Iheanyi Umez-Eronini

Shreya Gopal

I hail from New Delhi, the capital city of India and come from a background of education. My mother is a primary school teacher and my father is a Businessman dealing with Medical Equipments. I have shared my life with a younger sister who is currently working in India as a Biomedical Engineer. I attended high school at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi, India. As a student I was academically a merit student throughout my schooling and held positions of leadership as a Cultural Head for organizing and participating in events like Debates, Environmental Campaigns, theatre, Dance, and Music. During the last two years of my high school I was titled the Best School Appointment for the duration of my tenure.

Since a young age engineering had an immense impact on my academic interests and my thought revolved around how buildings would stand so high and what would support them. This desire to learn the art of engineering made me opt for Transportation Engineering while my entire batch was looking for computer sciences and electronics. I pursued Bachelor of Engineering in Transportation Engineering from BMS College of Engineering at the Vishwesvaraiah Technological University, Bangalore, India. Throughout my undergraduate studies I was an excellent student and was awarded a GOLD MEDAL by the Honorable President of India, A.P.J Abdul Kalam in 2006, for being the most consistent and high scoring student in the entire University comprising of 135 colleges. Apart from being academically enlightened I was constantly a part of various activities like Theater, Music, Dance, Event Management and organization.

I was the only Civil Engineering Student to be accepted from my College as a Junior Engineer for Larsen & Toubro Limited and Indian Construction Firm. I worked on two major projects Bangalore International Airport and Delhi International Airport as an Engineer and Interface Management person gaining experience in airfield pavement design, utilities management and relocation, interfacing between construction and design teams, Clash Analysis for design and construction, airside planning for operations, Subcontractor Management and parts project planning.

My work for two years was well rewarded and I developed a keen interest in learning more about Pavement Engineering and geotechnology. This brought me miles away to the University of Pittsburgh, to pursue a PhD in Pavement and Geotechnical Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. My long term goals are to be a vital part of the growth in the aviation sector and further my goals of engineering for mankind. Like I have always learned, it is all about Imagineering.

Apart from academics, my interests range from reading, learning jazz music and guitar, classical dance forms and creative writing. I have a hobby of collecting stamps from all over the world and have a large collection of it. I strongly believe, the busiest man in the world has time for everything.

Ben Schmidt