The IEEE Awards recently honored outstanding individuals shaping the future of technology and engineering, including BEYA winner Marian Croak, Ph.D., vice president of engineering at Google.
Dr. Croak and other awardees, such as Jensen Huang (founder and CEO of NVIDIA) and Luis von Ahn (CEO and co-founder of Duolingo), were featured in a data-driven story at the 2026 IEEE Honors Ceremony, created by Giorgia Lupi and the Pentagram team.
Pentagram shared on social media that Lupi and her team started with a moment of curiosity that inspired engineer Toshio Fukuda in the 1980s and built it into a shared narrative showing the similarities, teamwork, and wide-ranging impact of this group’s achievements.
The result was a visual story that focused on the human connections at the heart of innovation. The video reveals an IEEE motherboard, symbolizing the organization as the foundation of these connections.
The links between the 2026 honorees are just one part of a much larger network that has grown over generations.
The IEEE community ties this network together, giving engineers the support they need to turn their curiosity into groundbreaking ideas.
The video: Intersections: A Data Storytelling Journey debuted on April 24 at the IEEE Honors Ceremony in Midtown Manhattan.
As the main event of the evening, it introduced the technological achievements of innovators Jensen Huang, Luis von Ahn, and Marian Croak.
During Women's History Month in 2026, Google honored Marian Rogers Croak in a new documentary, “The Art of Possible,” which highlights her impressive career.
Google describes Dr. Croak as a pioneer in STEM. Her work supports technologies used around the world, from her early Voice over IP (VoIP) patents to her leadership in Human Centered AI and Machine Learning at Google.
The documentary uses Google’s AI tools, Veo3 and Nano Banana, through Flow to bring parts of her story to life when historical footage is missing. This approach helps preserve her legacy in a new way. Her story is a strong reminder that “the way things are does not have to be the way things will be.”
Marian Croak received a standing ovation at the 2014 BEYA STEM Conference. She was honored with BEYA's Outstanding Technical Contribution in Industry award.
BEYA recognizes inventors, innovators, scientists, engineers, managers, and executives who excel in private industry, government, and the military, demonstrating the value of expanding opportunities.
In 2022, Marian Croak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
She advanced Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies, enabling voice data to be transmitted as digital signals over the internet instead of traditional phone lines. Her contributions have made audio and video conferencing practical and widely accessible.
In 1982, Croak began her career in 1982 at Bell Labs, which later became part of AT&T, working in the Human Factors research division. She focused on ways technology could improve life.
Later, she moved to network engineering, where she and her team imagined sending both voice and internet traffic over the same network rather than using separate systems. They worked to make voice calls reliable and high-quality.
Croak joined Google in 2014, where she leads the Research Center for Responsible AI and Human-Centered Technology. She has also led efforts to expand broadband access in Asia and Africa.
Croak earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University and her doctorate from the University of Southern California, where she focused on statistical analysis and social psychology. She holds more than 200 patents, supports racial justice initiatives at Google, and continues to inspire women and girls to enter engineering.
Dr. Croak’s work changed how we use communication technology in daily life. She made it possible for TV viewers to vote in reality shows by sending text messages.
Croak saw another way to use this technology: helping people quickly donate money to charities responding to natural disasters. She developed the system that lets us text a specific number to donate to groups like the Red Cross.
After the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, for example, the American Red Cross raised more than $32 million via individual $10 donations from people who texted the word “Haiti” to 90999.