WIE mini-Workshop in ICEEICT 2014
A mini-workshop by WIE BD Section took place at MIST (Military Institute of Science and Technology) during the iCEEiCT (International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Information & Communication Technology). 50 young female future engineers from different universities participated in the workshop. The main objective of the workshop was to inspire female engineers in both academic and professional levels and raise consciousness about humanitarian technologies involving disabled people. Dr. Celia Shahnaz (Associate Professor, Department of EEE, BUET and Chair, WIE affinity group, IEEE BD section) conducted the workshop with great success. During the workshop, the following programs were held:
Technical Talk-1
The first technical talk was delivered by Dr. Prerna Gaur, Chair, WIE, IEEE Delhi Section. She is currently working as an associate professor in NSIT (Netaji Subash Institue of Technology), India. She is one of the few female engineers working in the field of power electronics. Her presentation on PV array operated Electric Vehicle (EV) and the operation of PMSM (permanent magnet synchronous motor) was very informative and drew attention of the young minds who are interested in machines and solar energy. Using PV array as the fuel of vehicles is an excellent example of stand-alone PV system and also can be a great solution to the current fuel crisis of the world as the reserved fossil fuel is diminishing at an alarming rate.
Professional Talk
The professional scenario of engineering was presented by Ms. Anamika Bhakta, Vice President, Technical Regulations, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, RobiAxiata Ltd, Bangladesh. Through her “Chapter of Professional Journey”, she shared her experiences and challenges as a professional engineer and discussed how she coped with those critical situations. Apart from basic engineering, hard work, dedication, decision making, problem solving attitude, proactivity, team work etc. are the qualities potential employers are looking for, she said. Through this talk, participants experienced a different side of engineering which requires not only fundamental engineering knowledge but also a set of qualities that the employers are looking for.
Technical Talk-2
The second technical talk was delivered by Dr. Celia Shahnaz. She showed a relatively new and intriguing method of biometric human identification, “ECG based human identification”. She discussed the problems of old identification systems (for ex: ID card, finger print, retina scan etc.) and briefly explained how a person can be recognized by the features of his/her heart bit rate. She also discussed the future prospects of ECG based identification.
Interactive Session
The theme of the interactive session was Assistive technology. Students were divided into groups and took part in a spontaneous mutual discussion over the topics related to assistive technologies such as hearing impairment, visual impairment, autism and use of assistive technologies in education systems. The participants shared their views and ideas regarding these topics and also learned about the current technologies involving above-mentioned areas.
Panel Discussion
A panel discussion was conducted by Dr. Prerna Gaur. The topic of discussion was the present situation and role of female engineers in the Indian Subcontinent. In this section, she shared her experience as a female engineer and placed a set of questions before the participants. Some questions were answered instantly and others were taken in a written form from every participant.
