IN FOCUS 7 project helped me understand my own strengths and weaknesses. It also gave me wider exposure to the industry as I got to meet Ford’s Chief Executive O cer and other senior executives. Following graduation, I accepted an o er from Ford India to become a Stamping Feasibility Engineer. I am currently responsible for developing the Asia Paci c team. In this role, I have had the opportunity to travel to Ford’s corporate headquarters in the US to receive training, meet other colleagues and learn from them. I feel the organization has a wonderful work culture, and I am looking forward to building my career at the company. The Ford-HKUST research grant opening has had a major impact on my life and I hope it can continue to nurture more young engineers at HKUST and help them to spread their wings and pursue their dreams. aving been an automobile enthusiast from a young age and a person fascinated by how machines work and are designed, it wasn’t a di cult choice to pick Mechanical Engineering when I went to Anna University in India for my undergraduate studies. My four years of undergraduate education opened up new technologies and gave me fresh insight into the world of cars. For my nal year project, I also designed and built a robot that could clean up beaches. This interest in machines then became a passion and I joined Chrysler a er graduation as a design and analysis engineer. A er working for two years, I decided to take a break and go back to studying to learn about di erent trends as my eld is one involving the latest knowledge, technologies and applications. I applied to many leading universities around the world, with HKUST one of my top choices because of its world-class research facilities and student diversity. As a participant of the Ford-HKUST Conservation and Environmental Research Grants program, I had to create an alternative air-conditioning system powered by waste exhaust heat from the engine to replace the conventional system in cars and trucks. Being part of this semiconductor composites into traditional cement powder for environmental applications. It was a very special experience to go to Spain. I was based in Oviedo, a small city in the north, and the time I spent at the Institute proved a tremendous learning experience. I not only worked in a world-class research team with eminent scientists at the forefront of their respective elds, but very importantly I was also able to step out of my comfort zone and live and work in a country where English was not the main language. Spain is a diverse place and I thoroughly enjoyed living there and traveling around to di erent areas at weekends and other holidays. The internship also provided good insight into what a research career or PhD program would be like, which was really useful experience to gain as a master’s student. I am sure many more students will bene t from this great opportunity in future years. I am now looking forward to graduating and actively considering applying for a PhD program. rst attended HKUST as a chemical engineering undergraduate in . I then worked for one year and decided to return to the School of Engineering to pursue further studies in environmental engineering and management. Studying engineering is a natural choice for me as I have always been fascinated by science and competent at mathematics. I am particularly drawn to environmental engineering as there is an urgent need to develop strategies and technologies to create sustainable interaction between the natural environment and the technical domain. From a research perspective, I am particularly interested in environmental applications for waste materials, such as wastewater treatment and pollution abatement. During my master’s, I have had the opportunity to join the rst cohort of HKUST students undertaking an internship of up to six months with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), one of the largest public institutions dedicated to research in Europe. The project I worked on at the Instituto Nacional Del Carbon looked at incorporating adsorbents/ I .......................................... .............................. Praveen Balaj Balakrishnan MSc, Mechanical Engineering ( ) Stamping Feasibility Engineer, Ford India Anand Sreeram MSc, Environmental Engineering and Management ( ) Research Intern, Instituto Nacional Del Carbon, Oviedo, Spain H
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