E is for Engineer

Engineer – the word itself implants images of men with geek gadgets. While I tried very hard to find the women engineers from India, I could recall my own college days when the girls were obviously in fewer ratios than boys. Whatever the statistics might say, Presence of women here as well cannot be ignored.

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Rocket Women - From Venus to MarsThe world famous “India's Mars Orbiter Mission” has around 500 talented engineers working day and night. While the domination of men could be seen clearly, the magnificent ladies could not be overlooked. Below are two of super mom's:

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Nandini Harinath - Deputy Operations Director of the Mars Orbiter Mission at Bangalore's ISROIndia did it again and big this time when Nandini Harinath was appointed as the Deputy Operations Director of the Mars Orbiter Mission at Bangalore's ISRO. This made me smile instantly. She did not have it easy and her words say it all – “"It is lot easier to raise children. Mars Orbiter Mission requires huge planning and it has been a huge learning experience for us. We have to plan for the nominal operations and we have to prepare for the contingencies. It has been exciting but it has also been extremely tough."”

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Minal Sampath - Systems EngineerSampath and her team of engineers built three of the instruments on board the space craft, and has aspirations of directing her own space center.  She says – “I said goodbye to Saturdays and holidays in the two years before the launch. We were working up to 18-hour days sometimes”. Minal send out a great message when she says – “You have to keep dreaming, to keep thinking of what you will achieve. It is only up to you. Only you yourself can tune your life”.
The list goes on and on, starting from engineers to scientists to researchers. Women have taken up a clearly visible and active role in India’s space program. We have proved to the world that yes it’s possible. The day is not far when stories like this would not be stories anymore and generations would say “So What!”.
While we are flying high in air and helping other do that, a fellow blogger went out to find the status of some female IITans out of curiosity. Check out thecomplete post here – Lokvani. Her finding made me even proud of myself as a woman. Below were her findings as on 2 December 2013

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 Dr. Parvati Dev (IIT KGP+ PHD) is the IIL's President and CEO. While, I am not sure about present, but she has also been a Principal Investigator at Stanford University School of Medicine as per the link - http://havnet.stanford.edu/people/parvati.html

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Vinita Gupta (IIT Roorkee + M.S. in electrical engineering from University of California Los Angeles) is founder and chairman of Digital Link Corporation (now Quick Eagle Networks). She is also known as the first woman of Indian.  Here is her Wiki ProfileS. Sowmya(IIt Madras + A postgraduate in chemistry) – An outstanding Carnatic music singer check out her wiki profile
News Sources:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25989262http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/the-men-and-women-behind-indias-mars-mission-671979
This post is written as a part of April 2015 A to Z Challenge. My theme for this year is Women In A to Z Professions. Click at the link to check other professions women have excelled in and their respective links.