News Mentorship of MIT students by a leading water technology company results in powerful career networking and insights

Four MIT students reflect on their engagement with J-WAFS Research Affiliate Xylem, Inc., at Stockholm World Water Week and beyond.

Andi Sutton, Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab J-WAFS November 12, 2019

“The hype is real,” recalls Sophia Wu, SM candidate in the Technology and Policy Program at MIT, capturing her first impressions of World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden. “Walking from the train station to the conference site that first day was so exciting. Everyone there was passionate about the same thing I am: water.”

Sophia joined three other MIT graduate students at World Water Week this year thanks to the support of Xylem, Inc., an international water technology company, J-WAFS Research Affiliate, and major sponsor of the annual week-long event. World Water Week is an international water conference where over 4000 participants from 130 countries attend to discuss global water issues. This year’s theme was “Water for society – Including all,” and the focus on inclusion, which is a deep commitment of Xylem’s, proved to be inspiring for each of the MIT students who attended.

Xylem’s leadership took this to heart when it came to engagement with the three students who received J-WAFS grants to attend. In addition to touring Xylem’s Stockholm-based facilities, they also had the opportunity to engage directly with Xylem’s CEO Patrick Decker and CTO Jay Iyengar. Dai Lin, one of the students supported by J-WAFS, commented, “I was fortunate to spend a significant amount of time asking Patrick Decker about how Xylem integrates new technology and continuous improvements into their processes.” As an SM candidate in MIT’s Systems Design and Management Program who is interested in the impact of data, AI, and machine learning on the water sector, this conversation was particularly influential on her research. For Nadia Christidi, PhD candidate in the Program in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS), her participation in World Water Week was enlightening. “It helped me envision what kind of career I want after graduating and the kinds of organizations I might want to work for,” she said. “There, I connected with several organizations that are working to develop solutions for urban water resiliency using stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange, and they seemed like a really good fit for me.”

Student engagement during World Water Week and through the J-WAFS travel grant is just one way that Xylem helps MIT students grow as water sector leaders. Xylem has been a strong advocate for MIT student learning and growth since the beginning of their partnership with J-WAFS in 2016. In addition to hiring MIT graduates, Xylem’s commitment to students extends from the senior leadership’s support of students like Sophia, Dai, Nadia, and others, and extends to the involvement of Xylem’s engineers in sponsored research being pursued by MIT graduate students. Additionally, through their Research Affiliate relationship with J-WAFS, Xylem funds a graduate student fellowship each year, sponsors MIT’s student-led Water Club, serves as judges and mentors for the Club’s annual Water Innovation Prize, and has developed strong mentorship relationships with select MIT students.

Hilary Johnson, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, is one of the students who has benefited from Xylem’s commitment to student engagement. In February 2018, she and a colleague presented early stage work on a Xylem-sponsored research project led by PI Alex Slocum, Walter M. May and A. Hazel May Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The presentation was at an MIT gathering of Xylem’s senior leadership, and Xylem’s CEO and CTO were in the front row. Both peppered her with questions about the early stage plans for a project focused on improving water pump efficiency in order to decrease the energy consumption of urban water infrastructure. Dr. Jay Iyengar was particularly impressed by Hilary, and has been directly mentoring her since.

For Hilary, this relationship has helped her career development. Reflecting on the role of mentorship in her career, Hilary commented, “one of the things I think about again and again is how I’ve had so many amazing male mentors in my life—including my advisor Alex Slocum. While I’ve encountered a few amazing women in my field, I have not had many female mentors. This is why my calls with Jay have been so helpful. She lets me ask questions that may be simple to her, but are formative for me, my career, and where I’m at.” In addition to these regular calls, Dr. Iyengar and others at Xylem have created opportunities for Hilary to develop her research and leadership capacity in a variety of ways. This has included participation in both the 2018 and 2019 World Water Week, extended time at Xylem’s manufacturing facility in Sweden, and a week engaging with hydraulic engineers in a facility in upstate New York, each of which has informed her research in important ways. According to Hilary, these opportunities “give me so much meaning to my work. I know that what I’m designing is actually useful to a company, and may actually be put into practice.” In fact, she mentioned that the collaboration with Xylem was the reason she decided to stay at MIT and obtain her PhD. “I was afraid of getting stuck in academia. The opportunity to work closely with Xylem is a huge part of why I decided to stay.”

This year, Dr. Iyengar invited Hilary to moderate a panel discussion at World Water Week that she was organizing. The panel, which took place on August 27th, was focused on the critical role that diversity and inclusion plays in innovation in the water sector. The high-level panel included 2019 Stockholm Water Prize laureate Dr. Jackie King, senior director for the World Bank Group’s Water Global Practice Jennifer Sara, and Xylem president and CEO Patrick Decker. While working with Dr. Iyengar as the moderater provided yet another opportunity for career development for Hilary, it’s the knowledge and perspective that she gained that she found to be most important. “I hadn’t really thought about diversity and inclusion before. It was just part of how I lived.” Patrick Decker’s comments about the critical importance of inclusion alongside diversity got her thinking. “I started to see how it’s not just about having diverse people in the room, but really having their voices heard—and have weight in the conversation—is what’s essential.”

For Sophia Wu, who attended the panel, the sentiments shared by Decker and the other panelists, and which were carried through in numerous other conference sessions throughout the week, were validating. “Today highlighted the need for people like me in this sector. Policies, politics, and technology alone cannot solve the problem—which echoes what I am learning in my MIT coursework. Instead it is about inclusion: the need to take stakeholders into account and get buy-in.” For Hilary, this means paying it forward. Having experienced the growth that comes from being mentored by Dr. Iyengar, Alex Slocum, and many others throughout her career, she wants intends to double down on her efforts to support others. “I’m going to sit down with someone who is not part of the majority in my office space—someone younger, or who doesn’t have the same economic or tech background as me—and just ask them: ‘how can I be a resource to you?’” Outcomes such as this serve to magnify the impact of J-WAFS’ and Xylem’s support of students, and reinforce the benefit of mentorship and related professional development opportunities that J-WAFS strives to develop.