Every improvement in vehicle safety has the potential to prevent serious injuries or save lives. Decades of engineering research have made modern vehicles dramatically safer than they were in the past.
Ekant Mishra, our next pathbreaker, works as Senior Biomechanics Engineer in the Research division at Autoliv (Sweden), an automotive safety company that develops products such as seatbelts, airbags, and steering wheels, among other things which are used in vehicles around the world.
Ekant talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about his master’s thesis in sports biomechanics where he worked on understanding concussions- a mild traumatic brain injury that temporarily disrupts how the brain normally functions-in ice hockey , which led him to the field of impact biomechanics, basically how can we use engineering to reduce the risk of injury?
For students, you do not have to know your dream career at 16 or even at 22. What matters is staying curious, exploring different opportunities and continuously building your skills.
Ekant, Your background?
I was born in Sambalpur, Odisha but while growing up I lived in different cities across Odisha including Sambalpur, Bhawanipatna, Bhubaneswar, and Rourkela. My family always valued education and encouraged me to pursue something meaningful.
From a young age, I was interested in the idea of saving lives or improving people’s lives. During high school, I was actually preparing for medical entrance examinations because I believed becoming a doctor was the best way to do that.
Although I performed well, I didn’t get admission to the medical college I wanted. Looking back, it was disappointing at the time, but it turned out to be one of the biggest turning points in my life.
I joined Biomedical Engineering at NIT Rourkela because it allowed me to combine engineering with healthcare. At that point, I didn’t know exactly where it would lead, but I knew the larger purpose: using science and technology to improve people’s lives.
What did you do for graduation/post-graduation?
I completed my Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering from NIT Rourkela. Biomedical Engineering is an extremely broad field. In the first few years, we studied subjects ranging from electronics and medical devices to biology, programming, and biomechanics.
Rather than deciding immediately what I wanted to specialize in, I tried different subjects and projects. Over time, I realized that biomechanics fascinated me the most because it combines engineering with understanding how the human body moves and responds to forces.
Later, I pursued a Master’s in Medical Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, specializing in Biomechanics.
What made you such an offbeat, unconventional and unusual career in Biomechanics and Automotive Safety?
The biggest influence throughout my journey was my desire to work on something that improves or saves lives.
When I started Biomedical Engineering, I was interested in sports biomechanics. I wanted to study human movement and help improve athletes’ performance or recover from injuries. To explore this interest, I got involved in projects outside my coursework and started developing practical skills. I thought sports biomechanics was where I wanted to build my career. During my master’s, however, I realized that the research was more focused on clinical applications than sports. At the same time, I also understood that career opportunities in sports biomechanics in Sweden were quite limited.
Instead of seeing this as a setback, I started asking a different question. Where else can biomechanics make a meaningful impact?
That question completely changed my career.
Through courses like Finite Element Analysis and Impact Biomechanics, I discovered the fascinating world of automotive safety. Until then, I had never imagined that engineers use biomechanics to design airbags, seatbelts, and vehicle safety systems that protect people during crashes.
That was the moment everything clicked. I realized I could still pursue my original goal of improving and saving lives, but in a way I had never considered before.
Looking back, every stage of my journey was important, even though none of it was planned from the beginning.
How did you plan the steps to get into the career you wanted? Or how did you make a transition to a new career? Tell us about your career path
The honest answer is that I didn’t have a detailed 10-year plan. Instead, I focused on developing skills and staying open to new opportunities.
After deciding to pursue biomechanics, I realized I needed more advanced education and international exposure. I prepared for the GRE and TOEFL exams and applied to universities in the United States, Germany, and Sweden. I was fortunate to receive multiple offers, but I chose KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden because it was the best combination of academic quality and financial feasibility.
During my Master’s I continued working on human movement analysis initially. But as I learned more about Swedish industry and future career opportunities, I became interested in automotive safety. I deliberately chose courses that would help me learn crash simulations and impact biomechanics. For my Master’s thesis, I selected a project in impact biomechanics because I wanted practical experience in the field.
