“Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different”- Albert Szent Gyorgi.

I am forever grateful for my rich cultural upbringing, and the significance it has had in both my personal and professional growth. I was born in New Delhi, India, however my family moved to Lusaka, Zambia, when I was 2 years old. The impact from growing up in Zambia was tremendous- not only did I get to widen my perspective by experiencing the norms in a “foreign” society while being raised in an Indian household, but I also became introspective and questioned my own way of thinking as I was surrounded by different people from different backgrounds in the International School that I attended.

By experiencing these different cultures first hand on a day-to-day basis, I learned the importance of keeping an open mind. This led to an increased awareness in my personal morals, as I had seen them through many windows before selecting which view I related to the most. It also intrinsically developed to being able to think of different approaches to solving a problem; a trait that proved useful not only in dealing with Thermodynamic problems in university, but also in solving “real world” design challenges at work.

The same open-minded atmosphere sponsored curiosity in my everyday activities in Zambia that were socially accepted as a norm. I asked myself why just because a task is currently done in a particular way, does that make it the optimum way of doing it? Such as, why did I have to wake up early in the morning to turn on the geyser for hot water for the day, when it could somehow be done automatically? Why would our generator only be able to power certain household appliances during the frequent power-losses we had, and not all of the appliances? Why did the tube-lights in our house flicker before turning on, yet the incandescent light bulbs did not? These questions ultimately led me to pursue a degree in Mechanical Engineering, as I sought to narrow the disconnect between being the end-user of a product, and wanting to understand its functionality with hopes to improve it.

Having obtained a combined major in Mechanical Engineering and Physics with a minor in Mathematics at Northeastern, I began to understand the answer to several of these questions- but in turn also raised numerous new ones. I believe this is the nature of the field of engineering- and it is what I love about it; the more you learn about a topic, the greater the amount of complexity in the details begins to unveil, and this propels a new line of questioning which you had not even thought of. With now about 4.5 years of total industry experience, I know I am in a field which not only appeals to my interest, but drives my curiosity and feeds my passion.