Testimonial of Diana

Please introduce yourself
Hello! I am Diana Ng. I am Panamanian.

What is your current profession?
I’m an Industrial Engineering and I am currently working at the “Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá” in the Industrial Engineering Faculty, as a full-time professor.

Could you explain your job responsibilities?
I teach classes in Logistics and Finance. In addition to teaching I carry out research projects and participate to international congresses.
I have also been able to develop academic projects to complete the knowledge taught in class. I was the advisor of the first virtual and international edition of the XXVI Industrial Engineering Congress. I also hold the position of advisor of the IEEE-TEMS students’ group at the UTP.
Moreover, I have been working in different projects to improve the administrative area of the Faculty, as for example the improve of the Communication strategies.

What is your professional background?
I worked in a brewery factory as material and container planner. In this job I was able to improve the inventory policies in order to reduce the amount of working capital used. I also worked in projects to reduce the amount of materials we hold in inventory, working directly with different suppliers.

What was your background before entering the Sustainable Industrial Engineering Master’s?
My background before entering this Master was my Industrial Engineering degree.

In your opinion, what are the main strengths of the Sustainable Industrial Engineering Master’s program?
One of the main strengths of the Sustainable Industrial Engineering Master's is the international connection. I was able to learn so much, in a personal way, by connecting with different cultures around the world.
The main academic strength is the impressive background of each professor. They really focus in a mix between research and what we could do in different enterprises positions. I would also like to add the fact that this Master give the necessary knowledge to work in different areas, from production design to business consultant taking the importance of sustainability.

What was the most challenging course or project you had at Génie Industriel?
One of the most challenging course was the “plateau projet collaboratif”, maybe because of my background. My previous Industrial Engineering degree was based on Panama´s needs. However, I learnt a lot of different productions techniques by practical experiences. The opportunity to help a real client was really enriching.

How did this Master’s prepare you for your career?
This master gave me the tools to improve my learning capacity, it made me try to include sustainability everywhere. My planning skills were improved.
Every time I want to propose an idea or to improve my classes I try to design the best possible way to do it to have better results.

What do you think about the way of life in Grenoble and its area?
At first it was shocked because Panama´s culture, weather and landscape are completely different. But once I started touring the town and going shopping locally, I discovered the beauty of Grenoble and its area. The way people prioritize the sustainable development made me fall in love with the town. Nature is everywhere. Also, I have never being a sportive girl, but the town pushed me into a really healthy life, and I experienced a lot of different sports.

Do you have an Anecdote to tell about your experience of studying here?
In my opinion the mix of the cultural and the academic  experiences is one of the Master strengths. Based on this, I remember a sustainability course. My group decided to measure the amount of time we used water in order to calculate an indicator and then propose different ways to improve our water consumption. The measurements we focused on were the time we used for shower and washing dishes. I remember that in my group there were people from Panama, Colombia, Iran, and Spain. Once we measured them, we started to compare, and we saw a huge difference between some of the measures and definitely it was based on our cultural habits. We learned that we cannot implement the same solution for a problem in different cultural situations. It was a useful lesson.

What advice would you give to a student from your country who would like to come and study here?
I would like to say that it is a great and amazing experience. First of all, Grenoble is a beautiful place you will fall in love with. Try to experience the local food, and if you know how to ride a bike, use it!
Regarding the courses, the way things are developed are different from what we are used to, but the amount of knowledge you will acquire is priceless, so do your best!


Diana Ng Corrales graduated in 2018.