After her NEET aspirations were shattered, Rithuparna KS hesitantly went ahead to pursue engineering. Now, three years later, the Sahaydri College student is training with the Jet Engine Manufacturing Division of Rolls-Royce with a lucrative offer of Rs 72 lakh, reported The Times of India.
What began as a reluctant draw towards engineering turned into a ground-breaking journey marked by her sheer perseverance and hard work. The result? A pre-placement offer.
Daughter of Saresh KN and Geetha Saresh, and elder sister to Rithvika KS, Rithuparna hails from Koduru in Thirthahalli taluk. She did her schooling at Sr Agnes and is now pursuing a BE in Robotics and Automation Engineering.
Speaking to TOI, she said, “After PUC, my dream was to become a doctor. However, when my NEET results did not fetch a government seat, I secured a government seat in the 2022 CET counselling and enrolled at Sahyadri College. Though disheartened initially, from day one of college, I began exploring and ideating."
The first project she undertook was aimed at resolving the problems faced by arecanut farmers with the help of robotics. Along with a team, she introduced a harvester and sprayer model at the Goa INEX competition, earning a gold and silver medal.
She was also a part of a research team at National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) Surathkal, where she interacted with doctors and observed robotic surgery and later met the then Deputy Commissioner, Mullai Muhilan MP and joined a team to set up an app for solid waste management.
Meanwhile, she reached out to Rolls-Royce for an internship. However, she was displeased when they asked her, “Do you even qualify to be part of our firm?” and reportedly said that she would not be able to achieve the target of even one of the assigned tasks in a month.
However, Rithuparna expressed her confidence in completing the task and requested them to give her a task.
They eventually assigned her a task with a one-month deadline. Although she didn’t fully grasp it at first, she put in relentless effort, researched extensively from various sources, and completed it within just a week.
Impressed, the company gave her another assignment. What followed were eight challenging months filled with obstacles and multiple intense interview rounds.
Just when she began to doubt whether things would fall into place, she received a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) in December 2024. The company asked her to start working remotely from January 2, with a midnight-to-6 am schedule — while still juggling her college commitments.
Once she finishes her seventh semester, she will transition to the company’s Texas unit in the US. In late April, another unexpected reward came her way: the company revised her annual package from Rs 39.6 lakh per annum (LPA) to Rs 72.3 LPA, which she will begin receiving upon officially joining.
Lawrence Joseph Fernandes, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics & Automation, expressed pride in her accomplishment and said the college is delighted with her success.
