It was fun and excitement with many takeaways as the Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria, APWEN, last week organised her first SheEngineer family fun workshop as part of its SheEngineer, Invent it Built it Project.
The event had female engineers participants and their families in attendance. And with larger number participated via video teleconference as a result the COVID=19 protocol.
The President of the Association, Engr Funmilola Ojelade welcomed the participants to the event and outlined the order of event for the day. She also used the opportunity to highlight the efforts by the association towards uplifting women engineers during her administration.
The Project Manager, Engr Dr. Felicia Agubata enlightened the attendees on what SheEngineers is about and the agenda for female engineers.
The SheEngineer Invent-It Build-It program is a capacity building programme under the remit of Royal Academy of Engineering, a delivery partner for the Global challenges Research Fund, GCRF program that targets female engineers and public school pupils in Junior Secondary School classes 1 and 2.
The projects aim to cover among others; work with facilitators in United Kingdom Partner University of West of Scotland in collaboration with Institute of Engineering and Technology UK to organised ‘Train the Trainers’ workshop for 60 female engineers from all APWEN chapters. The workshop will build capacity on how to effectively train STEM Teachers. These female teachers will build capacity in mentoring junior secondary school students in STEM. These female engineers are expected to return to their chapter to share knowledge with their fellow engineers to also train 200 STEM teachers in secondary schools across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.
Further, the SheEngineer project will organize Invent it Build it challenge for 500 pupils in 10 public schools with engineering kits. Prize giving day. And it also celebrate achievements of Women engineers by joining the world to celebrate International Women in Engineering Day IWED. During the programme, women who have left their mark in the profession are recognized and honored. The project will also see APWEN develop a diversity and inclusion policy documents that will be handed over to NSE.
On Family fun workshop, Dr Agubata said the programme is for families to explore their creativity, bond and understand the science behind their daily activities as well as learn about amazing career opportunities that abound in engineering.”
The event’s facilitator, Dr Evi Viza, University of West Scotland delivered the keynote address at the event, she welcomed everyone and highlighted the activities of the day. She shared her experience on how she was introduced to creating tools from a young age by her father. she went on to give an in-depth development in fields of engineering. She also conducted a few practical demonstrations.
In her Address, the project manager and grantee of the SheEngineer Project elucidated on the objective of the Family Fun Workshop which is intended to mix family fun and learning while also creating avenue for team bonding among the participants.
Part of this workshop witnessed family fun competition where families performed a simple task and were graded based on their creativity, time of completion. Workability etc.
A number of families participated in the fun games and activities. The task given included creating a flying aeroplane from almost scratch.
At the end of the competitions the following top three winners emerged:
1st prize: Engr. Deborah Maiwada Family- 250, 000 Naira
2nd prize: Engr Bilikisu Danjuma family – 150, 000 Naira
3rd Prize: Engr. Dr. Adebisi Osim Family.- 100, 000 Naira
There were also consolation prices for 20 families.
The president of APWEN, Engr Funmilola Ojelade awarded cash prizes to the winners. While Engr. Chinyere Igwegbe, NSE National Executive member gave the vote of thanks and encouraged the winners to do more.
Some of the dignitaries in attendance are the APWEN president Engr Funmilola Ojelade, wife of Deputy Governor of Delta, Engr Dr. Ebierin Otuaro, Dr. Evi Viza of Wuniveristy of West Scotland Postgraduate Department of Quality Assurance. Others are past presidents of APWEN, SSA Worls Lagos State Engr Aramide Adeyoye, Rector of Federal Polutechnics Oko, Engr Unima Nwafulugo, first female Head of Services of Federation., Engr Ebele Okeke and hosts of others.
Report by Mariam haruna