The symposium which was held at Crossroads Hotel in Blantyre under the theme; ‘Sustainable Development through Engineering Innovations and Technology,’ brought a lot of key stakeholders in engineering progressions including representatives from the government, corporate world and academia.

Speaking during the symposium a Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and a patron for the event, Dr Witness Kuotcha said the students are not yet engineering gurus as for that they need to keep on learning from experts.

Kuotcha outlined three things which they need to put into consideration through what he experienced after graduating in 1993.

“When I graduated from the Polytechnic in 1993 in civil engineering, I thought things would go smooth; but things were not like that , I had to learn from experts though they did not had a paper like mine but I had to learn from them,” he said.

“Though am still learning, I have learnt three things that I would like to share with you. As students, you need to learn from your success not from mistakes because through your succession you can accomplish what others have failed. Secondly,as engineering students; you need to add a value to your degree ,people should appreciate your work and should bring a difference to the community and finally you need to follow your heart, following your heart will help you to achieve great things,” he continued.

A Dean of the faculty of Engineering , Dr Gregory Gamula urged engineering students to use critical analytical skills that they have acquired from the college to bring a solution to the challenges that the nation is currently facing.

“ We have equipped you with a lot of skills ; be innovative enough ,as you are the only hope of bringing sustainable solutions to current problems that Malawi is facing ,” Gamula said .

He added that the students should not get discouraged from other people at but they should keep on moving forward and they should be able to overcome  challenges that they might encounter.

Speaking at the same occasion, Airtel Africa IT Director, Dr Matthews Mtumbuka, outlined among others that the graduates to be should be ambitious in everything they plan to do.

He also encouraged them to be problems solvers who will be able to deliver accordingly.

Mtumbuka added that the students should be eager to learn from experts while being unique in their own doing.

The Guest of Honour Chief-Executive-Officer of Egenco, Engineer William Liabunya said the nations that are believing in engineers who have developed innovations that are sustainable, are ones that are developing economically.

He further said that engineers are people who believe in ethics and not short cuts and he urged the students to be ethical once they have graduated .

The students from all Departments of Faculty of Engineering had an opportunity to showcase their projects to the attendees . Kelvin Chilunga and Clement Misomali from the Electrical Department showcased their project which is mainly focuses on killing mosquitoes , a device called mosqui killer which uses a mini solar panel and a rechargeable battery of 9-volt.

While Mechanical Department was represented by Webster Chipwaila and Moses Munyani who presented mechanical project called Dust Extraction Systems, which is mainly focusing on removing fly ashes from a three-boiler-plants at Castel Malawi LTD to a bin.

Finally from the Civil Engineering Department , Chimango Mweso and Christopher Dzuwa also presented their project ,a software called Oasis Hydrosoft which will focus on monitoring the water flows within the supply systems of water boards in Malawi and will help in notifying them if there is a problem within that supply system in a form of signal to their master computer.