Elima Hussain
BIO
Senior Researcher in the field Biomedical Engineering. Proud and happy Mom to a 3 yr old daughter (Arshie).
Instagram: @hussain_elima
Elima Hussain
“Every day is challenging for me but being a mother has taught me how to tackle new challenges in life.”
I am a PhD candidate in the field of Biomedical Engineering. Currently, my team and I are working together on developing end-to-end softwares for early diagnosis of cancers such as cervical and breast cancer. More than that, I am fulfilled, happy and I am free of guilt - I am a very proud mom to my 3-year-old daughter, Arshie.
When I was young, I wanted to become a doctor. But I never dreamt that one day I would be contributing to designing and developing softwares and computer systems for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Since I was passionate about both human health and medical as well as biological sciences, this field was the right choice for me. Biomedical engineering combines engineering principles, computer science, mathematics and statistics with medical and biological sciences, to create smart decision making devices.
I became pregnant at the start of my PhD. During this time, I needed to go to various regional medical institutes for data collection.
I am very fortunate to have my supervisor who supported me mentally, and synchronized my timelines with targets that were convenient for my pregnancy.
I am still indebted to her for having the faith and confidence in me that I can succeed and overcome the gap I had in my maternity period.
By the time I returned to the lab, I could get back to my coding work since I had enough data in hand. What was striking in the back of my mind was the feeling that I needed to prove myself without taking the advantage of being a mother as in our lab. My friends would work until late into the night, however I couldn’t do this. Of course, I utilized my time with the utmost dedication that I could carry. With this, I was successful not only in publishing my research in good journals, but also received many recognitions for my work. My team and I are now working towards clinical trials of our built-in software in India.
Every day is challenging for me but being a mother has taught me how to tackle new challenges in life.
This I wouldn’t have known.