Institution news
Speak Out for Engineering is a competition for young engineers designed to help develop verbal and visual communication in explaining technical mechanical engineering related subjects. The competition is organised and run annually by the Young Members of the Institution. Speak Out for Engineering (SOfE) competition heats take place across the globe. Winners from each heat are invited to participate in their regional final and the winners of the regional finals are invited to participate in the grand Global Final, the winner of which gets crowned with the global SOfE winner. Speak Out for Engineering competition is open to any Affiliate, Associate or Young Member of IMechE who has been professionally registered for ten years or less.
Participants, judges, and guests at SOfE 2020 Vancouver heat
Five candidates registered for the SOfE 2020 Vancouver heat, however, only four candidates participated in the competition. The panel of three judges for the competition were:
- Jovan Kovacevic, P.Eng., COO and Vice President (Distribution), ZE Power Engineering, Richmond BC
- Arlene McConnell, P.Eng. CEng, MIET, Systems Engineering Manager, OSI Maritime Systems, Richmond BC
- Zeeshan Khan, BEng, MBA, Building Operations Manager, Langara College, Vancouver
Alongside the judges, three CEP Committee members and six guests also attended this online event. The competition began with a brief introduction of Chartered Engineers Pacific (CEP) by Dr. Suresh Vishwakarma, Chairman of Chartered Engineers Pacific followed by the introduction of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and SOfE competition by Lewis Judd, CEP Committee member.
That was followed by presentations by the young engineers and university students based in Vancouver. All four presentations were very impressive and brilliantly delivered to the judging panel.
The presentations were:
- A practical hazard log approach, by Gary Cooke
- Application of machine learning in biological sciences, by Saurabh Vishwakarma
- Exoskeletons, by Dalia Kasim
- The human respiratory system and coronavirus, by Shefali Vishwakarma.
After due deliberation, the three judges, who are all practising engineers of various disciplines, agreed upon a winner based on both the quality of the presentation, and presenter's presentation skills to adequately convey a complex technological concept to the audience. Prior to announcing the results of the competition, Dr. Suresh Vishwakarma, Chair - CEP appreciated all presenters for their quality presentations and motivated them to participate in future SOfE competitions also.
The winner of this year was Gary Cooke and the runner-up was Dalia Kasim.
CEP congratulates all the presenters and wishes this year's winner Gary Cooke further success. Gary advances to the next level of competition: SOfE 2020 Americas Regional final. Appreciations go to all CEP committee members for their support and efforts to organise IMechE's maiden SOfE event in Vancouver this year.