We caught up with Berveleen Mashonga, Product Manager at Hyundai Mobis, to discuss her work in automotive – particularly her advocacy of women in STEM, and her view on industry collaboration. Berveleen will be joining us at AutoSens Brussels to discuss the future of vehicle parking innovations.
I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your journey in automotive, and how you came to be in your current role at Hyundai Mobis?
My automotive journey began at the age of 16 when I decided to choose a BTEC in Engineering course at college in the UK. Coming straight from an all girls school, right into an engineering course was a big shock, but I journeyed through and scored triple distinction, ready for university. After I completed my university degree and Masters of Engineering, I decided I would pursue a career in automotive in Germany, where I started off as a Program Manager and discovered that I enjoyed working in technology. Which led me to find a position at Mobis, where I have the opportunity to work on diverse topics within automotive technology.
You’re passionate about seeing women flourish in STEM, and in automotive specifically. Can you tell us more about your advocacy work?
Yes, I am very passionate about women thriving in STEM because I noticed in most of the spaces I am in, I am the only woman! I am lucky that I am in a very supportive environment, however, the lack of women, especially in leadership roles, is very noticeable. I started mentoring girls and women that are considering working in STEM to study a STEM course. One of my biggest goals this year is to officially launch “WOISE – Women in STEM Empowerment”, currently new on Instagram and LinkedIn, which will be a non profit organization to help women and girls who want to study STEM. I have been solely supporting orphans in less privileged countries with school fees for the last few years, so this is exciting for me to officially launch.
At AutoSens you are going to be presenting a session on the future of vehicle parking innovations – can you tell us a bit more about this?
Without giving a lot away, the future of vehicle parking innovations is an exciting topic with many solutions. And at Mobis, we are excited to share our expertise at AutoSens this year.
To find out more, you will have to attend our session!
And looking to the future, how important do you see industry collaboration being to the development and production of these technologies?
Industry collaboration is paramount to the development and production of parking technologies. Parking technologies encompass a wide range of solutions including automated parking systems. Parking assist features, smart parking sensors and vehicle, to everything (V2X) communication for parking. Collaboration among various stakeholders within the automotive and technology sector is essential in order to gain access to expertise, move the innovations forward and faster whilst maintaining interoperability. Industry standards and regulations are crucial for establishing parking technologies, as standardisation helps to ensure a consistent level of performance and safety across different products and systems, giving consumers confidence in the technology.
Finally, we’re really stoked that you’re joining us at your first AutoSens (having already joined us at InCabin earlier in the year)! What does it mean to you for the engineers of the industry to come together at this event?
As an industry change maker, I find it important for professionals in the industry to come together to accelerate innovations by sharing insights, knowledge and experiences. Solving common challenges are part of what the automotive industry faces. These challenges include safety and environment concerns and solving consumer demands. When industry players collaborate and share knowledge, they can collectively work on solutions to combat these challenges by levering the combined expertise and resources.
