Mini Thomas Is Empowering Women in the Power Industry

Thomas, an knowledgeable in power systems and smart grids, is working to get extra girls into the power and energy business.

She is an lively IEEE volunteer, having labored with scholar branches and membership recruitment. As a member of the IEEE Technology for a Sustainable Climate Matrix Organization, she shares her information about power, climate-resilient infrastructure, and ozone-layer restoration.

“For a girl to succeed, she wants loads of household help,” Thomas says, as a result of many ladies’s careers are interrupted by caretaking and child-rearing duties. She acknowledges that not all girls have the identical help system she has—which is a part of the explanation why she is devoted to serving to others succeed.

A ardour for educating

Thomas was born and raised in Kerala, India. Kerala college students who excelled at college had been anticipated to decide on a profession in both drugs or engineering, she says. Drugs wasn’t an choice for her, she says, as a result of she faints on the sight of blood. She was good at mathematics, although, so she selected to pursue engineering.

Though each her mother and father had been academics (her father taught chemistry; her mom was a language teacher), she wasn’t impressed to pursue the same path till she was an undergraduate on the University of Kerala. Her intensive note-taking throughout class made her widespread amongst her classmates, she says, and a few would ask her to tutor them throughout examination season.

“My mates would come over to my dwelling so I might clarify the fabric to them utilizing my notes,” she says. “Afterward, they’d inform me that they had been capable of perceive the topic a lot better than how the professor had defined it. That’s what impressed me to change into a trainer.”

After incomes her bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering in 1984, Thomas continued her schooling on the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Shortly after incomes her grasp’s of know-how in electrical engineering in 1986, she started her first educating job on the Nationwide Institute of Know-how, Calicut, additionally in Kerala.

The 12 months was a whirlwind for Thomas, who acquired married, left her job, and moved to New Delhi, the place her husband lived. As a substitute of looking for one other educating job, she determined to pursue a doctoral diploma within the electrical engineering program on the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

“By the point I used to be 28, I had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, which I earned in 1990,” she says. “I quickly acquired a job at Delhi Technological College, the one different faculty in New Delhi that had an engineering faculty at the moment, apart from IIT. From there, I by no means regarded again.”

She taught on the college for 5 years, then left in 1995 to affix Jamia Millia Islamia. She finally was promoted to steer {the electrical} engineering division.

Throughout her 11 years there, she established labs to conduct analysis in supervisory management and data acquisition (SCADA) and substation automation, collaborating with business on initiatives. In 2003 she created a curriculum for—and led the launch of—a grasp’s of know-how program in electrical power system administration in addition to a coaching program for business professionals. For her work, she acquired a 2015 IEEE Educational Activities Board Meritorious Achievement Award.

In 2014 she based the college’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to assist startups flip their concepts into prototypes and launch companies.

She acquired a proposal she couldn’t refuse in 2016: change into president of the Nationwide Institute of Know-how, Tiruchirappalli.

“This was an ideal honor to change into the primary lady president of that institute,” she says. “I used to be the one lady amongst 90 presidents of all of the establishments of nationwide significance at the moment.”

However, she says, as president, she didn’t have a lot time to show, and after 5 years, she started to overlook her time within the classroom. After her five-year time period was accomplished, she returned to Jamia Millia Islamia in 2021 as engineering dean. Since then, she has led the launch of 5 packages: three undergraduate packages (in data science, electrical and computer engineering, and VLSI) and graduate packages in information science and environmental sciences.

This 12 months she stepped down after finishing her three-year time period as dean and is focusing extra on educating.

She teaches not less than one class every semester as a result of, she says, she finds pleasure in “imparting and giving information to younger minds.”

Mentoring girls within the energy business

Thomas mentors doctoral college students in addition to professors who aspire to function deans or different high-level positions.

As well as, she trains mid-career girls within the energy business on the abilities they should get promoted—to technical and senior administration roles—via the South Asia WePOWER network’s South Asia Area (SAR) 100 professional development program. WePOWER is a coalition of nonprofit and authorities organizations that purpose to extend the variety of girls working within the energy and power sectors via schooling. A 2020 World Bank study discovered that the share of ladies in technical roles within the business in South Asia ranges from 0.1 to 21.

The six-month-long program supplies technical coaching, mentorship, and networking alternatives to 100 girls from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Thomas is one in every of 40 specialists who remotely train subjects reminiscent of transmission particulars, distribution, renewable energy, and the significance of women in leadership.

She additionally mentors girls to present them confidence and instruments to succeed in management positions as a result of “mentorship is what modified my profession trajectory,” she says. When she first started educating, she says she was reluctant to take high-level positions. However after collaborating in a six-day management coaching on the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which was hosted by the Authorities of India’s University Grants Commission, she felt assured in her potential to maneuver up the profession ladder.

“Many ladies take a break from their careers to boost their youngsters, wrestle to balance their personal and professional lives, or don’t have a help system,” she says. “I wish to impart the teachings I realized from my experiences and the coaching I acquired. Each time I get an opportunity, I become involved.”

Creating lifelong friendships and mentoring college students

Thomas joined IEEE in 1990 as a graduate scholar member and says she continues renewing her membership to remain updated on emerging technologies, particularly SCADA programs.

“I realized all the pieces about SCADA from a tutorial developed by the IEEE Power & Energy Society. There was no such materials accessible at the moment,” she says.

Years later, in 2015, Thomas cowrote Power System SCADA and Smart Grids along with her pal John McDonald, whom she met via the group. McDonald is an IEEE Life Fellow and the founder and CEO of JDM Associates in Duluth, Ga.

Thomas turned an lively volunteer for the Delhi Technological University’s student branch, the place she helped set up technical talks and different occasions. When Thomas joined Jamia Millia Islamia, she revived the inactive student branch there and served as its counselor for 14 years.

Throughout her 35 years with IEEE, she has served as chair of the Region 10 scholar actions committee and vice chair of membership growth for IEEE Member and Geographic Activities. She was a member of the IEEE Educational Activities and the IEEE Publication Services and Products boards.

“Creating packages that profit members makes me really feel happy,” Thomas says. “Volunteering has additionally boosted my confidence.”

She can also be a member of IEEE Spectrum’s editorial advisory board.

Not solely does she attribute a lot of her skilled progress to the group, she additionally has created lifelong friendships via IEEE, she says. One pal is 2023 IEEE President Saifur Rahman, whom she met in 2000 when he spoke to the Jamia Millia Islamia scholar department.

“Our friendship has grown a lot that Saifur is like household,” she says.

When Rahman launched the IEEE Know-how for a Sustainable Local weather Matrix Group in 2022, he requested Thomas to change into a member. She helped create the IEEE Climate Change Collection on the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. The next 12 months, she led the event of a climate change taxonomy. The 620 phrases are included within the IEEE Thesaurus, which defines virtually 12,500 engineering, technical, and scientific phrases. Now she is working with a group to develop the taxonomy by defining a whole lot extra climate-change phrases.

“It is best to at all times do what you get pleasure from. For me, that’s educating and volunteering with IEEE,” she says. “I might simply be a member, entry the technical content material, and be pleased with simply that, however I volunteer as a result of I can do issues that assist others.”