Engineering was in Domitilla Del Vecchio’s blood from the
very beginning: Growing up in Rome as the daughter of an engineer, she spent
long hours of her childhood tinkering and playing in her father’s home
laboratory and exploring the various bits of electronics and lab equipment he
would bring home.
“He had a lab at our place that was full of all these
colorful pieces of computers, all opened up,” Del Vecchio recalls — and she
delighted to learn about them. Then, in middle school, “I had this math teacher
who had an unconventional way of teaching math: She started with the theory of
numbers, an almost philosophical approach. … I was fascinated by that.”
Del Vecchio attended a math-focused “liceo” — the Italian
version of high school — where a “fantastic” biology teacher helped expand her
interests in that field. But she then struggled to find a college where she
could explore all of the subjects that excited her: “I knew I loved math and
engineering, and I was very interested in biology, and I was struggling to find
the right college degree that would encompass the three together.”
Del Vecchio’s father died when she was 10, leaving her
mother to support her and her younger brother. Her mother ran a small company
that provided technical support for banks, which she eventually grew from just
three people to become a large and successful business. Meanwhile, she stressed
the importance of a good education for her children. “Without her support,
monetary and emotional, I probably would not have come to the U.S,” Del Vecchio
says. “She encouraged me to follow my passions and listen to them.”
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