A Legacy of Innovation and Leadership

Professor Kash Gokli retired from Harvey Mudd College in 2023 after 12 years of shaping engineering education, entrepreneurship and leadership. During his tenure, Gokli served as Engineering Clinic director and director of the Riggs Fellowship in Engineering Management. In 2021, he was appointed as the College’s inaugural director of entrepreneurship initiatives, a role that reflected his deep commitment to fostering innovation among students.

Gokli was instrumental in shaping the College’s entrepreneurship program, which offers seminars, workshops, events, summer fellowships and coursework designed to nurture students’ entrepreneurial skills from their first year through graduation.

Gokli’s passion for hands-on learning extended to the Riggs Fellowship, for which he was named the inaugural director in 2012. The fellowship was established to enable students to conduct applied research in engineering management and technical fields with substantial management components. The fellowship gave students real-world experience, allowing them to apply classroom knowledge to complex challenges. 

To celebrate his retirement, the College hosted a presentation featuring Riggs Fellows and engineering faculty who shared their experiences and expressed their gratitude. The event underscored Gokli’s profound impact—not just on engineering education, but on the lives and careers of the students he mentored.

Joe Sinopoli ’17 recalled how Gokli’s approach transformed his perspective beyond technical expertise, emphasizing the importance of understanding and empowering the people behind the work. “The most important thing of all is how we treat people,” Sinopoli said. “I grew up in a manufacturing environment, in an area where operators weren’t always necessarily treated with respect. Kash taught me how to empower the operator, how to involve them in these projects with others on the shop floor in such a powerful way.”

Gokli’s former students shared that his influence extended beyond the classroom to the shop floors where they learned from his ability to energize and connect with people. “Prof. Gokli taught us to be comfortable in any operation manufacturing setting,” said Sinopoli. “The largest thing I learned and try to model personally is the scrappiness and energy that Kash brings to everything. He’s absolutely a force of nature on the shop floor, talking to literally everyone and understanding literally everything that’s going on.”

Sydney Taylor ’23 echoed this sentiment, emphasizing how Gokli’s teachings extended beyond engineering principles. “Prof. Gokli played an integral role in my Mudd experience, and I am grateful for his unwavering support, encouragement and his belief in me,” she said. “An integral aspect of lean manufacturing is the pursuit of continuous improvement: the concept of making small, incremental positive changes, which, over time, build upon each other, building results. I believe this isn’t limited to manufacturing engineering. A healthy growth mindset can be a way of realizing continuous improvement in day-to-day life.”

For Gokli, some of his most cherished moments were seeing his students succeed beyond the classroom. He took great pride in their achievements, recalling that some of his favorite experiences were when students presented papers at conferences, won competitions and were recognized for their outstanding contributions and achievements. “I’m just thankful for everything that’s happened to me at Harvey Mudd,” he said.