Transformative Journey: How a Chemical Engineering degree empowered this alumnus to reinvent himself
Kartik Subramanian (Class of '98) chose to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo because he wanted to study a discipline of engineering that related to food, energy, advanced materials, and medicine.
Subramanian was eager to understand everyday needs from a scientific perspective. For Subramanian, the department’s small class sizes, the engagement level of the professors and the caliber of his peers made his time here memorable.
“I enjoyed applying what I was learning to everyday phenomena. For example, why the inside of my windshield may fog versus the outside, why flowing water doesn't freeze or how to design high-purity systems to produce sterile medicines,” says Subramanian. “I learned to be process-minded in tackling problems and opportunities, where there are inputs and outputs, and they can be balanced or adjusted to improve a condition.”
Subramanian found that the core Chemical Engineering curriculum of understanding fluids, heat transfer, mass transfer, and kinetics, coupled with strong math, was an extremely powerful platform to launch a career. As a co-op student, Subramanian paired his exciting study experience with excellent real-world engineering work experience.
Subramanian cites an example of how the co-op program works hand in hand with the academic program. The semester after studying thermodynamics, his co-op job required him to redesign an ammonia refrigeration system.
“In this situation, I was left wondering why 12 inch pipes were frozen on the outside on a very hot summer day. Luckily Professor Pal's thermodynamics class helped explain that,” says Subramanian.
Subramanian chose a variety of co-op positions, all of which provided not only financial benefits but also valuable networking opportunities for his future career prospects. His co-op experiences included working at Toromont/Cimco Engineering, a large industrial refrigeration company, Cold Springs Farm, Canada's largest agri-meat-poultry business, Syncrude, Athabasca, an oil recovery company and Apotex , Canada's largest drug company.
Throughout his career, Subramanian successfully founded and operated multiple engineering and technology businesses in the life sciences and biotechnology sectors. He is currently the CEO and founder of the DynamixE group of companies. He aims to continue to grow his organizations in the engineering, automation, and digital spaces within the biomanufacturing sector.
“My degree in Chemical Engineering gave me motorized wings, many varied employment opportunities, and the skills to reinvent my career,” says Subramanian. “In my experience, Electrical and Computer Engineering leads to systems and Mechanical Engineering leads to machines but Chemical Engineering leads you anywhere you wish to go!”
Subramanian reimagined his career completely at the age of 45 and made a fresh start. Experience and purpose led him to found DynamixE, the main mission of the company is to provide engineering and technology solutions to the Biomanufacturing industry. Additionally in the charitable work DynamixE is involved with, Subramanian hopes to spend more time mentoring and training marginalized people to improve their lives by working as entrepreneurs within engineering.