Anna Zakrzewska
Biography
In the early stages of her career, Anna Zakrzewska has already made significant contributions to the telecommunications field, developing technologies that have improved service for users around the world. She continues to make an impact in the field, not only through her own research but through her dedication to STEM education and nurturing the careers of future engineers. As a senior principal engineer in Dell Technologies’ Telecom Systems Business, Zakrzewska leads the company’s standardization efforts in the O-RAN Alliance and has been a vital asset there. She authored Dell’s first contributions to the O-RAN Alliance Working Group 6 (cloudification and orchestration) that were accepted to standard specifications released in 2021 and 2022. Her effectiveness owes to her willingness to listen and under-stand many points of view, and to work with customers, partners, and competitors to find common ground upon which to build standards and products that will serve the industry’s needs now and in the future. Zakrzewska is also an inventor with five granted patent families and several more patent applications pending. Her inventions focus on self-organizing network (SON) techniques enabling zero touch automation. Three of her patents were commercialized allowing for optimization of multi-vendor small cell deployments through Small Cell SON Engine of Alcatel-Lucent and enhancing Nokia Wi-Fi Beacon access point product portfolio. These tech transfers introduced differentiating features that brought market advantages and are now used by major telecom operators worldwide. To have achieved tech transfers at such an early stage of her career counts as an exceptional success. Parallel to her research work, Zakrzewska is an active mentor and STEM ambassador, always seeking out opportunities to counsel students, especially young girls and women. She’s an exemplar of the early-stage STEM engagement that’s crucial to nurturing the next generation of engineers and scientists, many of whom may one day be IEEE members themselves.
An IEEE Senior Member, Zakrzewska is a senior principal engineer at Dell Technologies, Dublin, Ireland.
