I was first introduced to IET USMC On Campus when attending a plant tour organised by them. It impressed me how a small group of students were running a miscellany of activities at our campus: from the Paper Plane Competition to the Microsoft Road to Imagine Cup workshop. So when the committee positions became vacant, without any hesitation, I applied for the secretary’s post. Fortunately, I got the position and proudly became part of the USMC IET On Campus committee for the year 2017/2018.
Since then three months have passed. Our committee has gelled together, held a t-shirt design competition and even organised an event: the IET-IMechE Egg Challenge. But it wasn’t till the end of last month that we held our first international event!
On the 27th of January, we organised a networking session with two other IET On Campus groups: IET PSB Academy On Campus (Singapore) and IET Strathclyde (Scotland). The idea of a networking session first rose when USMC IET president, Gan Yi Xien, got in touch with the vice-president of IET PSB Academy, Ken Lee, through a mutual friend. We decided to meet sometime in January as Ken had a couple of friends from IET Strathclyde coming over to Singapore for an exchange program.
The days sped by and before long it was the 27th of January. We met our guests in the USMC foyer at 2pm and were briefed on the plan for the day by Yi Xien and Ken. Following a campus tour, we left for lunch to Rasa Ria Café in Gelang Patah, a suggestion by Lee Jun Xuan, IET USMC’s event organiser. Delightfully, two of our IET advisors (Ivan Ling and Dr. Grace Chai) agreed to join us.
Over the next hour, we indulged into a variety of Asian delicacies and discussed the prospects of collaborating over future events. Since IET PSB Academy On Campus was voted the Best On Campus in the World, it was worth getting tips from them on how USMC IET can raise its standards. To end the event, we had a group photo taken and exchanged a few souvenirs.
The experience of organising an international IET event, that involved On Campus committee members from across 3 countries, was a unique and remarkable one. It helped us gain an insight into the way other On Campus committees operate and helped us get to know more people that share the same interests as us.
(If you’re interested in reading about the Egg Challenge, organised earlier in January, feel free to check out this blog post by a good friend of mine and the president of USMC IET On Campus: http://generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/malaysiacampus/2018/01/31/the-great-egg-challenge/)