Fiza Sikandar, left, and Maria Rafiq were mentored by Agnes Doszpoly, a PhD student in biomedical engineering, and Dr. Kaisa Ejendal, a senior scientist in biomedical engineering. Together, they worked on a project studying the formation of dendritic synapses of primary hippocampal neurons in response to calcium signaling at the post-synaptic terminal via actin morphology. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

Six Pakistani female undergraduate students spent the summer at Purdue University as part of the Sister2Sister (S2S) Exchange Program. The program aims to empower Pakistani female college students to overcome cultural limitations that inhibit their participation in pursuing competitive and lucrative careers. Following their participation, these young women are equipped with the educational and professional skills, confidence and exposure essential to surmount the socio-cultural impediments inhibiting their entry and retention in the workforce and enable their contribution to Pakistan’s economy.

S2S is a public-private partnership led by American University and its partners, iEARN-USA and the Society for International Education, which has been made possible through the primary support of the U.S. Department of State. In addition, U.S. partner universities donate summer scholarships for undergraduate courses related to the participants' fields of study.

Rhonda von Werder, Purdue Academy of Global Engineering (PAGE) and Global Fellows manager at Purdue, said this is the first year that the university participated in S2S.

She said Purdue’s involvement was as an “international” branch of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, which is normally open to U.S. undergraduate students.

“The Pakistani students’ participation in the SURF program was pivotal in their academic preparation,” von Werder said. “The students have been exposed to graduate-level, scientific research from the ground up. Not only have they grown academically but also personally, as this was their first trip to the United States – and in many cases, their first international travel. They soaked up every minute of American culture and freely shared their cultural perspective with Purdue. It was a win-win situation.”

Fiza Sikandar learned about the program while attending the University of Punjab.

Samia Sohail Azim, a student at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, Pakistan, worked with Dharmendra Saraswat, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, on an app that farmers in developing countries can use to track input costs and labor along with other aspects of running a farm. (Photo: Vincent Walter)

“It gives women the spotlight and a chance to show themselves as ambassadors of their country,” she said. “It was a huge honor to be able to represent my country. I made a New Year’s resolution to join a program that would let me go to the U.S. as an exchange student, and Sister2Sister made that happen.”

Back in Pakistan, the students have faced a variety of challenges. Some pointed to labs not well equipped, expensive software and very little hands-on experience in laboratories.

“During exam week the load shedding and power outages are a big challenge as you are unable to access the internet during the critical hours of your study time,” said Maria Rafiq, a student at the National University of Science & Technology (NUST) in Islamabad, Pakistan, and the recipient of a 2022 SURF Outstanding First-Time Researcher award.  “Another problem is that in the Pakistani education system, there is very little one-to-one, student-professor interaction, which doesn’t give you a fair opportunity to learn and improve.”

Sikandar said the road to this destination hasn’t been easy.

“Because I live in a small town in Pakistan, the path from high school to university was quite challenging,” she said. “My obstacle was being a woman from a small town. My family forbade me from pursuing higher education elsewhere. Convincing them that I was one of the brightest students selected to visit the U.S. was much more difficult but luckily they understood what I am trying to achieve.”

Both Rafiq and Sikandar were mentored by Agnes Doszpoly, a PhD student in biomedical engineering. Together, they worked on a project studying the formation of dendritic synapses of primary hippocampal neurons in response to calcium signaling at the post-synaptic terminal via actin morphology. The communication between these synapses is key to learning and forming memories in the brain, which is something that Alzheimer’s Disease features a lack of, said Doszpoly.

“In the beginning and throughout our work, Fiza and Maria learned how to ask an investigative question and form a hypothesis, then how to go about answering these questions by writing an experimental plan,” Doszpoly said. “These are critical skills for any scientist and engineer to gain in a research setting, so these skills will be meaningful for their continued education. They expressed an interest in attending grad school, so I tried to incorporate some of these aspects in our work, having been a grad student in both a master’s program and now in my PhD program.”

Zoya Bashir, who also attends NUST, faced an even greater challenge after surviving a devastating car accident in the 7^th grade. The accident caused multiple fractures in her leg, and there was a risk of amputation, she said. Bashir was bedridden for months, and her inability to walk took a toll on her education and travel because the schools and other locations were not wheelchair accessible.

“That’s when I realized that there was a lack of inclusive spaces in Pakistan which hinders opportunities for differently-abled persons," she said. 

All of the women believe this experience will benefit them as they pursue master’s degrees and careers. Samia Sohail Azim, a student at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, Pakistan, said her goal is to pursue further education in computer science.

“This program was an excellent opportunity for me to increase my knowledge, build on my pre-existing skills and get exposed to new challenges,” she said. “Immersing myself in a foreign educational environment has given me insight into the multi-faceted approaches to learning that will be useful going into grad school.”

Her faculty mentor, Dharmendra Saraswat, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, said that Azim developed a chatbot using Python, integrating it with Natural Language Generation (NLG) tools and weather APIs to display weather data tied to a location, and used Optical Recognition Character (OCR) to help digitize paper-based records.

“Samia expressed a desire to continue engaging with my team even after her summer internship,” he said.

Zehra Arshad, a student at NED University of Engineering and Technology, and Amal Nadeem Qazi, a student at Fatima Jinnah Women University, were mentored by Steven Wereley, professor of mechanical engineering, and her graduate mentor Pranshul Sardana.

“Zehra and Amal studied how small participles interact with fluids and light and some principles of machine learning,” Wereley said. “Both women are in the computer science field which closely aligned with the summer project.”

Several of the women hope to pursue master’s degrees at Purdue. Arshad loved her time at Purdue and said, “If I get selected for grad school, I will come back.”

Bashir agreed.

“The architecture of different buildings and the innovative technology in different labs fascinate me,” she said. “With the excellent academics of the university, I’m convinced to apply for a master’s here.”