Married couple celebrate PhD graduation at UKZN

SHARED joy and accomplishment marked the graduation of married couple Dr Ramesh Kumar Behara and Dr Kavita Behara, who earned PhDs in engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's (UKZN) spring graduation ceremony last Thursday.

- POST REPORTER

The couple graduated from the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science - Ramesh in electrical engineering and Kavita in computer engineering.

After 23 years of marriage, the Beharas stood side by side on the graduation stage, not just as life partners but as academic peers who had weathered the rigours of doctoral study together. "It feels truly special to be graduating together," said Ramesh.

"This milestone is more than personal success; it reflects our shared journey, the challenges we've overcome and the inspiration we've drawn from each other."

Kavita said: "Graduating alongside my husband makes this achievement even more meaningful. We've supported each other through the challenges and celebrated the milestones along the way. Sharing this moment together feels like a double victory."

Ramesh's PhD, supervised by Professor Akshay Saha, focused on renewable energy systems.

His thesis, titled: "Optimised hybrid models for grid-integrated DFIG wind power generation", developed an optimised hybrid model to address the challenges in integrating data augmentation, fault diagnosis and predictive control models tailored for grid-connected DFIG wind energy systems under dynamic wind conditions.