February 23, 2010
School of Engineering, Amritapuri
 

Sowmya Narayan graduated from the Amrita School of Engineering at Amritapuri with a B.Tech. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 2008. Unlike many of her peers who joined the IT industry, Sowmya chose a core engineering job with Wipro Technologies in Kochi. This past month, she was awarded the Wipro Prodigy Award for excellence at work.
 

Only two or three new hires are given this award of the thousands of the people Wipro recruits annually. The only requirement is that they should have made some extraordinary contribution, while working on a project. Soumya was part of the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits) Team at Wipro that was working on a client project for NEC Global, one of the world’s leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions.
 

“You have won this prestigious award for a number of reasons,” the award certificate stated. “You joined the team as a fresher. In a short time you ramped up on the PD flow and contributed effectively. You handled multiple ARM hardening activities individually. You handled the leakage power optimization activity, the activity itself was R&D without clear goals.”
 

Describing specifically the nature of Soumya’s contribution in terms of her technical work, the certificate also went on to acknowledge the following. “The customer appreciated the quality of results and documentation. Customer also appreciated the fact that even with a late change request from them, you could complete the activity on time.”
 

Lots of praise there for this Amritian; how did her time in Amrita help her get where she is today?
 

“While studying at Amritapuri, I developed an interest in Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits or VLSI,” shares Sowmya. “We had faculty members with considerable industrial experience, who gave us good insights into the domain. They encouraged me to go ahead in this field. This helped me gain confidence and I was able to overcome all challenges.”
 

Soumya has been with Wipro for nearly one year now. Her client projects are mainly back-end VLSI projects. As an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) Physical Design Engineer, Soumya has won over her project leaders, managers and consultants, whose input was taken to short-list her for the award.
 

“Congratulations, Sowmya! This is a great achievement,” proudly remarked Sriram Ananthanarayan, Chairman of the ECE Dept. “We are proud of you! Your example will serve as inspiration for our current batch of students. Our faculty members who help prepare our students to take up careers in core technology areas will also gain motivation by this recognition!”
 

And what advice does Soumya have for her juniors, who are currently enrolled in the program that she completed?
 

“Work hard, be focused and do not worry about the outcome.” Wise words indeed, and apt for not just the next generation of graduates but for all.