Manisha Revankar is a project engineer on Rockwell Automation’s Power and Control Hardware Team. She has also been a global ambassador at the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) for six months. This esteemed position has allowed Manisha to hone her leadership and interpersonal communication skills. She has also expanded her professional network by attending and organizing several SWE events.
On 2 Sept. 2023, Manisha participated in SWEet Milan 2023, an event presented in partnership with Danfoss. She shared some key moments from her time there, including educational speaker sessions that delved into leadership traits, staying focused in a digital world and removing mental blocks to achieve success. Manisha cherished her time at SWEet Milan and got a chance to network with peers in the industry.
The SWEet Milan 2023 event took place at Danfoss in Pune, India, with over 100 talented women engineers in attendance. Manisha became acquainted with other Pune and global affiliates; specifically, she named Rishika Shekhawat, Sheetal Kenjale, Aishwarya Dubey, Garima Yadav, Farida Kidwai, and Ophelia Fernandes. For Manisha, the highlight of the event was Danfoss India Innovation Center’s Hydraulic Lab visit.
However, she also felt enriched with the knowledge shared by the speakers listed below:
- Mr. Anil Ghedage (senior director of Danfoss India Innovation Center) spoke about strategic leadership.
- Mrs. Shobha Pandey (regional HR business partner of John Deere) gave delightful insights on the topic “Unleash Your Potential.”
- Mr. Viji George (managing director of Nutrien Digital Engineering Center) spoke honestly on the topic of “Unlocking Mental Blocks in Pursuit of Excellence” and shared an impactful quote, “Life is not fair, and the world is not ideal. Get over it.”
- Two successful Indian women, Mrs. Avani Shah (country leader India in Atmus Filtration Technologies) and Mrs. Asmita Khainar (director, PSBU Global Controls, India and USA from Cummins India) spoke on a panel discussion about “Career Navigation in the Era of Digital Disruption.”
On 9 Sept. 2023, Manisha attended a “Campus to Corporate” program organized by the SWE Pune Affiliate at Pune College of Engineering. The students interacted with experts from various industries and came up with interesting insights on the advice given. This program aided engineering students in choosing their potential career paths and familiarized them with the current technology used in the field.
Finally, Manisha spoke about another recent educational event arranged by Air Products India in association with SWE’s Pune affiliate called “WOW That’s Engineering.” This was an outreach program for school-aged girls to become involved with the technology required to create and operate their own robots. Over 50 girls from a local school were in attendance. Given the chance to explore STEM subjects and technology firsthand, these girls were able to gauge whether they would pursue careers in STEM.
Exciting opportunities continued to arise for Manisha. She attended the WE23 Conference virtually and even hosted her own speed networking event for women in engineering and technology. She and her co-hosts, Shatabdi Ghosh, Jiahui Ng, and Victoria Tsai, led captivating discussions about the engineering field.
She found this quote from keynote speaker Kate Maxwell, CTO of Microsoft Worldwide Defense and Intelligence, to be particularly influential: “Opportunity lies on the other side of your comfort zone.”
The future for Manisha looks bright. She will be judging the collegiate engineering abstracts that will be presented at the upcoming WeLocal Conference in Las Vegas. She also volunteered to be a reviewer for technical content that will be presented at that same conference. She thanks Rockwell Automation and the RASWE ERG for giving her the opportunity of being a SWE Global Ambassador and excitedly anticipates her future participation in SWE events.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Also, I too love & resonate with the quote ” “Opportunity lies on the other side of your comfort zone.” Keep soaring high !