Dhara Amin

Engineering hope

Dhara Amin had wanted to study biology for years, but after her first classes in mechanical engineering, she fell in love with a different world.

Growing up in the US with boy cousins around, she always loved building Lego structures and playing video games, and when she started as one of the few girls in the University of Delaware’s mechanical engineering degree, she discovered her true vocation.

“I honestly told my mom, first semester I am switching back to biology, but no, I fell in love and four years later I was still there,” Ms Amin said.

The minority of female students in the class simply made her more determined to succeed.

“You always have to work harder and prove yourself more than the guys, that’s just how it is,” Ms Amin said.

“There are times when it’s confronting being a girl in engineering and there are times when it’s not. Sometimes it is a boy’s world and yet there are so many girls that could make a great career from engineering.”

The hard work paid off – in a big way. In 2013 she was awarded the Whitaker International Fellowship, a prestigious US award providing the opportunity to undertake international research into biomedical engineering. The scholarship enabled Ms Amin to come to Flinders to study biomechanics, working in the hexapod laboratory with Associate Professor John Costi, where she is now completing a Master of Engineering degree by research.

“I work in spine biomechanics. It’s a big box of questions, we still don’t know a lot about the spine. Each day there are new things that you are picking up on, or questioning,” Ms Amin said.