Why Engineers Should Brave Capitol Hill

When San Antonio–based software engineer Nikhil Jathar first went to Washington, D.C., to advocate for federal support for technology education and research funding, he was in awe of the opportunity. It was spring of 2025, not long after Jathar settled in the United States from India, when he got an invitation to join the annual Congressional Visits Day organized by IEEE-USA . “My first reaction was, ‘Wow, I get to visit Congress,’ ” says Jathar, CTO of AvanSaber , a business software company he cofounded in 2014.