UAE Chapter's Young Member Committee challenges engineers to Speak Out for Engineering

The Young Member Committee of the Institution’s United Arab Emirates Chapter hosted the prestigious public speaking competition, Speak out for Engineering (SOFE) for the first time in December at Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus.

The Institution’s Volunteer Network conducts Speak Out for Engineering, a competition organised by engineers, for engineers, annually. It was established to challenge young engineers to demonstrate their strong communication skills - an important area for today’s developing engineers. Speakers should give an individual oral presentation on a subject relating to mechanical engineering for no more than 20 minutes, followed by a 10 minute question and answer session from the audience.

The Committee was proud to be the first host of the Middle East and Africa’s regional level competition, which was well attended by guests from Heriot-Watt Dubai, Manipal University, Amity University and University Of Bolton RAK Campus.

The young engineers competing were Ahmed Qayyum (winner of the United Arab Emirates local heat), Sarah Munir (winner of the Egypt local heat) and Peter Akpoveso (winner of the Nigeria local heat).

After intense competition and impressive presentations from the speakers, Sarah Munir was crowned the winner for her speech, ‘Regenerative breaking’. She received a prize of £300, a certificate and the chance to represent the Middle East and Africa Region in the International SOFE Competition in Malaysia in February.

The judges were Angelo Manesero (BSc CEng MIStructE and member of PCE UAE), Stefan Miu (Senior Mechanical Engineer and member of PCE JV) and Dr Mehdi Nazarinia (Senior Professor Mechanical Dpt, Heriot-Watt University Dubai).