Why I love engineering: Sema Dumanli-Oktar

Sema Dumanli-Oktar is a senior research engineer at Toshiba. She studied electrical and electronics engineering at METU Ankara and then went onto a PhD at the University of Bristol. Sema shared her engineering story with us.

I was probably 8 years old when I saw a lady using the internet in a movie. I had no idea what it was at the time but I was so impressed, I still vividly remember that scene. By the time I was in high school, the internet was a significant part of my daily life. I witnessed the world around me changing drastically with technology. I was not taking it for granted because I also witnessed the dark days when your boyfriend could only call you on a landline and you had to talk in front of all your family! I experienced not long after the convenience of texting, sending emails, and connecting seamlessly with anyone. I witnessed the power of technology and how it changed every single one of our lives. This power made me realize that technology was the key to a better world. At high school, as I tried to understand how electronic devices around me worked, I was more impressed with the clever ideas behind them. Finally, I started to dream of being an “inventor” myself. Hence I chose to become an electronics engineer. I got an offer from my first preferred University in Turkey which was followed by a PhD degree at the University of Bristol. And I finally am that inventor.