The Engineering Students Association is a students’ body within the Faculty of Engineering mandated to facilitate the holistic development of engineering students. On Sunday the 20th of November 2022, 8 students from the university travelled to Mombasa by SGR at 8.00am then to Diani at 2.30pm to attended the 29th IEK annual convention themed, “ Sustainable Engineering in the Era of Climate Change” .
The students include:
• Churchill Ouma
• Linda Lichuma
• Shantel Waititu
• Sairin Lupia
• Brian Clendon
• Alice Mwando
• Munangwe Eugene
• Vanessa Ojukwu
The conference was held at Diani Reef Hotel for 4 days from Monday the 21st of November to Thursday the 24th. The convention turned out to be a great learning experience for all the students that attended. They were able to network in their various fields and learn the projectile engineering is currently on in regards to sustainability and climate change.
On Monday the 21st , the first day of the convention, we were picked up from Kijani Cottages where we were staying and dropped off at Diani Reef Beach Hotel where we attended the 1st Future Leaders Summit at 8.00 am. Different engineers addressesd us on the importance of Ethics and leadership. We thereafter sat through different paper presentations on ethics which were presented. We also attended an expo showcasing the different innovations by the student engineers. The summit ended at around 6.00pm and we were picked up and dropped off at Kijani cottages.
On Tuesday the 22nd we attended the Women and Men Engineering summit that commenced at 8 am. Talks on mental health and innovations from various male and female engineers took centre stage. The Women’s Engineering Summit was graced by Hon. Lilian Gogo, MP for Rangwe constituency. She emphasized the need to motivate both genders in a bid to revitalize the profession. Eng. Trudy Morgan, President of Instituition of Engineers Sierra Leone was also present and gave remarks on the same. In the men`s conference, gaps in the mentorship process was addressed. We thereafter went for lunch and subsequently had a brief meeting with the Dean faculty of Engineering, Eng. Prof.Ayub Gitau. The afternoon talk was filled with more presentations of various projects as well as a presentation by The Dean. The summit ended at 5pm, the driver picked us up and dropped us off at Kijani cottages.
On Wednesday the 23rd of November, we attended a talk on Unlocking Africa’s Infrastructure Development and its importance by Eng. Reuben Kosgei, after which Eng. Jeniffer Gache took us through water for industrializations in the era of climate change, mainstreaming climate change in infrastructure development and the role of green financing and green economy by Dr. Habil Olaka. Eng. Christine Ogut also spoke to us on building resilient infrastructure. After lunch we continued with the talks on Sustainability such as role of Nuclear and renewable energy in combating climate change and Energy transition by Eng. Florah Kamanja and Eng. Daniel Njora.
We then proceeded to the various exhibition stands and got insight into some of the projects that engineering firms are undertaking in regards to climate change. We also learnt about the various adaptation mechanisms adopted by various firms in the combat against climate change. The summit ended at 7pm and the driver picked us up and dropped us off at Kijani cottages.
On Thursday the 24th we woke up early in order to catch our 8am train from Mombasa to Nairobi and travelled to our various places of residency after arriving at 2:11 pm at Syokimau and taking a train from there to Nairobi town.
We would love to extend our sincere gratitude to the School and the Faculty of Engineering for supporting and sponsoring all of us as well as giving us the opportunity to attend such an informative convention. We also thank the Institution of Engineers of Kenya for honoring us with an invite and providing us with such an incredible learning platform. The students networked and made connections that we believe will enable them navigate the engineering profession.