Professor Hema Sharda migrated to Perth, Australia in 1984, and joined UWA as PhD scholar in 1985. After successfully completing her PhD in the field of micro-electronics, Professor Sharda moved to Melbourne where she worked at RMIT for 15 years. Recently back at UWA as a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor Sharda is involved in the internationalising of engineering programs in South Asia. She is especially active in India as she believes that India and Australia have very strong synergies in teaching and research, and formal collaboration and educational linkages between the two countries will substantially increase opportunities for both Indian and Australian students.
As an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), her major focus is on having strong linkages between IIT and UWA, as both are world class Institutes known for their quality of education and research. UWA has signed an MOU with IIT Madras, and IIT Delhi for staff students exchange and research collaboration. There are several other Mou negotiations with premier Indian Institutes in the pipeline. UWA has introduced 50 additional research scholarships for Indian students based on merit in various fields. More information about these scholarships is available on http://www.scholarships.uwa.edu.au/
Professor Sharda has supervised many Masters and PhD students in the field of Computer Engineering, and Parallel Processing.
Professor Sharda's current research interest is in the area of internationalization of Engineering education, and she speaks at various forums and conferences on teaching and learning in a multi-cultural environment. She is also committed to promoting women in Engineering.