KNUST: Women in Engineering holds ‘SHE CAN’ Symposium

The local chapter of Women in Engineering (WinE) at the College of Engineering (CoE) of the Kwame Nkrumah of Science and Technology (KNUST) has organized a symposium to empower young female engineers in the College. The symposium-themed ‘SHE CAN’ saw over three hundred young female engineering students as participants.

Ing. Professor Mrs. Esi Awuah of the Department of Civil Engineering, KNUST in her remarks, charged the participants to be determined in the pursuit of their careers as professional engineers. She further urged them to be problem solvers in society and also contribute to academia through the publishing of their research works. She advised them to show excellence in their line of work as future engineers and build good moral standards for themselves in their respective societies.

Check This Out: GES gradually ignoring Upgrading with Degrees for Promotion Exams – Ellis Ferdinand

Miss. Emily Otoo-Quayson, a KNUST Mastercard Foundation Scholar alumna and winner of the Second edition of the Presidential Pitch Competition, encouraged the participants not to undermine the concept of ‘the power of small beginnings’ but take advantage of every opportunity that may come their way to strive for excellence.

She revealed that as an engineer, she partnered with Miss Matilda Asantewaa Sampong from the KNUST School of Business to come up with an invention which won them the 2019 Presidential Pitch Competition. The invention, ‘Floyabana Pad’  as she explained, is a sanitary pad produced using banana and plantain fibre and is targeted at rural women who cannot afford the expensive sanitary pads on the market.

To motivate the participants, Miss. Otoo-Quayson added that as winners of the Competition, they were awarded Sixty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢60,000.00) as investment package and Forty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢40,000.00) personal donation from the President of the Republic Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.

The youngest Ghanaian female pilot, Miss. Audrey Esi Swatson who joined the symposium virtually advised the participants to be diligent in their studies and explore various aspects of engineering. Miss. Swatson, referring to Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey’s quote, ‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation’, charged them to take up their spaces as far as engineering is concerned.

In attendance were Patrons of the local chapter of the WinE; Mrs. Emmanuela Kwao-Boateng a Lecturer at the Department of Chemical Engineering, KNUST and Dr. Lena Dzifa Mensah a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KNUST.