Girl in Mechanical?

My journey of reaching the University of Texas, Austin

Ph.D. Proposal at University of Texas, Austin | Aug, 2019

Hey there, I am Manasi from the 2012–2016 batch. Since the completion of my BTech at Nirma (2016), I have been pursuing my PhD at the University of Texas at Austin. Through the Prarambh initiative, I want to give you more insights of my transition from BTech to a direct PhD.

My Academics:

• To begin with my early education, I am from Junagadh where I did my schooling. My family values education a lot; my parents being doctors and my sister being a computer engineer. Even as a kid, I was very studious and an avid reader — have read hundreds of them. My love for reading evolved into a passion for writing and I won numerous writing competitions throughout school. Unexpectedly, these habits of reading and writing came in handy later when I was preparing for competitive exams.
• Being from a smaller city had its pros and cons. The pros include a close knit and supportive cohort while the cons include a lack of understanding of how much the competition is at national or state level as well as no specialized coaching classes for IITJEE/AIEEE. To survive this competition, I had to look beyond the traditional resources like online tutorials and work much more. All the hard work paid off when I scored well in both the Gujarat Board exams and AIEEE.

How I started my career from Nirma?

• Not wanting to go out of Gujarat, I had the options of choosing amid ICT — DAIICT, EC/Civil — SVNIT or a branch of my choice at Nirma University. Being a girl, everyone advised me to choose ICT. I was passionate about Physics and realized that Mechanical Engineering is the only field where I can pursue core Physics. My parents are extremely supportive and pushed me to do what I thought was the best for me. That is how I started my BTech in Mechanical at Nirma.
• I soon realized that just like the people who had advised me against choosing Mechanical, a lot of people at Nirma also believed that. In a class of 70+ there was just one more girl other than me. Initially, I was underestimated but the situation changed once I made friends and my grades proved that I was as good as the guys. The atmosphere within the department was supportive overall and I can only recall a handful of times when someone told me I was in the wrong field.
• I thrived at Nirma because it gave me the opportunity to be a part of innovative projects while balancing academics and leadership activities. Working on Innovative Assignments, Seminar and my final project, I realized that I loved working on projects that have real world implications. My seminar on MEMS/NEMS devices introduced me to technologies that involved a lot of Mechanical Engineering concepts but in a completely different scale than what traditional mechanical engineering covers. Working on my final project with ISRO, I realized very quickly how much effort it takes to develop something new. I also realized that I was enjoying the challenges that came with the project. That finalized my decision of continuing research in Mechanical Engineering.

Becoming first President as a girl in MESA’s history:

• One of the most important aspect of my life at Nirma was Mechanical Engineering Student Association (MESA). Working at MESA gave me a sense of belonging. I started as a volunteer in my first year and as the cliché goes, rose through the ranks to be the President of MESA in my final year. It was a matter of pride to represent the students’ association of a branch which is traditionally considered masculine.
• With incredible support from the faculty advisors and seniors, I developed leadership skills and time management skills that help me even in my Ph.D. Due to MESA, I also got a chance to interact with over 6 batches of seniors and juniors. This has helped me in getting necessary guidance at all stages of my academic life after Nirma, from applying to universities in the US to dealing with life as a Ph.D. student.

One Experience worth sharing:

• At NU, I made some amazing, lifelong friends in my batch as well in other batches. Before my third year at NU, I had an accident that disrupted everything in my life. Aditi, my roommate, and senior from Mechanical went out of her way to encourage me and accommodate my needs. My friends ensured that I did not fall back in any class since I had missed a month of college. They regularly sent me notes and ended up teaching me all the coursework in a week before the exams. Even after graduation, I can talk to these people on a regular basis as if we are still in the same class.

Journey for US began with graduate exams preparations:

• Since I had already decided that I want to continue research in Mechanical Engineering, I decided to opt for GRE and TOEFL at the beginning of my 7th Semester. For the preparation, I enrolled in GRE classes in my third year. Looking at seniors, I understood that a good GRE score was essential to get into a prestigious university.
• I made the mistake of choosing an extremely time-consuming internship in the summer before my GRE. Juggling GRE preparation with my internship was hellish but luckily, I did well in both the exams with 334 in GRE and 114 in TOEFL. As an engineer, the quantitative section of GRE was straightforward, but the verbal section needed a lot of preparation. Due to my reading habit, I had a decent vocabulary, but I had to spend a couple of hours daily to develop it further to reach GRE level.
• I decided to apply to a list of highly ambitious universities in the USA based on the research opportunities that they provided. I was applying with the mindset that if I do not get into any of the universities I have applied to, I will work for a few years and try again. I also decided to constrain my application to universities in USA only because I wanted to continue with the MEMS/NEMS research that I had done earlier, and USA universities were pioneers in this field.

Getting into UT-Austin:

• From my admits, I chose UT-Austin because of the extremely diverse research that happens at UT. As far as fees are concerned, I reached out to professors as soon as I got my admits and ended up getting a position as a Graduate Research Assistant which has covered all my tuition and other expenses so far.
• My PhD research is based on computational modeling of nanoconductors and sensors. I have done my research proposal and I hope to be able to finish my dissertation by the end of 2021. After my PhD, I would like to continue doing research and I hope to get into academia at some point.
• At UT, I realized how different the educational system is as compared to India. The exams had less weightage towards the final grade compared to projects, papers and presentations. Also, the projects are designed in a way that you could excel only if you thoroughly understood the concepts throughout the semester. This ensured that people would get a good grade only if they knew what they were doing and not simply because they memorized well.

Few suggestions:

• The main challenge that I faced at the beginning of my Ph.D. was my lack of coding skills. To any juniors who want to do a Ph.D. in the USA, I would suggest developing some coding skills before coming here in any programing language of your choice.
• If you are a girl in mechanical or planning to do mechanical engineering, don’t listen to people who say you cannot. Every female who was in mechanical engineering at Nirma has done amazingly well.
• Lastly, pay attention to your CGPA if you want to get into a great university anywhere in the world. In a nutshell, try to focus on overall development and balance extracurricular activities with good grades, test scores, and projects.

It was really great sharing my experience through this platform. I am always there to guide my juniors. You can share your queries related to my field, US applications, GRE, your studies, etc. on LinkedIn or email :)