2025 Ada Lovelace Honoree, Devaki Chandramouli

Meet our 2025 Ada Lovelace Honoree, Devaki Chandramouli

Every year, we celebrate the legacy of Ada Lovelace, a pioneering woman in mathematics and computer science, by recognizing a Nokia female talent in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) with the Ada Lovelace Honoree title.

In keeping with this tradition, we are proud to announce that Devaki Chandramouli, Senior Standardization Team Leader in TECH Nokia Standards is Nokia’s 2025 Ada Lovelace Honoree. Devaki’s selection recognizes her outstanding technical achievements, sustained industry impact, and the mentorship and innovative spirit that lifts those around her. We interviewed Devaki to learn more about her journey and celebrate her accomplishments.

“I felt honored, humbled and happy to be selected as this year’s Ada Lovelace honoree.”

Early inspiration and role models

Devaki’s enthusiasm for STEM developed early on. “From my days in school, Math and Physics always sparked my interest. I loved analytical work and problem solving, so a STEM-related career seemed like a logical choice.” Her first professional experience at Nortel was formative. It presented opportunities to do embedded software design and development and challenges to solve difficult problems faced in the field. It gave her immense satisfaction when her solutions were finally deployed in customer networks.

Role models mattered too. “My first role model was my mom. As a working woman, she inspired me to focus on my education and have a career. She wanted me to be independent.” She also cites Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, as a role model who broke barriers and set a powerful precedent for women leaders.

Drive for impact and recognition

Devaki’s achievements reflect both depth of expertise and breadth of impact. She helped shape the evolution of mobile wireless communications with foundational innovations that form the basis of LTE and 5G. She is a co-author and co-editor of important industry books, such as “LTE for Public Safety,” and “5G for the Connected World” and has many publications that advance our field. Her intellectual property record is exceptional, with 121 Granted U.S. patents and 494 global patents.

Recognitions

Inventor of the Year Awards (2012–2017)
Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (2018)
Bell Labs Fellow (2020)
3GPP Excellence Award (2021)
Outstanding Inventor for all time declarations (2021)
Outstanding Inventor in overall patent filings (2022)

“It is technology work that keeps me driven and motivated. I am incredibly grateful and proud of having been a small part of the technological developments we have seen in our lifetime and how it has shaped every aspect of our lives.”

Coping with challenges during her journey

“The path to impact has not been without challenges.” In 3GPP, consensus takes time, and outcomes can significantly affect companies. “Technology, research and standards can be a tough environment, where the criticism can be direct and brutal… It is not always about the technical merit of proposal itself but about ‘who says it’. It was certainly intimidating for me.” She built influence by elevating her technical skills: “I also learnt that being good enough wasn’t sufficient, one has to be doubly good, have compelling arguments to promote bold innovation.” Empowerment and inclusive teams helped her earn respect over time. “I am truly grateful for it.”

Teamwork is also essential to balance near-term deployment challenges with longer-term evolution. Devaki believes the “key is to solve the right problem to ensure the invention can turn into innovation,” taking calculated risks, brainstorming the right problem statements, jointly developing solutions, and striving to make them valuable innovations. “Creating unity amongst diversity is another area that is fulfilling. Standards work requires the ability to resolve controversial issues and reach consensus despite diverse views.”

Advice to women navigating high-stakes, complex environments

Devaki is an approachable mentor who finds fulfillment in bringing people together. She spends her time mentoring young girls and women and encouraging them to take up STEM careers, helping with schoolwork, college applications, career advice, and job interviews. She adds a powerful encouragement for young engineers: “If you find your calling, ‘passion and purpose’ and pursue that as your profession, you can do wonders.” Her journey shows that sustained impact is possible when passion meets profession: “Focus on progress and not on perfection” – she adds.

“Best way to predict the future is to create it”

Beyond recognition, her work is purpose-driven:

“Technology we developed were deployed, offered connectivity for people around the world (which is almost taken for granted by everyone these days.) I am quite excited now to be able to contribute to designing AI-powered networks that connect intelligence.”