I was born and raised in South India in the village of Pariyanvayal. From an early age, I was involved in academic and sporting pursuits with science being my favourite subject. My interest in science led me to follow a career in Engineering, specializing in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. I began my Engineering Diploma in April 1993 and completed it in April 1996. My first employment was with KCP Limited in India. I was one of three successful candidates from over 100 student applicants. I’ve continued working in Instrumentation and controls as a Supervisor / Engineer and gained extensive experience in the fields such as design, programming and commissioning. In 2005 I moved to Australia and started my career as an instrument Technician.
Experience at EIT
My experience with EIT/IDC has given me a chance to expand my skills in the field of instrumentation and process controls. From past experience and future opportunities, I am certain there will be many opportunities to learn and advance my career which I am truly thankful for.
Loop tuning/Process Control:
Mr Rodney Jacob at IDC loop tuning course taught me many tips and rules that I was unaware even existed, and would still be unaware of had it not been a part of my experience. Because of this, I realized I still had a lot to learn despite what I thought I knew. This has allowed me to improve my skills even further as I continue to attend EIT courses giving me the confidence in field of process control and automation.
Technical Writing:
Other great experiences with EIT, particularly in the technical writing program, has allowed me to gain further knowledge about a variety of technical writing skills and reports. This course allowed me to become competent with my technical writing ability. I’ve written various technical documents from functional descriptions to technical specification for Ammonium nitrate and GLNG projects. Without the technical writing course MIA01, it would not have been possible and I will always be thankful to Mr John Piperides for this.
DIA01: Advanced Diploma
I am proud to say that I was one of the first students to complete this course. A big achievement for me was furthering my skills and my learnings in Safety Instrumentation and Emergency Shutdown Systems for Process Industries Using IEC 61511 and IEC 61508 during this course. This course material was well designed and easy to understand to explain the standards to all the students. We were very lucky have Dave Macdonald for this topic.
I would also like to take this opportunity to personally thank Erin Gill, the course co-ordinator as she was very responsive and always very proactive in helping us.
GPI01: Graduate Diploma in Project Management
Again, I was fortunate to be one of the first students to complete this course. After completing this course I’ve taken on roles as lead ICSS engineer for Santos GLNG project. I’ve also had the privilege of spending almost two years in Houston Texas at the EPCM contractor’s office to supervise the EPCM teams and activities such as design reviews and approvals. All the modules in the course allowed me to reach a new level in the PMT field.
MIA01: Master of Engineering
I am very proud to have been one of the pioneers and batch of the first successful students to complete this course. This course was a huge challenge for me personally. As mentioned before that, without the technical writing course skills and completion of MIA01 it would not have been possible. I was almost about to give up until Natalie Holland and Robert Holm provided me the relentless support to complete the course.
In summary, my time with EIT has enriched my life in many ways. It’s provided me with the necessary tools to enhance my technical skills even further, taught me valuable information about this diverse world and people and concepts in general and eventually will allow me to hopefully become even more successful in my working life once I’ve finally graduated with my master degree.
EIT in the workplace
In 2005 I moved to Australia and started my career as an Instrument Technician. As part of my career development I decided to update my qualifications. My first course in Australia was the Instrumentation, automation and process control with IDC. Completion of this valuable certificate course took me to the next level as a commissioning controls system engineer for the Alcan Gove G3 project. During this project commissioning I gradually got involved in the process control world and had taken another IDC course in process control and loop tuning to expand understanding about the process control.
I’ve continued working in Instrumentation and controls space as an Engineer and gained extensive experience in this field including Design, Programming and Commissioning. This included hands on experience as a Control Systems Engineer / Process Control Engineer and Functional Safety Systems Engineer. It has allowed me to work various major DCS systems such as: Siemens (S5, S7-200, S7-300, S7-400), Emerson (Delta V DCS), Rockwell (Micrologix, SLC, Contrologix etc), GE Fanuc (90-30), HIMA Safety system, Triconex and Honeywell safety Manager. Through my work exposure I gained proficiency in communication protocols such as Serial (RS232/485), Control Net, Profibus, Modbus, Field foundation bus, HART, Data Highway and Modbus TCP/IP.
In conclusion, during my 20 years of experience in fields of Process Control Systems Engineering, I have commissioned a diversity of automation projects for multiple industries such as: Pulp and Paper, Oil and gas, Mining, Power, Water, and Petrochemicals in various locations all over the world. It has also allowed me to conduct the maintenance and modifications relevant to instrumentation as per the process requirements in numerous situations.
My work ethic ensures that I always strive to produce quality work and the best of my ability whether I’m working as part of a team or on my own. I’m always striving to maintain an open mind and am comfortable working under pressure to meet clients deadlines.
I have completed the following qualification namely: Advanced Diploma DIA01, Graduate Diploma GPI01 and MIA01 in Industrial Automation with IDC technology / Engineering Institute of Technology as part of furthering my career development to fulfil the educational gaps I was missing. This course was conducted by very experienced and qualified instructors/ Lecturers.
Training and career goals in the next 5 years...
With my recent Master degree from EIT, I believe it will allow me to reach the very top levels in the field of project management. As you can see I have developed from technician to lead engineer PMT. I can’t see any road blocks to becoming a senior project management member in the LNG industry with in the next 5 years.