A Profile on Hillbrook Alumna Roshan Mehdizadeh Corsiglia (‘97)

By Mary Hammers, Hillbrook Writer

Imagine being part of what many people consider the most transformative project the city of San Jose has ever seen. A Hillbrook alumna doesn’t have to imagine. She’s already helping to bring Google’s planned Diridon development to life. Roshan (Ro) Mehdizadeh Corsiglia (class of 1997), wears many hats at Google, including the occasional hard hat. She is an Executive in Google’s Real Estate department, who is not only responsible for the governance of Google’s real estate development projects, but also created the Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Virtual Reality (VR) programs that the company uses in all of its new construction projects. As a South Bay native, Ro says she is excited to support Google’s Diridon development efforts. “It’s an incredible opportunity to create a sense of place, and to make sure there’s something for everyone in the local community with the right mix of office, residential, retail, and open public space.”  

We recently caught up with Ro at the Google offices in Sunnyvale, which she helped build using her 3D modeling and virtual reality system. Ro’s BIM and VR program help Google streamline the construction process while increasing efficiency. She says the program, which is now used on all of Google’s new construction projects, is akin to creating a “search engine for the inside of a building” collecting asset data, warranty information, serial numbers – any type of metrics that would be valuable during a building’s life cycle. Ro says more than 80 percent of a building’s cost comes after it’s built, because its design and construction phases are short periods of time in comparison to its overall lifecycle. It’s nearly impossible to keep track of crucial data points collected early in design using two dimensional drawings—being able to organize the data within 3D models was a game changer.

With it, Ro designed a way to take existing 3D modeling of mechanical, plumbing, electrical and structural elements in construction projects into a common environment so that design and building teams can use it to identify problems before they happen. For instance, if plumbing is going to run into a structural problem, the BIM and VR system allows Google to see it and correct it long before the first pipe is laid.

Ro holds two patents which tie computational modeling to key building data and machine learning. She also has many peer-reviewed published articles in the fields of energy, sustainability and building modeling.

Wearing her governance hat, Ro also helps Google manage projects, working to make sure they comply with regulations, mitigate risk on projects, anticipate and prevent setbacks, and synchronize and share information effectively so a project stays on track. It sounds overwhelming, but to hear Ro describe it, she is passionate about the work and proud of Google’s successes.

Ro didn’t set out to be an expert in urban development or a construction engineering dynamo. In fact, the first hat she wore was a swim cap. She laughingly says her life plan was to figure out a way to become a professional swimmer. After first learning to swim in the Hillbrook pool, she nearly went on to become an Olympian. Ro trained for the Olympic Trials in 2004 and 2008 swimming the 50 and 100 freestyle. She attended Archbishop Mitty High School, graduating in 2001 and went on to Santa Clara University (SCU). SCU does not have a women’s swim team, so Ro swam for De Anza Cupertino Aquatics (DACA). She had hoped to transfer to Stanford to swim, but a “C” in an art elective class stymied her chance. Ro says she felt a bit lost and unsure of what to study. She liked architecture, but SCU didn’t offer that major, so her father suggested civil engineering. Knowing nothing about it, Ro went to SCU’s Dean of Engineering and asked him to describe the major. He spent 90 minutes telling her all about civil engineering and she was hooked. Ro went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Science in Construction Engineering Management from Santa Clara University, followed by a Masters of Science in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development from Johns Hopkins University and then, a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. That SCU dean, by the way, is still a friend and mentor to Ro.

For all of her professional and academic success, Ro is incredibly warm and down to earth. She says her oral and written communication skills combined with her technical background and business sense have been key to her success. Much of that she credits to her foundation at Hillbrook School. Ro started Hillbrook in preschool speaking only Farsi. She learned English at Hillbrook and describes her years through 8th grade as a magical time where she felt connected to the campus and community, and developed a love of learning that continues to this day. Ro credits Hillbrook for introducing interdisciplinary teaching before it was “a thing.” She remembers applying math skills in wood shop and being encouraged to problem solve and think creatively. “That ability to see a problem, work on it, and then articulate your solution, that all came from Hillbrook teaching me how to see disparate parts and make connections, as well as be able to articulate my ideas to different audiences.”

Ro and her husband have a 3 year old daughter and are expecting a baby boy in May. She hopes her children will attend Hillbrook and experience the close community, the well-rounded education, the love of nature and the “magic” that she felt there. “When I went to the Hillbrook Open House recently, I noticed that the utilization of space to create an optimal learning environment is similar to how we look at workspace at Google. The ethos and the mentality is aligned with what’s conducive for creativity and thought leadership.” Ro says that she fully expects that her children will learn to read, write and solve math equations, but what she hopes for their education is what Hillbrook does best, teaching children how to think creatively, work collaboratively and communicate effectively. More than that she says, Hillbrook does it in a way that makes it all seem fun.

Ro’s position at Google didn’t exist when she attended Hillbrook, for that matter neither did Google. But she says the fundamental lessons she learned about how to think paved the way for her, just as they will for current and future Hillbrook students.