Description

The project is a result of the international alliance formed with WIE SLTC and WIE UNA (Universidad Nacional de Asuncion) from Paraguay. It is the first project organized in collaboration with an international student community at SLTC. This will also be the first international project of the IEEE WIE Affinity Group of SLTC . The project not only connects our student communities but also has improved the networking between region 09 and region 10 greatly. ‘Together’ is a project designed to mainly enhance and improve the English proficiency of both SLTC and UNA undergraduates. The project is tailored to provide a fun learning experience along with engineering topics and to share cultural values with each other as well. As the project name suggests it is our wish to bring undergraduates belonging to our universities together and form networking opportunities for the participants. The slogan of the project is “Bridging the gap” depicts that the three communities will conquer the distance and work for the one purpose of improving each other . The opening of day 02 was the informative session on “ Workplace Etiquette ” which was conducted by Mr Samantha Wickramasinghe, a lecturer (probationary) working at the Centre for Communication Skills Development, at Sri Lanka Technological Campus. The session was useful to give our participants an insight into what workplace etiquettes is. The importance of ethics to Engineers was highlighted and we focused on getting the message across to our participants as the majority of them were STEM undergraduates. A comprehensive guide was provided regarding work ethics, attitude, values and ethical decision making. The participants were given the chance to express their take on case studies during the session. All participants were actively involved in ethical decision-making case studies and justified their opinions. Attention was also given to “diversity in the workplace”. The participants were provided with the relevant study material as well. The session was followed by a game of Pictionary. All the sessions for day 02 were moderated by Manula Rajapakshe and Achini Shashikala, organizing committee members of Together. The teams were assigned to Zoom breakout rooms where a member will have to draw and represent a given word while the team members try to guess the drawing. The game instantly livened up the team atmosphere. Soft skills often are not paid much attention in skill development but at Together we were able to boost up such skills through simple yet effective activities. Communication, team building, ability to interpret were all encapsulated into the game. Day 02 also consisted of a role-playing activity of telephone conversations. The participants were presented with several scenarios that vary in context and tone to role play. Important points to remember in making telephone conversations and do’s and don'ts were demonstrated to the participants accordingly. The skill area focused on this activity was speaking skills. “Together – Bridging the Gap” is a project, 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 session proceeded onto the game titled “Tug of War ''. Teams were presented with a list of conditions and they must search their household to bring items that fit the given description to gain points. The activity was a favorite among all participants. With this game, the participants gained hands-on experience of the proper division of work that will enable the successful attainment of targets. The day concluded with a Guarani Entertainment item and the announcement of take-away tasks. A take-away task was assigned at the end of each day to keep engagement ongoing throughout the week among the team members. The take-away task for Day 2 was a book review (performed in groups) and discussions via WhatsApp were held throughout the week till Day 03 began.