Veni Vidi Vici - GEC 2016 Edition

By Abhinav Kongari

Organised by Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and The University of Makerere, Global Engineering Challenge is a week where marvellous ideas are produced and unforgettable memories are made. Recreating a 9-5 work place environment, the students are tasked to work on an engineering project in interdisciplinary groups. The entire Faculty of Engineering is divided into multiple hubs and each hub housed 7-8 groups, administered by a facilitator. The most unique thing is that none of the hubs has more than one group working on a single type of project and this maintains the individuality and innovativeness.

This year the main focus area was the region around Bambui in Cameroon. Project topics ranged from Water Supply to Transport to Hygiene. All of these categories were suggested by academics from University of Makerere in Uganda and were based on real life issues. Having given you all an idea of what GEC was, let me take a more personal perspective on the competition.

I’m a Mechanical Engineering student and in my group I had students from the Department of Material Science Engineering and Aerospace Engineering. When these 3 disciplines work in a team, projects usually involve construction of buildings or automobiles or something similar. Our project was to devise an Anti-Poaching system for the African forest elephants in the Bamenda-Banso highlands in Cameroon. We had to have a cheap and robust solution and individual tagging of animals was discouraged. Having never met each other, the first day was spent on either arguing or sitting in silence. But, gradually we grew accustomed to each other, realised our strengths and weaknesses and started working on the project. The whole week was similar to a healthy symbiotic relationship where I got the opportunity to teach my teammates something new and vice-versa. The final solution that we came up with involve the usage of solar-powered drones to monitor the forest.

Everything related to drones usually involves computer programming and we had no Computer Science students in our teams. What did we do? We researched and learned the way to program drones through Arduino circuits, determined the angles at which they’d have to fly and even the view of their lenses. Even though we had no prior experience of the essential skill, we designated parts of the job according to individual strengths and then shared the knowledge amongst each other. Eventually, we were able to incorporate the idea in our project and completed it in time. I believe this was the prime motive of GEC, i.e. to find out the solution through teamwork and using each other’s strengths to succeed.

The week had 3 major milestones:

1)     Completing the project

It took a lot of effort. We had many failures and there were times when we had to start over again but we persevered and never lost heart. Finally, at the end of the week we came up with a design that we were proud of. Throughout the project, we learnt from each other’s mistakes and supported one another to every extent. It was my first project working in an interdisciplinary team and it shall be etched in my memory forever.

2)     Interaction on Alumni Day

We had the privilege of having Mr. Barry Tan as our guest speaker on the Alumni Day. Being a recent Alumni and having worked in prestigious companies like SNC-lavalin, Mr. Tan shared amazing experiences and also gave some profound advice. Talking about his past mistakes and experiences, he suggested students to get involved in co-curricular activities, participate in competitions and do as many internships as possible. His best statement of the day - ‘Don’t do a Barry’

3)     Winning the competition

All the hard work and effort was finally rewarded when we were awarded the ‘best communicated solution’ for our project. It was a great experience and I’m glad GEC provided me with this opportunity.

Finally, all I’d say is that GEC was a mixed experience for everyone. Some people were lucky to have hardworking and passionate people in their group while others were not so lucky. I believe this was a reflection of how life usually is. Not everything is always according to our choices but as long we persevere, everything eventually falls in the right direction.

An insight into Engineering at Sheffield - High School Visit by Abhinav Paul Kongari

This winter vacation I had the opportunity to go back to my high school in India, St. Xavier’s Bokaro, and share my experiences about studying at The University of Sheffield among students aged 15-18. I also shared with them the hectic life of an engineering student, responsibilities one has to face after coming to the University, different branches of engineering, wide range of possibilities and huge scope in future, specifically in fields of interdisciplinary engineering. My main aim was to provide them with the information of applying in UK for higher studies and remove their misconception and confusion regarding engineering as a future choice.

I started my talk by giving them a bit of information about me. I told them why I had decided to study in Sheffield, the answer to which is mainly due to pioneering lecturers, cutting edge technologies and it being a research-oriented institute. I informed them how Sheffield is one of the top 100 universities in the world, one of the Russell group of institutions and also one of the original redbrick institutions. Next, I shared my involvement with the IEA and various other co-curricular activities such as Engineers Without Borders and much more. Moreover, I told the students how one of my design lecturers designed the first F3 race car in the world out of potatoes, carrots and chocolates. Still can’t forget their expression after hearing that. They were absolutely awestruck!

I further informed the students about engineering as a subject. Most of the students nowadays, have no idea about what they want to pursue in engineering. They just know about engineering being a subject, not realising how broad the categories in it are. I informed them about subjects such as management engineering for those who are more into corporate part of industries and also informed them about bioengineering for those who are particularly into Biology but do not want to pursue Medicine. I told them about interdisciplinary branches such as Building Services Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and Mechatronics Engineering which are gaining prominence in the market. Being a mechanical engineer, I gave them a brief idea of what my course is like, what kinds of projects and assignments am I involved in and how rigorous a university course is.

After hearing so much, the students were burning with the desire to ask questions about how to avail such amazing opportunities. So, I informed them about how to apply to universities in the UK. I informed them about the entire process of application, the process of breaking your head over personal statements and also the need for references and such.

Lastly, I informed the students about the responsibilities one has to face after coming to the University. Miles away from the comfort of your parents, you have to cater for your yourselves, go grocery shopping, do your own laundry and so much more. Although these are the most menial things, they do seem daunting when you first think of them. Thus, I brought such things into their view.

At the end of the talk, loads of students were excited and it felt really good to have shared some knowledge about my field with them. Remembering how clueless I was when I was in their shoes about a year ago, I was really happy to have been able to provide them with some insight into the world of engineering. Even the principal found the presentation really profound and has invited me to come back again next year!