Many Malaysians have dreamed of working in companies such as NASA or Tesla at some point in their lives but not many are able to realize that dream due to the lack of funds and opportunities.
Despite all the challenges, a fellow Malaysian student managed to beat all the odds and landed herself a job in Elon Musk’s Tesla!
Fakhirah Khairuddin, an alumna of MARA Junior Science College (MRSM), is working as a technical training robotics engineering instructor at Tesla and is now living in Fremont, California.
According to a Facebook post by Dr Zulkifli Hussain on August 6, Fakhirah started from humble beginnings all the way in Terengganu.
She studied at MRSM Ulul Albab in Kota Putra, Terengganu and received a scholarship from Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) to study at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) upon graduation.
After completing her Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, she received another scholarship from the university to pursue a Master’s Degree.
Her extensive technical experience which helped land her a job at Tesla was further made known by tech enthusiast Richard Ker, who is also the vice president of Aerodyne Group in Malaysia.
Here are some of Fakhirah’s credentials as shared by Ker:
-> She has worked as a Propulsion Development Engineer at the University of California, where she wrote Matlab codes to study the heat conduction of a rocket engine.
-> She designed and programmed a robotic arm and won first place in the Northrop Grumman System Engineering Challenge 2019, beating 50 other teams.
-> She was a team lead and spearheaded the research and development of a Hexacopter Project with UCSD.
-> She designed a quadcopter, sensor casing and landing gear using the Solidworks programme. She also demonstrated new concepts through 3D print testing and improved the designs.
Fakhirah, who saw the post made by Ker, thanked him in appreciation for highlighting her skills. She wrote, “Hi, Richard Ker. It is an absolute honor to be featured in your post. I appreciate you for going above and beyond.”
Malaysian netizens were evidently proud of her achievements and congratulated her on social media.
“Congrats! Great talent [from] Malaysia and represents all women of Malaysia. Keep it up gurl!” Peter Chew wrote.
Azrai Razuan wrote, “Congrats. More STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) talents, please. Let them cultivate their skills... (studying and working) abroad if necessary. Our local industry isn't quite ready for talents like her, but hopefully, in [the] future, we will be.”
We wish Fakhirah all the best and to continue doing the good work that she does.
