‘Legendary’ Chief Engineer Awarded Master’s Degree Summa Cum Laude

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Celebrating his 60^th birthday next year, Mr Sanjay Narain’s summa cum laude Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering is a testament not only to his hard work in completing his qualification part-time while working as a chief engineer at Eskom, but also to the age-old adage that it is never too late!

Narain’s master’s qualification topic involved simulating high-voltage insulators to determine factors including performance, design enhancements and failure mechanisms, a topic chosen because of the skills gap he observed at Eskom regarding insulators.

Supervised by Dr Mohamed Khan and Dr Andrew Swanson, Narain used the Finite Element Design technique to investigate how the simulated electric field behaviour around the insulator could affect performance or lead to improvements. His quest to find solutions was sparked by his intimate involvement with insulation for high-voltage transmission lines in his work.

One of the biggest challenges involved correlating software simulations with real-world behaviour. Narain was pleasantly surprised as the theoretical simulations coincided “beautifully” with the lab work performed at UKZN.

He submitted two conference papers from his work.

‘Sanjay is a legend at Eskom, mentoring many young engineers and excelling at what he does in Lines Engineering Services,’ said Khan. ‘It surprised me when he approached me to do his master’s degree, but what followed was not surprising - Sanjay completed his degree part-time within two years while maintaining all his responsibilities at work. When I shared his result with his manager at Eskom, she casually replied that she expected nothing less,’ he said.

Narain enrolled in undergraduate studies at UKZN in the late 1980s. He said the University felt like home and imprinted on him a memorable tertiary education experience through the friendships he formed, the Institution’s rich culture, history and tradition…and the outstanding cafeteria food!

He completed his BSc and BEng degrees at UKZN in 1987 and 1992 and since 1998 has worked to formulate new solutions and solve real world problems in his role at Eskom, saying UKZN had provided him with the engineering mindset to accomplish this.

Narain praised Khan and Swanson for their guidance, saying weekly meetings with Khan went beyond simply the subject matter and included life coaching, with Swanson’s technical expertise being indispensable.

‘Postgraduate studies are more than just technical content but rather the attitude and broader perspectives that come with the territory,’ added Narain.

Narain thanked his wife, children and other family members for being encouraging, accommodating and supportive of his studies.

He plans to pursue a PhD in Engineering, relishing every experience as an opportunity to learn something new, whether or not it applies directly to the tasks at hand.

Narain said his studies are in honour of his father, a wise man who passed away in 2001.

Words: Christine Cuénod

Photograph: Sethu Dlamini