Feature
300,000 Await Engineering students
Subrata Kumar Das
 TO encourage cooperation and dialogue among the people from different countries and promote working together across continents on a joint project activity; Daimler and UNESCO invite student engineers from universities around the world to apply for the largest international engineering competition - the Mondialogo Engineering Award. Registration has already started and will remain open until 31 October 2008 at www.mondialogo.org.
This cooperation is intended to develop understanding, tolerance and friendship among the people of different cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. The first round of the competition 2005 ended with a symposium in Berlin while the second round in 2007 ended in Mumbai. In its first round, the Mondialogo Engineering Award brought over 1,700 young engineers from 79 countries together to work on engineering solutions tackling poverty and promoting sustainable development in all regions of the world. The second round 3200 students from 89 countries participated.
The Mondialogo Engineering Award invites engineering students from developing and developed countries to form international teams to create project proposals that address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to - 1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; 2) achieve universal primary education; 3) promote gender equality and empower women; 4) reduce child mortality; 5) improve maternal health; 6) combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; 7) ensure environmental sustainability; and 8) develop global partnerships for development. Mondialogo encourages proposals that will improve the quality of life in the developing world, particularly poverty eradication and the promotion of sustainable development.
International Project Teams eligible to apply for the Mondialogo Engineering Award should consist of two student groups from two higher education establishments, with one group from a developing country and the other from a developed country. The Mondialogo Internet Portal www.mondialogo.org acts as a contact centre for groups to meet each other, and will later function as a virtual office for inter-group communications. Teams will have time until April 2009 to develop and design their project proposals. An international jury will then assess the entries and decide on the awarding, which will be part of a festive ceremony in 2009. Key factors in the assessment are sustainability, technical quality, feasibility of the project proposals and the quality of the intercultural cooperation between the teams.
The following criteria will be taken into consideration when assessing the final project proposals:
Quality of project quality of analysis and understanding of a relevant problem, quality and innovativeness of project idea and design, and quality of presentation of the project proposal.
Degree to which the project addresses the Millennium Development Goals, especially poverty eradication and sustainable social development
Relevance of project proposal in mitigating negative impacts of climate change
Feasibility of the proposed project demonstration of the practicality of implementing the proposed project, and benefit to local community;
Quality of Dialogue level of communication within project teams and student groups, balanced involvement of both student groups
Awards:
Ten Mondialogo Engineering Awards of € 20,000 will go to teams with the top project proposals, with an Honourable Mention and € 5,000 earmarked for twenty more teams. Representatives of the 30 finalist project teams (consisting of one member of each student group two members of each International Project Team) will be invited to the Mondialogo Engineering Award Symposium. At the Symposium, each team will make a presentation of their project proposal, followed by an Award Ceremony where the Mondialogo Engineering Awards and Honourable Mentions will be announced. All participating teams that submit project proposals will receive an official certificate in recognition of their achievements and their commitment to the worldwide exchange of knowledge and intercultural dialogue. Additionally, Daimler and UNESCO will publicize the 30 winning projects.
Eligibility to participate:
Students from all fields of engineering are eligible to register for the Mondialogo Engineering Award. All members of the two (or more) student groups must be officially registered as students at universities, technical colleges or similar institutions through to May 2009. Employees of commercial institutions and companies or students above 35 years of age are not elligible to participate.
How to take part in the Mondialogo Engineering Award 2008/2009
1) Form a local/university group with fellow students, and then form a local/university group.
2) Check for other local/university groups that have similar interests contact them and discuss the possibility of forming an International Project Team, then form an International Project Team.
3) Register your International Project Team for the Mondialogo Engineering Award by 31 October 2008
4) Develop a project proposal as a project design exercise that addresses one or more of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
5) Submit the final project proposal to the Mondialogo team by 30 April 2009 (award@mondialogo.org)
If you are interested please visit www.mondialogo.org and register your name. You will get all the guidelines for the Mondialogo Engineering Award there.
Email: subratakdas@yahoo.com
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