Together ‘Bridging the Gap’- Opening ceremony & Day 01
August 6, 2021 at 12:30 PM - August 7, 2021 at 12:30 PM @ Online event
Description
“Together- Bridging the Gap ” is organized by the IEEE WIE Affinity Groups of SLTC (IEEE Sri Lanka Section - Region 10 ) and UNA ( IEEE Paraguay Section - Region 09) in partnership with Model United Nations Club of SLTC. The project is a result of the international alliance formed with WIE SLTC and WIE UNA (Universidad Nacional de Asuncion) from Paraguay. Also, it is the first international collaborative project of the IEEE WIE Affinity Group of SLTC . This was our commencement of establishing collaboration with WIE Affinity Groups of Region 9. “ Together - Bridging the Gap ” is our approach to improve the English proficiency that plays a major role in the communication skills of engineering undergraduates. The key areas focused were developing reading, writing, listening, speaking and professionalism (concerned with engineering). The slogan of the project is “ Bridging the gap” depicting that the three communities will conquer the distance and work for the unified purpose of improving each other. The organizing committee consisted of around 55 members, including lead coordinators, ambassadors, secretaries, event organizers, publicity members, moderators, technical team and team coordinators from the 3 organizations. 27 members from WIE UNA Paraguay and 33 from WIE SLTC and MUN Club of SLTC. Project Co Chaired by Dalia Ruiz Diaz - Chairman of WIE UNA, Michelle Perera - Chairman of WIE SLTC and Jananga Sooriyarachchi - President of MUN Club of SLTC The Opening Ceremony introduced the concept of “ Bridging the gap ”, as we brought together undergraduates from SLTC and UNA for the very first time. Dalía Ruiz Diaz - chair of WIE UNA and Michelle Perera - chair of WIE SLTC presented the IEEE vision and WIE objectives in society. Participants were also provided information about both IEEE student branches and WIE affinity groups of UNA and SLTC. Jananga Sooriarachchi, the president of the MUN club of SLTC introduced the club and represented their motive of bringing two culturally diverse communities together. The importance of English for students in engineering was highlighted in the proceedings of the ceremony. All participants were given a clear idea of the aim and objectives of the project. As our focus was to develop a matrix of skills of our participants, an insight into the tasks and the schemes that will take place throughout the project was explained to the audience. The expansion of peer networks was encouraged and the importance of respect between participants of the project was highly emphasized. Friendship Overseas was a key concept at “Together” and a brief discussion on why we want to get along with different cultures and how it helps us to be better humans and future professionals was also held. We received numerous positive feedbacks for our “Friendship Overseas” concept from the participants such as; “I think that is important because with that experience I can have a wider vision of the world, the culture and the reality of other countries that are not usually related or similar to us. And English is a great tool to accomplish that.” Richard Decoud, UNA, Paraguay “I have the opportunity to network with new friends, share new ideas, learn new things, get to know their cultures as well as learn foreign languages. ” Lakmini Thennakoon, SLTC, Sri Lanka “It's something that I really wanted to do, but sometimes I'm scared because I don't feel so confident about my English skills, but it would be amazing to do it anyway and improve it. I think meeting new people around the world and learning about their cultures is a fantastic thing to do.” Jessica Medina, UNA, Paraguay The official proceedings of Day 01 began after the opening ceremony. The participants were assigned into teams to promote teamwork and networking among each other. For all informative sessions, 60 participants were selected from the registrants. Each country had 30 participants participating in the informative sessions. In selecting the participants, priority was given to candidates meeting the following selection criteria; Gender (More female participation was encouraged for WIE projects) English level (skill assessment and self-evaluation by participants themselves) Career (priority for STEM) Commitment to the project IEEE membership IEEE Volunteering The selected participants were grouped into teams with a balanced number of members representing each country. The ice-breaking activity was a great start for everyone to get to know each other. Following that, t he informative session on “ How to write Emails” was conducted by Ms. Achini Gamage, a Lecturer (probationary) at Sri Lanka Technological Campus . All participants showed their active involvement throughout the session with important questions, answering given case studies and presenting their opinions. Informative sessions were limited from stretching into hours. The participants were given the option to interact with the guest lecturer and to clear their doubts. The informative session of Day 01 focused specifically on writing skills and professionalism included in the skill matrix. Together incorporated “fun learning” as a critical element of the series. Each day will have a fun activity allocated to improve a given set of skills in the skill matrix. The alphabet challenge was a fun team activity designed to bring out the vocabulary skills of our participants while also improving the team spirit along with active communication. The challenge was a refreshing experience for all the teams as they competed against the time with great eagerness to win. Take away tasks (a crossword puzzle for day 01) and discussions via Whatsapp were held throughout the week till Day 02 began.
Agenda
*Time mentioned by Time zone in Paraguay (GMT-4) Opening ceremony & Day 01 (07th Aug 2021) 00 am - 9.15 am Opening Ceremony commencement, IEEE and WIE Presentation 15 am - 9.20 am SLTC MUN Club Intro 20 am - 9.25 am Introduction to the Project 25 am-9.30 am Presentation of the project 30 am - 9.35 am Interpersonal treatment between participants 35 am - 9.40 am Friendship Overseas 40 am - 9.50 am Group Introduction 50 am - 10.50 am Informative session 1 (How to write Emails) 50 am - 10.55 am The alphabet challenges 55 am - 11.00 am Song (English) Announcements & End of the day 1