What is coming down the road for the automotive sector?

Cubic Telecom’s Punitha Sinnapan discusses long term tendencies in the automotive sector and her possess job journey in the market.

In July of this yr, Irish tech business Cubic Telecom appointed Punitha Sinnapan as its new vice-president of automotive design and style and innovation.

She joined Cubic from multinational chipmaker Intel, where she worked as automotive solution architect for the past 12 many years. Sinnapan has far more than 17 many years of industrial working experience in software program and method architecture and design, and extensive encounter in areas these as in-vehicle computing, autonomous driving, high-efficiency computing architecture and task and client management.

‘The moment I drove a auto equipped with the method I served to design and style was the minute I became bold about turning out to be an qualified in the field’
^{– PUNITHA SINNAPAN}

Cubic Telecom provides IoT software program to automotive, agriculture, energy and transportation makers, and Sinnapan reported her new part there includes optimising the company’s present-day solution tactic with new abilities for the automotive market.

“When you imagine about what is coming down the monitor for the industry in phrases of autonomous driving, V2X [vehicle-to-everything technology] and electrification, it will be vital for our group to spotlight Cubic’s competitive gain in powering these regions,” she explained. “I will use my management and attract on earlier working experience to drive our innovation concepts that address some key worries in the related car space.”

Sinnapan said the automotive market is likely through “a significant interval of digital transformation”, with new consolidated vehicle computer architecture, extra software package being integrated into cars and connected car services remaining deployed. Cubic Telecom has by now been concerned in linked-motor vehicle partnerships with businesses these types of as Microsoft and Volkswagen.

“Traditional automakers are focusing on electrification, autonomous driving and 5G,” Sinnapan said. “A good deal of investments into these technologies are on the horizon also. Waymo and Tesla are leaders on the journey to electrification, even though disruptors like car or truck-sharing companies Uber and Lyft are concentrating on bringing much more providers and incorporating much more making blocks.

“The following transformation beyond autonomous driving and 5G would be to infrastructure, for instance, V2X for sensible cities in the regions of parking, streets, website traffic lights and so on, with integration into motor vehicles. That is likely to be the most important change for the market above the up coming few a long time.”

The road to automotive style and design

Sinnapan said she has been a sensible thinker and problem-solver considering that childhood, which is when her curiosity in tech begun to create. “I was launched to a pc and the to start with programming language – Pascal – when I was 17.

“My initial mathematical procedure computer software programming code had me hooked! I rapidly realised how to get desktops to do advanced responsibilities for me,” she reported. “Ever due to the fact then, I have been on a ongoing journey of technological discovery and studying. It by no means stops.”

About the yrs, her passions grew to become a lot more targeted and she developed an fascination in virtual actuality all through her undergraduate several years in advance of majoring in state-of-the-art graphics architecture.

“I was then employed by Intel’s embedded product team in which I took on a job as graphic software engineer. This was an interesting time to sign up for Intel, as they had been starting off to produce automotive in-car or truck computing types and I was a single of the pioneers in that up-and-coming area to aid them on the journey,” she explained.

Breaking the mould

In those people early many years, Sinnapan explained conference shopper anticipations and solution shipping was tense but satisfying. “The second I drove a auto equipped with the technique I helped to design and style and provide was the moment I turned bold about getting to be an expert in the field of automotive layout.”

Whilst she loves the perform that she does, she also mentioned the challenging environments she has worked in, which include system debug classes, or ‘dungeons’, in which tables have been banged out of annoyance.

‘Fusing my capability to analyse difficulties and articulate options in a exclusive way produced my colleagues interested in what I experienced to offer’
^{– PUNITHA SINNAPAN}

“Persevering by those people environments and offering a solution that exceeded purchaser expectation ultimately produced people similar frustrated people today smile and convey their gratitude. Beating people worries gave me reason and a perception of accomplishment, which drove me to operate more challenging.”

Nevertheless, Sinnapan stated the most significant obstacle over-all in her job was staying heard and taken very seriously as a leader in a usually male-dominated tech sector. “I was elevated in a tradition where by we let adult males to shine whilst females consider a backseat and a tender-spoken, tip-toe method,” she claimed.

“Breaking the mould of that pattern has helped me renovate myself to grow to be a greater leader and I have awesome household to assistance my occupation. Fusing my ability to analyse problems and articulate answers in a one of a kind way manufactured my colleagues intrigued in what I experienced to provide.”

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