POUL DUE JENSEN FOUNDATION ACTIVE OWNERSHIP Back to school For 2016 Poul Due Jensen Scholarship winner Radwa El Nawawy, one dream has come true – and a new one has been taking shape in recent weeks while she has been studying different water qualities, water treatment methods and water plant management methods at the same time as participating in intensive group work together with nine other students from across the globe It is Thursday, 29 June 2017. It’s the final day of school, and Radwa El Nawawy clutches her coffee. She was up late studying for this afternoon’s group presentation, which marks the end of three weeks of hard work on the intensive Water Treatment Processes and Plants course at the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands. “We are ten students altogether, divided into three project groups,” Radwa explains. “The whole class is working together on the same case study, which we are presenting to the professors this afternoon. We have to design a water treatment plant, and the presentation has to show that we have covered all the important aspects, such as deciding on the treatment methods and processes, calculating water demand, process design and the calculation of achieved drinking water quality, calculation of cost, engineering details etc.” For Radwa, taking three weeks out of her busy working life to go back to university has not been without complications. She heads up the technical support team at Grundfos’ sales company in Egypt (GEG), dealing with all the complex project sales, and as there are just two of them on the team, her absence is certainly felt back at the office. Hard work and inspiration The course has been a bit of a challenge. Radwa is a mechanical engineer by training, so the first week’s lectures in chemistry were tough, demanding extra attention and hard work. But she’s now determined to take her skills even further. Originally, Radwa was just planning to do this course, but she discovered that it could make up part of an MSc in Water Supply Engineering providing she collects enough course credits over the next five years. It also means that she has to sit an individual exam three weeks after the course. “For the group presentation, each presenter covers a different aspect of our water plant, but for the individual exam I have to show that I understand everything we’ve covered. Fortunately, I’ve agreed with the professor that I can do the exam via Skype, so I don’t have to travel for it,” she says. Luckily, the Eid al-Fitr holiday began on 25 June, marking the end of Ramadan. And with nothing happening in the GEG office, Radwa can give preparing for today’s presentation her undivided focus. All-round examination At 14:00, the professor and two lecturers enter the classroom, and the students take it in turns to present var- ious aspects of their water treatment plant for the fictive city Locosia. “It’s not traditional classroom teaching, the course is more like a workshop, and the students are exposed to a lot of case studies from external lecturers,” explains Professor Saroj K. Sharma, who is in charge of the programme. “Our assessment happens in four steps: During the three weeks, the students present their design progress several times. We evaluate the students every time and give them feedback on their methods and decisions. Every week, we also have a presentation from each group. Today is the final presentation, and on Monday, the class will hand in their final report where they have included today’s feedback. During the individual exam, we will test the general knowledge of each student, and ask detailed questions on the sections that he or she has been involved in designing.” Radwa and a couple of other students are not presenting today, as the session only lasts one hour plus the feedback questions from the teachers. But she explains that she will have the stage all to herself when she gets back to the office. 62
Download PDF file
Cookie policy