Sahevaan Taneja
India

"Before this course, I was not well acquainted with validation techniques but I am now able to use them effectively in my work."

While working as a UAV and Prototype Engineer, Sahevaan Taneja participated in the online course Modeling, Simulation and Application of Power and Propulsion Systems. Read about his experience.

What was your motivation for enrolling in the course?
I have been working as a UAV and Prototype Engineer for about a year now and I found the content of this course to be very helpful in areas I was looking to work on. It also helped me gain additional credits to complete my undergraduate study.

How did/will this course impact your career or life?
I have learned a lot through this course. Not only I gained knowledge on modelling and simulation but I also learned about the processes involved. Before this course, I was not well acquainted with validation techniques but I am now able to use them effectively in my work.

A lot of my work involves modeling and simulating the performance of UAVs, sub systems and power systems. After learning to use Modelica in this course, I am able to create much more detailed models for my projects and to simulate a variety of conditions which I otherwise wouldn't have been able to do with something like MATLAB.

How was your experience learning online?
Following this course as an undergraduate engineering student, I was a little apprehensive about the difficulty of the course and my ability to perform well as it was a master’s level course. However, all the faculty members teaching this course were very helpful and proactive in responding to my questions (even when some of the answers were pretty obvious.) Their responses to my queries made me feel more confident to speak up and actively participate in the weekly live lectures as well as the forum. All their support made my course experience a memorable one.

Initially, I thought the final group project would be very difficult to work on, since all my colleagues were from different countries. However, the structure of the course allowed us to split up tasks and work remotely. Being paired up with professionals in the aerospace industry made the interactions and work very interesting and gave me a good opportunity to network.

What is your advice to someone who would like to take a similar online course?
I would strongly suggest anyone taking such an online course to go in with an open mind, be willing to let go of their worries and actively partake in the lectures and the forum. The professors are very nice and more than willing to listen and help. The online learning support team is also very responsive to any other queries and quite accommodating to requests and concerns.