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UCL Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

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Celebrating an outstanding female engineer for International Women in Engineering Day

10 June 2019

To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on June 23rd, the UCL Centre for Engineering Education is profiling 8 outstanding women in the Faculty. Arundathi Shanthini, from our department, is one of the women featured.

Arundathi Shanthini

How would you describe your area of study or work?

I am currently pursuing my MEng (Electronics with Computer Science) degree in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering here at UCL. We learn how to design, simulate and analyse circuits, the theory behind communication systems and the various processes involved behind its working; designing, synthesizing and testing digital circuits in various different ways and a lot more! But its not all theory, we also have lots of practical work in our course in the form of challenges, scenarios and lab work, which gives us exposure to working in teams. This also helps us develop project management skills whilst learning various practical skills like designing circuit boards, designing and building prototypes, simulating communication systems on software etc.

 

What is your favourite part of your job/area of study/area of research?

As a student my favourite part is the practical tests and experiments we get to do as a part of our course. The excitement and the rush of seeing something you worked on so hard, functioning the way you expected it, is the best part of it all. In general, I love practical experiments and applications over theory. It is probably what attracted me into engineering. In my free time I also enjoy working on a wide variety of hobby projects creating and building items for me or for my flat. In fact the first time I learnt how to use a laser cutter at the Institute of Making I made a name board for my flat door. Building stuff is something that I really find interesting and I consider it the best part of my course.

 

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt during your studies/career so far?

The most valuable lesson I have learnt during my studies here at UCL is probably less of a lesson but more of a realization of the scale of the impact that engineers have indirectly or even quite directly on society. Together engineers can revolutionize life for people from various backgrounds and the scale of the impact was something I probably realized after I came to university and heard more about it first hand from actual engineers. This realization made me more responsible and sincere towards my course and most importantly it makes me want to be a great engineer who helps shape and change the world. It is creatively very satisfying to know that your work has a positive impact on society, it is what I work towards and it is what motivates me to work harder.

 

You can read more of the interview with Arundathi at the link below:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/centre-for-engineering-education/arundathi-shanthini-electronic-and-electrical-engineering