from different organisations. In this article we are sharing the story of Niloofar Yazdani who works at TWTG.  

Niloofar grew up in a small city in the east of Iran. It was close to the desert and at night when she looked up, she had a spectacular view of the stars. This is where her first dream was born, as a child, Niloofar wanted to go to space. Even as a child, she knew that this meant she needed to study hard and get good grades, which is exactly what she did. She consistently applied herself in everything that she did and left her hometown to study at better schools in other cities since she was only 12.  

She discovered her passion for learning and was curious about multiple fields, but what she genuinely enjoyed doing was building software and hardware, for robots, for example. Which is why for her bachelor she studied electronic engineering and followed this with a master. It was during this time she met her husband who was in similar fields to her. She worked for another 3 years in Iran before deciding that she wanted to pursue a PhD, and both she and her husband found positions at Aarhus University in Denmark. In 2017 they packed up their lives, and with their 2-year-old daughter, relocated to Denmark. For the final 7 months of her PhD, Niloofar was a guest student at TU Delft in the Netherlands. Upon completing the research, they officially moved to the Netherlands. Niloofar’s PhD focused on communication systems. She proposed new methods for data compression, network coding and data recovery, and produced such exceptional work that she was awarded the title of best PhD.  

Perseverance personified  

Having such big dreams is not always easy, but Niloofar prides herself in always trying her best, and never giving up in the face of adversity. One story she shared with us demonstrated her tenacity and perseverance. During her bachelor’s degree she joined a robotics club where they were tasked with making a robot for a competition. The robot was to perform 3 tasks, and after months of working on their robot, they got it to perform all but one task. The day before the competition it felt like they had exhausted all their options and at 10 pm went back to their dorm rooms, and yet Niloofar continued to think about viable solutions. At 4 am genius struck, and she woke up her teammate to go back to campus to test out the code she had imagined. At 7 am, one hour before the competition they finally got their robot to perform the final task. All thanks to Niloofar’s perseverance.  

Niloofar is motivated by her desire to create things and watch her prototypes come to life. Creating impact in the lives of others inspires her to keep working, because at the end of the day, she aims to play her part as a member of society. She is also inspired by her now 7-year-old daughter. Niloofar wants to be the best role model to her and continuously demonstrates that anything is possible with hard work and determination.  

TWTG  

At TWTG Niloofar is an embedded software developer where she works on design and implementation. Throughout the design process what she keeps in mind is that the end product is something that will be used by people. This is rewarding because you can see the impact of the product on people’s lives. She appreciates the atmosphere at TWTG, as she always finds her colleagues are friendly and helpful. She works on the alpha team alongside 4 other embedded software developers where they focus on producing devices with the main function of asset monitoring. They often brainstorm together and then focus on their individual tasks. On the weekends, she makes sure that she is fully focused on her family, even though ideas still might pop up in the back of her mind. 

Expanding your comfort zone 

Relocating to Denmark was a difficult transition for Niloofar, who had spent all her life at her home country. There were not a lot of Iranians in Aarhus, and so she missed having the support of her family. Yet this was still a crucial step for Niloofar to make, as she admits that you can only grow outside of your comfort zone. She had gotten comfortable in her previous position and knew that she wanted to grow by venturing outside of her comfort zone. “In the beginning it was difficult to get used to new things, but after a while you end up with a bigger comfort zone.”  

She wants to advise other women to dream big and push themselves. “We live only once, and it’s important that when you look back, you are satisfied with your past.” Niloofar reminds us that, thinking that others are smarter than you or luckier than you will not take you anywhere. The difference between those who are successful and others who are not, is whether they gave up or preserved. Finally, she repeats that “it’s important to always do our best, no matter what we think will happen, and to have hope for the best.

Find out more about the participation of Niloofar Yazdani in the Role Model Campaign here.

Want to read more stories? Visit this page for an overview of all our Role Models from the Role Model Campaign 2023.