On 9th November 2019, IEEE AIUB Student Branch successfully organized IEEE Student Professional Awareness Workshop (SPAW 2.0) at American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) for the second time in the history of IEEE Bangladesh Section and Region 10 (R10). IEEE USA Student Professional Awareness Activities (SPAA) are oriented to enhance the leadership, career, and professional development skills of engineering students. This IEEE USA branded venture was provided with technical support by IEEE Bangladesh Section and also supported by IEEE Bangladesh Section Student Activities Committee, IEEE Young Professionals Bangladesh Section and IEEE Computer Society Bangladesh Section Chapter. The flagship event consisted of series of professional and career-based workshops focused on professional development, conducting plenary talks on timely topics and allowing students to understand the ever-changing professional world. Students from different universities from all over the country came to participate in the event.
The day was inaugurated with a welcome speech by Dr. M Tanseer Ali, Educational Activity Coordinator, IEEE Bangladesh Section; Sr. Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB; Special Assistant, Capstone Project, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB who talked about IEEE and discussed how IEEE SPAW is a great initiative for helping students to develop professionally. He further discussed the importance of professionalism in a work environment and advised the students to accept the change as it is a part of nature.The first session of the event entitled “Make a Successful Career as an Engineer” was interactively conducted by Md. Ariful Hoque Shuhan, Managing Director, REVERIE Power and Automation Engineering Ltd. The session solely focused on the qualities an engineer needs to obtain in order to gain a successful career and the importance of setting goals in one’s life. He also talked about the importance of paradigm and networking in order to achieve a successful career. The Speaker was presented with a token of appreciation by Dr. Mohammad Hasan Imam, Counselor, IEEE AIUB Student Branch; Sr. Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB.
The second session titled “Strategic Interview-Workshop and Networking Session” was conducted by A.R.M Abdullah Rocky, Asst. Manager, BKash Limited; Chairperson, IEEE Young Professionals Bangladesh Section and Shams Shad Rafi, Mentor, IEEE AIUB Student Branch; System Engineer, Bangla Phone Ltd.
The session started with inspiring speeches from the speakers and discussed the methods to tackle interview sessions conducted in the industries with the participants. Their session included a brief workshop on introducing the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threat (SWOT) matrix in which the participants showed their skills of analysis and problem solving by working in groups. The best performing group was declared winner and awarded. The speakers were presented with tokens of appreciation by Dr. M Tanseer Ali.
The third session titled “Initiating a Startup as an Engineer” was conducted by Arnob Kumar Saha, Deputy Manager, Office of Professional-Development, Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre (BYLC). The session focused on the important factors and key essentials that initialize a start-up and the methodologies to keep the start-up successful. He discussed different steps for designing: Empathy, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test in details. Furthermore, he also shared some tips of properly ideating on the ideas of various start-ups. Lastly, the speaker conducted an interactive session which included brainstorming and solving a real-life problem in the shape of a startup, where the participating groups presented their unique ideas and solutions.
The next session titled “Women in Engineering (WIE)” which was conducted by Tasnuva Anowar, Asst. Engineer, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC). The session focused on inspiring young women to pursue a career as an engineer in the industry. The speaker talked about DPDC and their mission and she inspired the participants by describing some of her future projects and plans. The speaker also discussed the problems a female engineer faces in the industry along with the many ways to deal with such problems. Mrs Tasnuva Anowar was presented with a token of appreciation by Dr. Mohammad Hasan Imam.
The last session of the grand venture titled “Authorship Workshop to Ensure Quality Publication” was conducted by Dr. Celia Shahnaz, SMIEEE, FIEB; Chairperson, IEEE Bangladesh Section; Professor, Dept. of EEE, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The session focused on introducing the participants to proper paper writing formats along with the ethics of paper publishing. The speaker initiated the session by elaborating proper etiquettes of paper publishing and discussed about different conferences happening in Bangladesh. She discussed about various types of scientific papers and frequently made errors in paper writing. Lastly, she talked about LATEX and the other peer review processes used by conference committees. Dr Celia Shahnaz was later presented with a token of appreciation by Dr. Mohammad Hasan Imam.
The day-long event was concluded with a closing speech from Dr. Mohammad Hasan Imam where he started his speech by thanking the participants for attending the day-long event. He thanked IEEE AIUB Student Branch for organizing IEEE SPAW 2.0, the ambassadors as well as the speakers, supporters, partners for their tremendous effort in making the event a successful one. Later, he and Kawshik Shikder, Motivator, IEEE AIUB Student Branch; Asst. Professor, Faculty of Engineering, AIUB, presented tokens of appreciation and certificates to all the ambassadors who participated from different affiliated universities and also presented the best ambassador prize. A token of appreciation was handed over to Mashrur Sakib Choyon, Event Designer, IEEE AIUB Student Branch; Ambassador Lead, IEEE SPAW 2.0. The day long professional venture ended with a group photo.
