UAE Panel organises its first virtual SOfE Event

The highly anticipated Speak Out for Engineering event was held on 20 November 2021.

This year’s Speak out for Engineering (SOfE) competition though being the first ever virtual heat in UAE was indeed competitive.  UAE Panel team coordinated the event with the Academic Liaison Officers (ALOs) from the University Chapters in UAE to plan and promote the event. Competitors from the following three University Chapters participated.

1. Manipal University Dubai
2. Heriot-Watt University, Dubai Campus,
3. University of Bolton, Ras Al Khaimah Campus

This was a first of its kind event in UAE organised by IMechE UAE Panel in collaboration with the ALOs from Universities in UAE, Middle East Region. The competition is for young engineers, designed to help develop verbal and visual communication in explaining technical mechanical engineering related subjects. The event started at 12:00 PM, UAE time/GMT+4 with the joining of guests, judges and participants.

A welcome note was provided by Mr Faisal Saeed Vice Chair of UAE Panel – Middle East & Africa Region. The event was coordinated along with another UAE Panel member Bajes Maaly and contest Chair Dr Muhammad Uneeb,  Chairman  IMechE Pakistan Power Centre.

The following judges participated and provided valuable feedback, they are seasoned judges from diverse background and had training in evaluating competitors public speaking and communication skills.

• Miss Erum Ghayas
• Miss Erum Rizvi
• Muhammad Abrar Shami
• Mohammad Ahsan Jamal

In total there were six participants in the competition, all with interesting topics:

1. Subbiksha Sugumar - ‘Design of low-Cost High Mobility Prosthetic Arm’
2. Al Ameen Hassan - ‘Design, Modelling, Simulation& Fabrication of a Mini Jet Engine using Turbocharger’
3. Oroma Chukwu - ‘Advancements in the field of power’
4. Boshra Malainine -‘The future of transportation’
5. Raymond Hammond - ‘Digital Manufacturing’
6. Eshani Mhatre - ‘Dimensional Analysis of a 7 MW Wind Turbine’

This was a live event in which they submitted the abstract with the title and summary of their presentations before the event. Every participant was allocated 30 minutes, 20 minutes for the presentation followed up by 10 minutes Q and A session.

After the presentations were concluded 15 minutes were provided to judges for their discussion over the notes and compilation for total score for each competitor outside the meeting in a different room.

In the meantime Dr Uneeb engaged the audience consisting of honourable guests from Industry and Academics and invited their views on the event.

The final standings were announced:

1^st place - Subbiksha Sugumar

2^nd place - Boshra Malainine

Afterwards, the honourable judges were asked to provide their valuable feedback to the participants, they were satisfied with the quality of presentations and organisation of the event.

At the end Mr Faisal Saeed Vice Chair IMechE UAE Panel, thanked the participants, event coordinators and honourable judges and explained the next steps on behalf of IMechE and concluded the whole proceeding.