Today, on March 4, as part of the World Engineering Day, the Belarusian National Technical University hosted an event-competition "Engineering Relay Race".
For reference: World Engineering Day is celebrated annually on March 4, starting in 2020. This professional holiday of engineers, scientists and inventors was established on the initiative of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and established by a resolution of the UNESCO General Conference, which was held in November 2019 in Paris.
The event is being held at BNTU for the first time, but already at the start it brought together several generations of engineers, namely applicants, students, undergraduates and postgraduates of the university. The participants implemented their ideas on the basis of five sections:
Andrey Safonov, First Vice-Rector of BNTU, spoke about the significance and goals of the "Engineering Relay Race" after the opening ceremony
– The Engineering Relay Race is a unique opportunity for applicants to take part in the origin and development of engineering thought. This format of interaction is new, and the impetus for its implementation was our common idea of career guidance and popularization of engineering education. Here, applicants can try on the profession of an engineer and gain valuable knowledge from students, undergraduates and postgraduates, working with them.
The essence of the competition is the step–by-step creation of an engineering project. The idea is proposed and described by pupils, students finalize it and propose an implementation plan, and undergraduates and graduate students evaluate the profitability of the project and calculate economic risks. At the start, Elizaveta Pekar, a student of Gymnasium No. 12, shared her expectations and impressions.
– My team and I are participating in the "Engineering Relay Race" today, and it's great that we, as students of the engineering class, can show our knowledge in practice. It is also an opportunity to declare yourself even before entering the BNTU.
After working on their part of the project, the school students went to thematic workshops and discussion lectures. For example, a team of students who proposed the implementation of an all-terrain electric scooter at a master class managed to create a mock-up of their project from improvised materials.
While the guys were designing, Nazar Gotov, a member of the student team at the Engineering Economics section, told us about his part of the work on the project.
– In our section, a team of students came up with an all-terrain electric scooter. We clarified the details of the design, and also decided to forecast critical situations in which the project could appear. So, according to the results of our work, the project can be considered more realistic for putting it into practice .
When the work in the sections came to an end, an award ceremony was held at each of them. Each participant received a certificate of participation, and the teams that showed the most vivid results were awarded diplomas of special nominations.
We thank the participants for their interest in the event and look forward to meeting you at the next "Engineering Relay Race".
