On August 24, Stevenage, Hertfordshire headquartered Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) announced Shramona Chakraborty from MCKV Institute of Engineering, Kolkata as the winner of the IET South Asia ‘Present round the World (PATW) 2016 finals in a ceremony that took place at the Hotel Hindustan International, Kolkata today. PATW is a global presentation competition for students, graduates and young professionals aged 18-30 years and aims to provide a platform to showcase and explore their talent and innovative thinking. 
Shramona Chakraborty’s winning presentation focused on the topic “Wheelchair on POWER: A revolutionary discover for the physically challenged.” She was awarded a cash prize of Rs. 36,000 and will now compete in the global finals to be held in London in November this year for a cash prize of £1,000 (approx. Rs. 100,000). Vanky Kenny Kataria, student of KK Wagh Institute of Engineering Education and Research was declared runner up for his presentation on the topic “Football Science and Technology” was awarded with the cash prize of Rs. 27,000. 

The competition encourages engineers to use their technical know how to solve a social problem, thereby inculcating a culture of application of their academic knowledge by developing their communication skills during the process. As part of the competition, the individual competitors give a presentation for 10 minutes on a subject related to engineering and technology and answer questions for a further five minutes. 

This year, the competition witnessed participation from engineers across India and Sri Lanka vying for the top honors. The jury included Professor (Dr) Anish Deb, professor, Department of Applied Physics, University College of Technology, University of Calcutta, Sankar Nath Mukhopadhyay, DGM, Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation Ltd and Prof (Dr) Amitava Chatterjee, Dept of electrical engineering, Jadhavpur University. 

On the side lines of the event, Shekhar Sanyal, country head and director, IET India said, “Historically, academia, students and parents have largely focused on developing their technical skills, ignoring a critical component – soft skills. There are multiple surveys that mention engineering students have been increasingly rendered unemployed because of the lack of their communications skills. We at the IET believe that a competition like PATW helps provide a unique platform for students and young professionals to showcase their presentation skills and in turn contribute to their holistic development. It is integral to their rounded growth as professionals and we are thrilled to see the tremendous response from the student ecosystem for this competition series over the years and wish the winner all the best for the global final.” 

Founded 145 years ago, Stevenage, Hertfordshire (UK) headquartered IET is one of the world’s leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community. The IET has more than 163,000 members+ in 127 countries, with active networks of members in 37 countries. For more details, please visit www.theiet.org.