How would you introduce yourself in one sentence?

I am currently working as a Power Systems Engineer at Beca Consulting, New Zealand. I am a motivated young engineer aspiring to leave a mark in the power industry and to be an example for other female engineers to pursue this male dominated profession.

I have gained a lot of valuable experience working as an intern at Ergo Consulting and Beca during my years at the university. This knowledge gained has enhanced my understanding about various concepts and has increased my interest in the field. As part of my internships, I have had experience working on some electrical secondary design and cable connection schedules.

Why did you choose to study electrical engineering?

Throughout my high school physics classes, I always enjoyed the classes where we learnt about electricity. When university started, I really enjoyed sitting through the electrical engineering classes and looked forward to the learnings. Also, my brother who works with one of NZ’s leading electrical contractors would talk about and mention certain things at home that made me really want to know more about the industry and the field.

In which projects have you been involved in and outside of university? What challenges and opportunities did you encounter?

I absolutely enjoyed the four years of my engineering degree. I have always been one of those people who would stay occupied and involved in a lot of activities at university. One of the major organisations that I was involved with was IEEE. As the Chairperson of the IEEE Branch committee at the university, I had to organise a lot of field trips as technical and social events at the university. One of the major challenges that I faced there was to have as many female participants as male participants. As part of my profession now, I would definitely make sure I inspire female students from high schools to take up engineering and power systems as a major.

What is the most important piece of advice you would give to high school students willing to start a degree in engineering? And to university students willing to specialise in power engineering?

One piece of advice that I would like to give high school students and also those thinking of specializing in power engineering is to just give it a shot and not give up on it because there aren’t too many people opting for it. Power engineering at the moment is not one of the specialisations that a lot of students know too much about before they have sat through some initial classes or have had someone give them a lot of information about beforehand, as a result of which it does not currently have as much participation as the industry would want. As a university rep myself, I had organised site visits to places like the Huntly power station to give students an idea about the field the feedback I received from the students was really encouraging. So my only advice to students taking up this field would be to talk to as many people as possible, young engineers like myself would always be ready to give them an insight into the industry, and to realise the global importance of the power systems industry and grow to be a part of it.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, make it count, make it enjoyable, make it something that the world could benefit from and make it absolutely worthwhile.