ASME INSIDER ANAND SETHUPATHY

My mom had a degree in South Asian history when she first came to the United States. And my father passed away when I was very young. And she realized that her degree actually couldn’t support us.

So, she went back to school and chose computer science, which back then was incredibly progressive. It was a difficult environment for her. But, you know, she really persevered and continued to thrive in that world.

I got into computers at a very young age, just watching her build software, interact with computers. I got excited about taking them apart, really learning how they worked. And that created a lifelong journey for me in the technical field.

The Strategy Office is focusing on specific areas in the short term. One really is our international expansion.

India is a market that has huge reverence for ASME. It is one of the largest markets for mechanical engineers, producing some of the best mechanical engineers in the world. ASME has had an office in India for almost 20 years, but we’re really starting to grow the academic ecosystem, the professional ecosystem, the conference ecosystem.

We continue to have a strong footprint in China. We’re continuing to focus a lot of our energy and efforts in Singapore and the broader ASEAN region.

While ASME started in the United States, ASME is a revered brand all over the world.

We’re seeing huge energy generation requirements brought on by the rise in usage of data centers and artificial intelligence, the world developing more at large and needing more energy for air conditioning. And one of the big challenges that engineers will really need to solve is: How do we generate all of this power?

While we have incredibly daunting challenges ahead, when you talk to engineers, they’re incredibly optimistic about the future. For instance, if you talk to people in the aviation industry, they’ll talk to you about sustainable aviation fuels. When you talk to people in the energy generation sector, they’re talking about fusion energy and new forms of nuclear power, like small modular reactors and micro modular reactors. Solving climate change, figuring out fusion energy, thinking about how we make a more equitable world. These are all grand challenges that engineers around the world will solve.

And I think at ASME, we really seek to be a home, a technical home for all these young people and working professionals and retired professionals who want to be a part of this process. We’re changing our planet and changing our society to create a better future.