MECA, Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Architectural engineering students in Cairo are celebrating their organisation's tenth anniversary this week, including by introducing a mentorship event sponsored by 10 companies that will present different projects for students to work on. Hassan Salah, in charge of public relations at MECA, said that besides the technical aspects of the event there was also a non-technical track for engineering students in their freshman year and for non-engineering students. Ahmed Mahmoud, also from MECA, said that there would be a seminar organised by the supporting companies presenting projects for the students to work on. The students would be divided into teams, and mentors from the companies would supervise them until it was time for them to present their projects. Ahmed Farouk, an engineering freshman at Ain Shams University in Cairo, attended a MECA technical event last year. “It was very beneficial, not only on the academic level but also on the personal level as we can develop ourselves and learn new skills by attending the events,” Farouk commented after registering for the mentorship event. MECA seminars are open to anyone, and speakers address a wide range of topics. Mahmoud said that the organisation's MECA Academy organised sessions in different modules, including on forming companies and project management. Students are divided into teams so they can form a company within the modules. At the end of the event the company sponsoring the activity rates their work. Mahmoud said that students go through two selection phases, a reasoning test and an interview to join the MECA Academy. As part of the organisation's tenth anniversary celebrations, it had decided to accept even students who had failed the interview, he said. This year is the first time that MECA has worked at Cairo University, Salah explained. The idea was to include other universities and allow their students to apply even if the universities themselves were not affiliated with MECA. Salah said that in previous years the organisation had gained credibility, making people have high expectations in joining it. The students had also established the MECAzine, a magazine distributed for free, publishing student work and ideas. “The idea is to add value and exposure to MECA,” he added. The group also plans to publish MECAway, a book documenting their work, an earlier edition of which was published in 2010. Hagar Maher, a third-year civil-engineering student, said that MECA was an important activity in her university and provided unique activities. Maher had tried to join MECA before but had not been accepted. She is now looking forward to the MECA mentorship event, hoping that she will be mentored while working on her technical project. The writer is a freelance journalist.
