Where have you been??

Did you know that the largest sustainability gathering in the Middle East is held annually at Abu Dhabi? Do you also know that some KTH students had the opportunity of attending this year?? These statements are a clue to the title of the post but without further ado, let us set the ball rolling…

Q: So, Oluchi, where have you been?

A: hmmm..honestly, the weeks since my last post and now, have been very busy! I promise to fill you in on all that I have been up to!!

Before, I start, as a student ambassador, I get a lot of questions concerning projects,  opportunities, activities and career options for my chosen field. Generally, these questions look like this:

• What kind of projects are you involved in as a KTH Student?
• What opportunities are available for students studying Sustainable Energy Engineering?
• What are the available career propositions?
• As you are close to the end of this programme, can you say it met your expectations?

Very important questions you might agree right? All those that did ask these questions have received answers from me but it might interest you to know that, the answers to these questions would certainly explain my absence from this space that I love so much!

Therefore, what better way to start a ‘comeback’ series than to give you all the details of what I have really been up to. To make this worth your time, I would start with the latest adventure and then we will take a stroll down memory lane together…

World Future Energy Summit

I was selected for the Young Future Energy  Leaders (YFEL) Programme, which is one of the key components for the annual World Future Energy Summit held within Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. From KTH, four students were selected to be a part of this programme and guess what? We all study Sustainable Energy Engineering.

As young future energy leaders, apart from attending the orientation programme held in Masdar City, we were also given full access to the World Future Energy Summit; enabling us to fully engage with leading energy companies, ongoing panel discussions and become more enlightened on energy discussions around the globe.

Personal Reflections…

For people that love reading, imagine that you are given a day to live as a character in one of the best stories you ever read. This is what living in Masdar City felt like for me. We had a project last year titled,’Energy System for Sustainable Cities’. Everyone in my group had come across Masdar City and I was the chosen person to conduct further research on this city as our starting point for our given project. Therefore, you won’t be wrong if you guess that I was super excited that I got to see first hand, the ongoing and completed projects in Masdar City.

The Young Future Energy Leaders also, had activities to participate in, as well as the summit. Some of these include future planned projects; debates focused on various topics such as the ban of plastic bottles, the type of batteries for future electric vehicles and the pros and cons of robots in our fast growing world.

Watch out for future projects from the Young Future Energy Leaders in 2019 😉

There is an idiom that says, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’. Apart from the time spent at the summit, we also had the opportunity of visiting the Sheik Zayed Museum, the Founder’s Memorial, Emirates Palace, The Louvre amongst others. Special thanks to the organisers of the programme and also, other YFEL members in the UAE as they were very friendly, allowed us to know a bit of their culture and I must say, their hospitable nature was impeccable.

Wow! Did I mention that being a student of KTH at this conference made me very proud? If you did not know? Now you know 🙂 During the conference,not only did I go about introducing myself as a second-year masters student, studying sustainable energy engineering, I met people who have worked with different energy projects with some of my teachers at KTH and also, I came across a lot of similar projects in which as a KTH student, I have been involved in. You could tell that I was really in my field of expertise – my happy place, during the conference.

….this is the first of my comeback series, let’s see what other activity I have been up to as a KTH student, studying sustainable energy engineering…

Bye!

Oluchi