India | Fazilai Charolia

Meet Fazilai 

Back in India as a mechatronics engineer, Fazilai became interested in learning more about robotics after working with industrial robots. While seeking courses to learn more about the robotics industry, she came across the UTS Robotics Institute. 

“I was keen on finding universities that had good industry connections and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities. I was highly impressed with UTS as it was one of the few universities that had a dedicated robotics major, unlike other universities that offered a mix of mechatronics and software courses.”

Upon admission to the Master of Professional Engineering  program, Fazilai learned that she received the Postgraduate Academic Excellence International Scholarship based on high grades from her undergraduate studies.

“I was thrilled to hear that I would be receiving a 25% scholarship on my tuition fee. The scholarship helped me manage my finances as a student living in Sydney." 

At the end of her first year at UTS, Fazilai also won the Engineering (Technical) Postgraduate Achievement Prize for her high marks. This $2,000 prize is awarded to the top three students who have obtained the highest Weighted Average Mark (WAM) of all eligible students each session. 

During her studies, Fazilai enjoyed the intimate class sizes of her subjects and appreciated the practical nature of her projects.

“Since robotics is a less common major, there were fewer students in my subjects. This allowed the class to be more engaging and build a good rapport with each other despite being online due to the pandemic. Many of my subjects had practical projects, designed to make us understand and implement the concepts better. This made the learning process fun and memorable. In one project I had to control the movement of a robotic vehicle in simulation, using a kinetic sensor. I purchased this sensor and worked on this project at home during lockdown. I opened my palm and hovered over the sensor, to control the speed and direction of the robotic vehicle in simulation.”

In addition to her traditional coursework, Fazilai developed her soft skills as a Gender Equity Ambassador for Women in Engineering and IT. Ambassadors receive training in gender inclusion, leadership, communication, being an ethical bystander, and change agent to distil and enhance practical and cultural understandings of gender in study and work in Engineering and IT. 

“We hosted school visits where I facilitated a workshop to teach young students about STEM and how using science and technology to create working models.”

This opportunity to develop leadership and public speaking skills proved to be invaluable when it became time for Fazilai to start the job hunt. She attended career fairs hosted by UTS CareerHub where she met her current employer, Abyss Solutions. 

“As part of my professional engineering degree, I was required to complete a 3-month internship in the industry. Having met representatives  from Abyss at a career fair at UTS, I reached out to them for an internship. I was offered a six-month paid internship which I happily accepted. When my internship ended, I was offered a full-time role as a permanent employee at Abyss as a Junior Machine Learning Engineer!”

A year later, Fazilai works as a Machine Learning Engineer at Abyss Solutions in Sydney. She credits her Master of Professional Engineering in Robotics.

“I never imagined that I would start my career as a mechatronics engineer, pursue a degree in robotics, and eventually work as a machine learning engineer. Although these fields are related, they are diverse with different skillsets. I was flexible enough to seamlessly transition through these fields. However, I was firm enough to know when I wanted to move within a certain boundary of skills. This helped me stay focused and allowed me to recognise new opportunities.”