Athena Sajan

My application to the EngD program was purely a game of fate. I had just finished studying for Masters in Chemical Engineering and was set to start my new job in 2020. Yes, 2020, the first year of the Corona pandemic. The company was forced to withdraw its job offer and I was forced to stay at home, unemployed and disappointed. I did not want to go back to being a student. At the same time, the job market was frozen.  I had heard of TU Delft before, so one day I casually searched through its website for an online class and found the most amazing option - a cross-pollination between academia and industry...in Europe!
 
Being an EngD trainee was life-changing. First of all, it was a great introduction to the European education system. It is more application-focussed than in India. Secondly, you can only grow in an international crowd. You eat new food, learn about new cultures, pick up new hobbies and possibly places to stay in different countries. From the support of my supervisors, I have gained more discipline to conduct research; something as simple as insisting to write proper units of measurement has become second nature. You would be surprised to see people skipping such etiquette in big companies. Moreover, the program helps you discover (or re-discover) what you are good at. 
 
During our team projects, we used techniques to assess our personalities, such as identifying Core Qualities, Pitfalls, Allergies and Challenges. We used SWOT analysis to best prepare the team. This is as important as drawing the BOSCARD ( Background, Objective, Scope, Constraints, Assumptions, Risks, and Deliverables) of your project. You learn to plan, to manage a team, and to manage yourself.  You learn all of this on the job. It was from the Study Trip (ACHEMA conference) that my team and I got the idea of working on the design of an electrified steam cracker for our GDP. The project was later presented at NPS 2023 and our conclusions were received quite well. My IDP was at Shell ETCA, where I developed strategies to stabilize materials that were used for CO2 capture. The project was under tight time and resource constraints. But the EngD training had prepared me well. At the end of the course you gain confidence to face challenging questions and difficult situations. If you brave the EngD program, you can do anything!