In honor of National Engineers Week (February 19-25), Business Insider has issued its annual shout-out to the most powerful women engineers in US tech. ME alumna and Woodruff School Advisory Board member Sophia Velastegui is among the 43 women recognized for their important roles leading tech teams and building cutting-edge technologies at startups - American women who are developers, designers, engineering directors, bio scientists, nuclear scientists, and rocket scientists.

No. 22: Nest's Sophia Velastegui

That means she's responsible for the chips in Nest's smart home appliances— everything from managing suppliers of custom chips (hard stuff) to device security (also hard stuff).  

She joined Nest from Apple in 2014, around the time Google bought Nest. She's been awarded a number of patents and is also active in the greater tech community. For instance, she's on the advisory board of Georgia Tech - Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, involved in its Create X incubator, and is an avid supporter of Elwyn.org, a school for children and adults with disabilities.

Business Insider's 43 Most Powerful Engineers of 2017