IMSEI Student Spotlight: Ashwath Mukundan

You are sitting outside on the bleachers. It’s a beautiful day with a gentle breeze. Suddenly cars rocket by at 200 mph’ and only 30 feet away! This is Formula 1 racing: the fastest cars and the most powerful teams in motorsports. The sport captures the attention of hundreds of thousands of spectators every year, including Integrated Manufacturing and Systems Engineering (IMSE) student Ashwath Mukundan.

In high school, Mukundan became fascinated with automobiles and Formula 1 Racing which led him to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduation, he worked in various manufacturing and industrial environments. “Over the years, I could see the manufacturing space evolve, embracing advanced technologies and taking a giant leap in automation,” Mukundan stated. He wanted to be part of this change by blending strong fundamentals from academia and technical expertise from industry. 

Striving to be part of this change led Mukundan to NC State to pursue a master’s degree. “Coming with quite a bit of work experience, I was looking for courses that would enable me to bolster my technical knowledge and industry expertise,” he recalled. The IMSEI program provided the perfect mix of this expertise for Mukundan. “I was specifically drawn to the manufacturing courses offered here in combination with a state-of-the-art lab infrastructure, the Center of Additive Manufacturing and Logistics (CAMAL),” He said. 

As a strong advocate for hands-on learning, Mukundan was also drawn to IMSEI for its internship requirement. “An internship is one of the best ways to learn and apply the learnings in an actual real-world environment,” he explained. “The Co-op program offered by IMSE definitely is a big differentiator compared to other well-known programs in this aspect.” For Mukundan, he let his love of cars and racing lead him to Tesla for his internship. “I work for the Cell materials manufacturing team at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin,” he shared. As Tesla accelerates the transition to sustainable energy, Mukundan is happy to participate in this revolution. He is contributing and learning from some of the brightest minds in the industry.