Leveling Up • Naina Runnoo

(Aerospace Propulsion Master’s Student, Cranfield University || UK)

“There aren’t many female engineers in Mauritius. When I finished high school my parents wanted me to become a doctor — it was like I was going to have an arranged marriage with medicine. But I ran away with the bad boy: engineering. When I graduated with honors from the University of Mauritius, however, there could be no people happier than my parents.

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I practiced for two years as a pre-registered mechanical engineer in Mauritius. I had the opportunity to work with car engines, then moved to heavy machinery — buses, trucks, tractors, excavators, marine engines — but I was most interested in jet engines. Catching up with one friend after two years, she mentioned to me she was currently doing her PhD within the Rolls Royce University Technology Centre in a highly reputable university in the UK, and her Master’s was related to jet engines. That was tempting! Again I heard about the same university from another friend who was attending a conference there for his PhD. I decided to give a go and look at the prospectus of the different aerospace engineering-related courses — I ended up picking the same Master’s degree as my friend, and that’s how I got to Cranfield University.

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I’m thinking about doing a PhD after the Master’s program ends this year, or maybe working in R&D somewhere. With COVID right now, I’m living a week at a time, a month at a time. But I’d like to work maybe in the UK or Germany — working internationally you really feel motivated to level up. You grow because you’re surrounded by people who think differently.’’