Twin opportunities in MIT engineering

Thursday, 26 July 2007

Twin opportunities in MIT engineering

Stereotypes about engineering are being overthrown in Manukau Institute of Technology’s Bachelor of Engineering programme. Not just one but two sets of identical female twins help make up the total of six women out of 13 honours students completing their final year research projects.

Engineering has come a long way since the days of male-dominated work sites. “Rapid technological development has changed all that,” says the department’s programme director Neel Pandey. “The MIT degree is about software and programmable hardware design at a system level which is all done at a desk. It’s taking graduates beyond technical roles and into research and development and other professional engineering roles for which they are internationally accredited.”

Identical twins Supriya and Supraja Kantipudi are anticipating satisfying and challenging careers after a lifetime’s interest in technical matters. Supriya recalls repeatedly asking her father to explain how her talking toys could sound just like humans.

“Women can enjoy engineering a lot,” she says. “We are learning to design useful products and introduce them to the consumer or industrial market. My research project reports on the use of accelerometers in robots to enable accurate measurement of acceleration and then determine distance. The robots will enter disaster areas and be used for search and rescue.”

Supraja’s project aims to design cost-effective machine vision to automate the vision inspection system for the semi-conductor industry. “I’m very interested in embedded engineering which involves both electronics and computers,” she says. “You can study both together in the one course at MIT and that’s why we chose to study here, even though we live in Avondale.”

The twins have found many benefits in studying for the same degree. “We don’t want to be separate at any time,” says Supriya. “We think the same, we have the same taste, we even get the same marks in our papers. We have been able to share our doubts, ask each other questions and discuss our work.”

The 23-year-olds grew up in South India but the family moved to New Zealand to give the girls every educational advantage. Their father has subsequently returned to India where he works as a physics lecturer, but their mother has remained, developed her English language skills and found employment.

“Our parents have been separated just so that we can be settled in better jobs,” says Supraja. “We’ve faced many difficulties but our family is very proud that we are completing our degrees and will go on to further study.”

“It is a pleasure to study, not a duty,” continues Supriya. “We want to thank our parents and our supervisors for giving us the opportunity to be well educated. I feel that my aim came true.

“It is very important for women to develop themselves and we feel a responsibility to encourage women into engineering because there are so many good jobs available. We will go wherever the best jobs are – it depends on God’s grace.”

The other identical twins completing their honours degrees are Shanika and Anushka Somatilake.

About MIT

Manukau Institute of Technology is one New Zealand’s largest polytechnics. It offers more than 100 formal programmes at degree, diploma and certificate level and has a student population of around 32,000. Established in 1970 as the country’s first purpose built polytechnic, MIT delivers vocational education and training. With a workforce of 900, MIT is one of the biggest employers in the Counties Manukau region. Manukau City is New Zealand’s fastest growing metropolis.

ENDS

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