Assertive. Dedicated. Single-focused. These qualities will not short-circuit your career. So has been the case with circuit research specialist Vasantha Erraguntla. She has all these qualities for sure otherwise she wouldn’t have received the mandate at the end of 2003, to set up the Intel Bangalore Design Labs, an extension of the Oregon Circuit Research Labs of Intel. This was to help facilitate world-class circuit research and prototype development, which gave her a sense of euphoric achievement.

“We had the gut feeling that because the market was mature, availability of talent was there and considering the proximity of the Design Labs to other Intel units here this venture would work out,” highlights Erraguntla. For the last 9 years, she has been engaged in a variety of advanced prototype design activities at Intel Laboratories, implementing and validating research ideas in the areas of high performance and low power circuits and high speed signaling. The circuit research happens between the Design Lab offices in Oregon and Bangalore. Technology transfer will happen from India to the product teams in the U.S. and elsewhere. Right now the lab wing here is engaged in the 65nm prototype chip design. Also the prototyping involves custom design of chips starting from definition.

Integral to the process is the parent team in Oregon and between them and the team here in Bangalore it is a turnkey solution. “Our circuit research here at the Design Labs takes into consideration the fact that power efficiency, among other things, is an important factor in our platform definition and design,” says Erraguntla.

All these achievements were possible because of the trust she had built up with the company, which she joined at the start of her career. She firmly believes that careers are built by being loyal to companies for considerably long in order to clinch greater responsibilities and display your mettle. She finds the tendency of young women in the IT services field switching companies at the drop of a paycheque disconcerting.

Erranguntla further thinks that part of the problem may be the vicious cycle that is created when professional women don’t take on responsibility because they are hesitant of potential bias and they, in turn, are not hired into important roles because they are perceived to not want responsibility.

According to her continuity requires one to take on challenges with optimism. She advises women to go out of their comfort zone to achieve their ambitions. “A simple thing could be to relocate from your home town to where the action is,” she adds. Nothing is easy. This way the learning will not stop.


Engineering Manager, Design Labs, Intel - Bangalore

1.Joined Intel in 1991 and worked on the high-speed router technology for the Teraflop machine.

2.Relocated to India in June 2004 to head the Bangalore Design Labs.

3.Received a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad and a Masters in Computer Engineering from University of Southwestern Louisiana.