TIRUCHY: The National Institute of Technology in Tiruchy is all set to get a woman director for the first time in its 50-year history.
Mini Shaji Thomas, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University, is about to take charge by this month-end. With 29 years of teaching and research experience in the field of power systems, Thomas is presently serving as director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the JMI.
Ever since the previous director left office some five months back, present director-in-charge G Kannabiran has been managing the affairs at the prestigious technical institution.
Thomas was the Head of the JMI Department of Electrical Engineering between 2005 and 2008.
Earlier, she had served as a faculty member in the Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi (now DTU), and at the Regional Engineering College (now NIT) Calicut, Kerala. She graduated from the University of Kerala with a gold medal and subsequently completed her M Tech from IIT Madras, again with a gold medal and Siemens Prize. She did her PhD in IIT Delhi in electrical engineering. At present, she is a Distinguished Lecturer (DL) of the IEEE Power and Energy Society.
Mini has done extensive research work in the area of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Substation and Distribution Automation and Smart Grid. She has published over 100 research papers in International Journals and attended conferences of repute.
Thomas has written the textbook on ‘Power system SCADA and smart grids’, CRC Press Taylor and Francis. She has successfully completed many research projects and is the coordinator of the Special Assistance Programme on Power System Automation of the University Grants Commission, Government of India. She also reviews reputed journals in her field.