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{{short description|Indian electrical engineer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha
| image = ALalitha1964.png
| alt = A smiling middle-aged South Asian woman, wearing a sari.
| caption = A. Lalitha, photographed in 1964 in New York.
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = 27 August 1919
| birth_place =
| death_date = 1979
| death_place =
| nationality = Indian
| other_names =
| occupation = Engineer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|MIEE|BEng}}(A Lalitha) (27 August 1919 – 12 October 1979) was India's first female engineer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@theteluguarchive/indias-first-female-engineer-lalitha-ayyalasomayajula-bdd40f04ebf2|title=India’s first female engineer: Lalitha Ayyalasomayajula|last=Archive|first=The Telugu|date=2019-07-24|website=Medium|access-date=2019-09-21}}</ref>

== Early life and education ==
Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha was born in a [[Telugu language|Telugu]]-speaking family in Madras (now [[Chennai]]) on 27 August 1919.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sen Gupta|first=Nandini|date=|title=Women who engineered a pioneering path {{!}} Chennai News - Times of India|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/women-who-engineered-a-pioneering-path/articleshow/78114701.cms|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-14|website=The Times of India|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> She was married at 15 and in 1937, gave birth to her daughter Syamala.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.magnificentwomen.co.uk/1/post/2019/08/76-ayyalasomayajula-lalitha.html|title=76: Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha|website=Magnificent Women|access-date=2019-09-21}}</ref> Her husband died four months later. Her father, Pappu Subba Rao, supported her wish to complete her secondary education and study engineering at the otherwise all-male [[College of Engineering, Guindy]] (CEG) where he was a professor.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> At CEG, Lalitha studied alongside other women engineers [[P.K. Thressia]] and [[Leelamma Koshie]] (nee George).<ref name=":1" />
As per her daughter, Lalitha was supported in the college by the administration and other students.
″Contrary to what people might think, the students at amma’s college were extremely supportive. She was the only girl in a college with hundreds of boys but no one ever made her feel uncomfortable and we need to give credit to this. The authorities arranged for a separate hostel for her too. I used to live with my uncle while amma was completing college and she would visit me every weekend.<ref>{{cite web |title=Women in STEM – Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha Rao – The Electric Flame |url=https://podcasts.whastic.com/podcast/women-in-stem-ayyalasomayajula-lalitha-rao-the-electric-flame/ |website=whastic.com |accessdate=13 September 2020}}</ref>
Lalitha graduated in 1943 with a degree in electrical engineering - becoming India's first woman engineer.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1054198087|title=Roots and wings : inspiring stories of Indian women in engineering|last=Mohan, Shantha R., 1948-|date=2018|publisher=Notion Press|isbn=9781644291320|oclc=1054198087}}</ref> She completed her practical training with a one year apprenticeship in [[Jamalpur Locomotive Workshop|Jamalpur Railway Workshop]], a major repair and overhaul facility.<ref name=":0" />

== Engineering career ==
After graduation, Lalitha worked at Central Standards Organisation, Shimla and helped her father research smokeless ovens and the jelectromonium (an electrical musical instrument).<ref name=":1" />

She spent a year of practical training in the electrical department of the East Indian Railways, before becoming a technical assistant in the Indian Government’s Office of the Electrical Commissioner.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|last=Gooday|first=Graeme|date=2020-07-02|title=International conviviality: recovering women in engineering from Africa and Asia in 'The Woman Engineer'|url=https://electrifyingwomen.org/international-conviviality-recovering-women-in-engineering-from-africa-and-asia-in-the-woman-engineer/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-08-21|website=Electrifying Women|language=en-GB}}</ref> Following this, in 1948, Lalitha joined a British firm [[Associated Electrical Industries]] (AEI) in Calcutta and worked on the largest dam in India, [[Bhakra Dam|Bhakra Nangal Dam]], designing transmission lines, and substation layouts.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /> She worked at AEI (later taken over by [[General Electric Company]]) for nearly thirty years before she retired in 1977.<ref name=":1" />

In 1953 the Council of the [[Institution of Electrical Engineers|Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE)]] of London elected her to be an associate member, and promoted her to full member in 1966.<ref name=":0" />

Lalitha was the only female engineer from India to have attended the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientist (ICWES) in New York in 1964.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4">Mohan, Shantha. (24 May 2017). [https://alltogether.swe.org/2017/05/first-indian-woman-engineer/ "The First Woman Engineer in India"] ''SWE All Together.''</ref>

Lalitha was elected as a member of the British [[Women's Engineering Society]] in 1965 <ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_9.html|title=The Woman Engineer|website=www2.theiet.org|access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref> and served as the Organising Committees' India representative for the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientist (ICWES) held in [[Cambridge]] in July 1967 and ensured that five women from India were able to attend.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />

== Personal life ==
Lalitha did not remarry after her husband's death. She lived for most of her life with her sister-in-law who helped to bring up her daughter Syamala, who took degrees in science subjects and became a mathematics teacher.<ref name=":1" />

In 1979, Lalitha died of a brain aneurysm, aged 60.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lalitha, Ayyalasomayajula}}
[[Category:Indian women engineers]]
[[Category:1919 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:College of Engineering, Guindy alumni]]
[[Category:Scientists from Chennai]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century women engineers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian engineers]]
[[Category:Women's Engineering Society]]
[[Category:Indian engineers]]
[[Category:Telugu people]]

Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha - Revision history

imported>Bearcat at 13:50, 1 September 2021