The Engineering Students Association (ESA) held the 5th edition of the Annual International Engineering Students Conference (IESC 5.0) on the 24th and 25th March 2022 at the University of Nairobi Towers. The conference brought together over 250 student engineers from various universities and industry players across the country. The theme for this year’s conference was “Engineering for Humanity.”

The 2-day conference comprised a series of activities key among them; Keynote addresses, panel discussions, exhibition, sponsors addresses, workshops, and projects presentations.  

Day 1: The Conference was officially opened by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor- Academic Affairs Prof. Julius Ogeng’o who began his address by congratulating the Executive committee that organized the IESC 5.0;  saying “I am happy to support this initiative, I associate with it wholeheartedly because this brings out the true spirit of student professional power, students can now organize their own conferences and bring together such a large number of relevant partner says our student professional bodies are of age and truly world-class.”

The Dean, Faculty of Engineering Prof. Ayub Gitau also called to attention the success rate of the International Engineering Students Conference. The faculty has mentored students for the last 5 years to organize and conduct impactful conferences that expose student engineers to key industry players. Prof. Ayub also underscored the importance of professional bodies and the role they play in preparing students to join the very exciting engineering industry,  “after graduation you will become graduate engineers, you will become a professional engineer, you can become a consulting engineer and you will practice your trade with confidence. That is why we appreciate the support from industry for all our students.”  Engineer Evans Goro, Department of Civil & Construction Engineering also encouraged the participants to network with the invited guests and learn as much as possible from the expert engineers.

The Chief Administrative Secretary-CAS Energy; Mr. Zachary O. Ayieko  delivered an opening address and expressed his appreciation for the great strides the University is taking “ to move us away from the near-total dependency on  engineers and researchers from outside the country by empowering our local graduates to gain the key skills in line with the market demand”

After the speeches; the IESC committee coordinated panel discussions on Responsive, human-centered engineering practice.

On the 2nd day of the Conference, the organizing committee organized a series of activities like keynote addresses by Amb. Ole Thonke- Royal Danish Embassy who encouraged the student engineers “The job market has a huge demand for forward-thinking engineers who offer sustainable solutions that do not create more problems but actually offer solutions” and Mr. Richard Ngatia- Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry also highlighted the important role engineers play “Engineers are an important component in agricultural technology and the entire value chain. As industry players, we are interested in strengthening the link between classroom learning and innovation and Eng. Grace Onyango from the Engineers Board of Kenya implored the students to get a quality education to get the attributes the industry requires, even after graduation, students should look for opportunities to gain professional competency.

There was a panel discussion on the space of the engineer in the daily living of man. The panelists for this session were; Prof. Cleopas Maende, Eng. Phyllis Njoki, Eng. Beth Claudia and Eng Daphin Juma.

The engineering students also presented various projects on waste management solutions to smart emergency exits from fires, all of which are driven by sustainable engineering in accordance with the theme.

Click here to watch conferences Day 1 and Day 2

The conference was sponsored by KeNHA, Engineers Board of Kenya, Kenya Rural Roads Authority-KeRRA, National Construction Authority, KENGEN, Howard Humphreys, L'Oreal East Africa, Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corp.