My Master’s thesis was actually still connected to my earlier interest in sports biomechanics. I worked on understanding concussions- a mild traumatic brain injury that temporarily disrupts how the brain normally functions-in ice hockey and how computer simulations could be used to reconstruct real-world player collisions and evaluate the risk of brain injury.
There were two main parts to the research. First, I worked on improving an existing computer model of an ice hockey helmet and evaluated it by recreating experimental helmet impact tests. The second part was particularly interesting: I reconstructed an actual player-to-player collision from ice hockey using information obtained from video analysis. I used detailed computer models of two complete human bodies, including the brain, together with models of their helmets, to recreate the collision and study what happened to the brain during the impact.
The reconstructed case was a shoulder-to-head impact that had resulted in concussion. By analyzing the simulation, we could calculate quantities such as the deformation, or strain, within the brain and compare them with known injury thresholds. The predicted brain strain for the injured player exceeded the threshold for concussion, supporting the potential of this approach for studying such injuries.
Beyond the technical knowledge, the thesis also taught be some of the fundamentals of doing research: how to translate a real-world problem into a research question, critically review what others had already done, use experimental and real-world data to develop and validate computational models, analyze whether the results actually support a hypothesis, and understand the limitations and uncertainties in my own work. These are skills that I still use every day.
Although the application was sports safety rather than automotive safety, this thesis turned out to be an important bridge to my career. It gave me hands-on experience with finite element simulations, human body modelling, impact biomechanics, and injury analysis, all of which are also fundamental skills in automotive safety. The context later changed from protecting ice hockey players with a helmet to protecting vehicle occupants with seatbelts and airbags, but the underlying question remained remarkably similar: how does the human body respond to an impact, and how can we use engineering to reduce the risk of injury?
Together with the training in human body modelling and impact biomechanics that I received during my Master’s, this gave me exactly the kind of foundation I needed, helping me secure a position at Autoliv, the world’s leading manufacturer of seatbelts and airbags, after graduation.
Looking back, each step prepared me for the next one, even though I couldn’t see the full picture at the time.
How did you get your first break?
My first break came because I had prepared myself before the opportunity arrived. When I became interested in automotive safety, I did not just read about it. I selected relevant courses, developed technical skills, completed my thesis and learned the simulation tools used in the industry. When Autoliv was looking for an engineer with exactly those skills, I was ready.
That taught me an important lesson: Opportunities often come unexpectedly, but preparation is always under your control.
What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?
Challenge 1: Not getting into medical school
At first, it felt like a failure because I thought my dream of helping people had ended. But I eventually realized there are many ways to save lives, not only through medicine. •
Challenge 2: Not knowing what specialization to choose
Biomedical Engineering offers many career paths, and initially I was unsure which one suited me. Instead of rushing into a decision, I explored different subjects and projects until I found what genuinely interested me.
Challenge 3: Moving to a new country and adapting to a completely different way of life
Moving to Sweden was exciting, but it also came with many challenges. I had to adapt to a completely different academic system, culture, and way of living. For the first time, I was managing every aspect of daily life on my own while keeping up with demanding coursework. The long, dark winters were another adjustment that I had not anticipated. It wasn’t always easy, especially during the first year. But I gradually learnt that adapting isn’t about becoming comfortable overnight; it’s about being patient, staying open to new experiences and taking one step at a time. That experience made me far more independent and resilient than I ever expected.
Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?
Today, I work as Senior Biomechanics Engineer in the Research division in Autoliv in Sweden. My work focuses on identifying the needs and developing the tools and solutions to protect car occupants during crashes. Using advanced computer simulations and human body models, we study how different crash conditions affect the human body and develop safer restraint systems for future vehicles.
