Balancing Act Earns Engineer Master’s Qualification

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Ms Naadira Ballim’s graduation as a Master in Waste and Resources Management is seen as a source of inspiration for women in engineering and students pursuing studies part-time, as she juggled her full-time role as a consulting engineer with her research.

Ballim graduated from UKZN with an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering cum laude in 2018, going on to join JG Afrika as a graduate engineer. As a water engineer with the organisation, Ballim sought to expand her knowledge of the waste sector becoming involved with further wastewater and effluent projects.

With sponsorship from JG Afrika, Ballim seized the opportunity to do her master’s degree, and careful planning, with some flexibility when plans went awry, helped her manage her professional and studying workloads.

Her research component was focused on a case study of the Waste Resource Optimisation and Scenario Evaluation (WROSE) model. With the emergence of publicly available Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and industry and academic interest in harnessing their capabilities, Ballim decided to explore how AI large language models, including ChatGPT, GPT-4 and Google Bard, could be used to analyse institutional indicators of the WROSE model. Evaluating its institutional indicators was previously time-consuming and challenging, due to their qualitative nature, so Ballim applied AI models to simplify this process.

Ballim received excellent marks for her coursework, while her research may inspire the use of AI for improved understanding of environmental policies and regulations in a waste management decision support system. She is working on publishing the study due to its novelty.

This research conferred valuable skills about the effective deployment of AI tools, and Ballim learned a great deal about South Africa’s environmental legislation.

In addition to her work and studies, Ballim served as Vice-Chairperson and now Chairperson of the Pietermaritzburg Branch of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE), which involved planning events, school competitions and technical talks for the Pietermaritzburg region - tasks Ballim called extremely fulfilling.

Ballim, who received the SAICE Graduate Engineer of the Year Award for 2020, also led her chapter to receive national accolades from the SAICE National Office in recognition of their excellent work.

In 2024, Ballim was also part of the Maselulekane Candidacy and Mentorship Programme, which guided her through writing and preparing for registration as a professional engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).

She thanked the Energy and Water Sector Education Training Authority and the Maselulekane team for their mentorship and the lessons she received and hopes to share with others.

Managing these busy years of juggling work, studies and family was challenging, and Ballim relied on her faith, family and friends to get through. Her husband, Dr Sulaiman Patel, a lecturer in Electronic Engineering at UKZN, helped Ballim share the load of all her responsibilities, and her parents provided essential support. A car accident in July 2024 led to a hand fracture, posing a challenge for the last stages of her research dissertation.

Ballim, who married during her studies, credited Patel for getting her through and thanked her parents for their guidance and encouragement. She also thanked her siblings and close friends for being an excellent support structure.

Intending to embrace her feminine and professional side while being true to herself, Ballim hopes to continue balancing her personal and professional goals, looking ahead to starting a family now that the milestone of a master’s degree is achieved.

Words: Christine Cuénod

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini