For academic Dr Muneera Bano, obtaining a tertiary education overseas was an incredible feat for a woman of her background.
PhD Software Engineering
A successful immigrant story
Muneera was raised in a patriarchal community in Pakistan and had to fight to be able to study in Sydney unchaperoned. Her decision to pursue a PhD in Australia in 2012 was met with much resistance from her family, but this only ignited her motivation to study abroad.
“It was critical to show that given the opportunity, girls can outperform even in male-dominated fields, and to break the stereotypes I opted for computer science [at UTS],” she says.
This extreme effort paid off. During her research career, Muneera received much formal recognition, including being named as a finalist for Google Australia’s Anita Borg Award for Women in Computer Science, Asia Pacific 2015. She was also announced as Superstar of STEM for 2019-2020 by Science Technology Australia, an award that aims to increase the public visibility of women in science.
Muneera currently teaches in both undergraduate and postgraduate UTS courses within the field of software engineering. Her speciality is in human-centred design for technologies and her research centres around technology-assisted pedagogies for education and social media analysis.
I work at the intersection between computers and humans – looking for ways to engineer technology to work better with the people that use it.
Dr Muneera Mano
Muneera’s advice for women wanting to obtain a PhD is simple.
“Stick to your sense of purpose on why you wish to pursue a PhD. For me it was not just a piece of paper for employment, it was a transformational journey to empowerment.”