Autoliv is an automotive safety company that develops products such as seatbelts, airbags, and steering wheels, among other things which are used in vehicles around the world. My role is in Research, so rather than working on one particular car or product for a customer, we look further ahead and try to understand what safety challenges future vehicles may have and how can we solve them.
A large part of work involves crash simulations. We create virtual representations of a vehicle environment, the restraint systems, and the human body, and simulate what happens during a crash. We can then study how the person moves, what forces different parts of the body experience, and whether there is a risk of injury. We use that knowledge to understand where current safety systems can be improved and to develop and evaluate new safety concepts.
I also lead and coordinate some of our research projects, often working together with colleagues and external researchers to work on new challenges in occupant safety. Research today is highly collaborative, and I regularly work with researchers from some of the leading universities and research institutes around the world. This gives us access to different perspectives and expertise and also means that the knowledge we create together can have an impact beyond our own organization.
The outcome of this research is therefore not always a product that goes directly into a car. It can also be new knowledge, simulation methods, tools or safety concepts that help Autoliv develop better products in the future. Some of this research is also published and shared with the wider scientific community, contributing to the overall advancement of automotive safety.
My role is primarily a research role rather than product development. However, research and development are closely connected. Our research helps identify future safety needs, understand how and why injuries occur, and explore new ways of protecting people. Those findings can then provide the scientific and technical foundation for future seatbelts, airbags, and other restraint system technologies.
What skills are needed for your role? How did you acquire the skills?
The job combines many different skills: engineering fundamentals, biomechanics, physics, mathematics, finite element simulations, programming, machine learning, AI, problem solving, communication, and teamwork. The most important skill, however, is curiosity. Technology changes constantly, so learning never stops.
What’s a typical day like?
No two days are the same. One day I might be running and analyzing crash simulations. The next day I could be discussing new ideas with external collaborators from around the world, analyzing data, contributing to international working groups on future vehicle safety, writing scientific papers or presenting research at international conferences.
That variety is one of the things I enjoy the most.
What is it you love about this job?
I love that every project has a real purpose. The work we do today could influence future safety systems that protect millions of people around the world. Knowing that engineering can directly save lives makes the work incredibly meaningful.
How does your work benefit society?
Every improvement in vehicle safety has the potential to prevent serious injuries or save lives. Most people never think about the amount of research behind a seatbelt or an airbag. But decades of engineering research have made modern vehicles dramatically safer than they were in the past.
Being able to contribute to that progress is something I am very proud of.
Tell us an example of a specific memorable work you did that is very close to you!
This is actually a difficult question for me because I don’t think of my work as a collection of individual “favourite” projects. For me, what makes my work memorable is the opportunity to learn something new every day and contribute to solving problems that nobody has solved before.
The field of occupant safety is constantly evolving. As vehicles, technologies, and the way people travel change, new safety challenges emerge. Much of the research and development we do is at the frontier of occupant protection, where we are not simply applying existing knowledge but also helping create new knowledge.
Over the years, I have also had the opportunity to take responsibility for defining research directions and coordinating some of this work together with talented colleagues and external collaborators. Being trusted with that responsibility and knowing that what we learn today could influence how future vehicles protect people is something I find extremely rewarding.
For me, the most memorable part of my career isn’t one particular project, it’s the privilege of learning something new every day while contributing to research that has a real impact.
Your advice to students based on your experience?
You do not have to know your dream career at 16 or even at 22.
In fact, the job I do today was something I didn’t even know existed when I started university. What matters is staying curious, exploring different opportunities and continuously building your skills.
Don’t worry too much about finding the perfect plan. Focus on becoming better every year.
If you keep learning and stay open to new possibilities, your career will often surprise you in wonderful ways.
Future Plans?
I hope to continue advancing automotive safety research while taking on greater leadership responsibilities. I want to lead teams that solve difficult engineering problems, mentor younger engineers, and contribute to technologies that make transportation safer for everyone.
At the end of my career, I hope I can look back knowing that the work I did helped save lives, even if I never met the people whose lives were protected.