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| Section of the Mech Engineering students at the "Social/community projects" lecture |
This was part of a lecture on the latest module "Social/ Community projects".
Purpose of the orientation is to ‘recognize diverse needs of the society and fulfilling social responsibilities as engineers’
Needless to say, I am so happy to see this. I believe this will break the monotony of semester rat race of exams & assignments. As a person been through it all, I am so excited to be a part of this new wave.
Here is my presentation. This is with few tweaks from the presentation I did for M.Sc students at University of Colombo a month back.
Overall, I am getting valuable feedback. Connecting with young minds is always refreshing.
I started my presentation by sharing this story.
" Exactly 10 years back when I was in first year at the mechanical lab down there, we were given an orientation to the lab. We had this very curious friend, who would ask many many questions from the instructor. That instructor was very compassionate and answered every question my friend asked. My friend was obsessed with the 'power in' of every equipment he saw. So he was checking for 'power in' of every unit he laid his eyes on. Then he hit the bull's eye. He couldn't find power in at one equipment. He asked the instructor, again. Instructor was now having a faint smile in his face.
He replied " Ah.. malli (brother), this is a unit where you don't get power in, it only gives power out. This is a generator !"
We used to kid our friend on this for a long time, but his insatiable urge to query never stopped. That's why he's now doing well as an Electrical Engineer outside Sri Lanka!
[ There is no stupid question. Every question has its' unique context and purpose. ]
In my presentation, not surprisingly, students asked only 3 questions. This was the case from our times too (I studied at this same uni from 2001 to 2004). We were afraid to ask questions, fearing humiliation.
Well, this coming week, it will be my turn to ask stupid questions. 16 groups of 3 students each, will pitch their ‘problem definition’ in pursuit of making their idea to see day light as a social/community project.
Why I should ask stupid questions? I need to know exactly what they mean by the words they say, and to assess if what they say is realistic to kick of a project. This is kinda BBC's Dragon's Den (a series in which budding entrepreneurs get three minutes to pitch their business ideas to five multi-millionaires willing to invest their own cash). Love it !
3 comments:
"A stupid question ?" It sounds like that it is not for sure..Very informative article about ur social works .
Thanks Chandana !
It's great to see that Sri Lanka is moving towards a paradigm shift in terms of the way of thinking. The all of us, especially the people who have the capacity to reach technical thought leadership positions, need to embrace entrepreneurship as a way of life instead of shunning away from it.
Young people have to drive the economy of a country. Mark Zuckerberg is only 26. But look at the impact he has made. Young people need to be inspired and given help and guidence to reach their goals.
Thanks Isura for the great initiative. I hope everybody who make the decisions that matter take up entrepreneurship as a boon rather than a bane.
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