New IET communities are at the forefront of work to grow membership throughout the world, especially in areas where there is no staff support on the ground.

 

The rapid growth of an IET student community at Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev University shows what can be done where little activity existed previously.

 

Founded in February 2014, the student community is thriving and has achieved much in its first 12 months. Established by the university’s Assistant Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dr Yau Hee Kho, along with a group of proactive engineering students, it’s already held 15 events and has close to 200 members.

 

As a long-term IET member, Dr Kho felt that the students had a lot to gain from involvement in the organisation, such as gaining professional registration, and so took it upon himself to become an ambassador for the region. This

passion has been passed onto the students, who feel their work is very important to the area’s engineering community.

 

“Our student chapter plays an important role in increasing the interest in engineering and technology among young people in Kazakhstan. We are working to share useful information with the students about their future career and professional growth in the field of engineering and technology,” highlighted Aisulu Izmailova, who currently heads up the community.

 

Interest in IET events has been high in the region, with educational workshops and industry lectures filling up fast. Plus the students have been actively recruiting new members by participating in showcase events at university.

 

They also hope to widen the IET’s influence further still, and are reaching out to other IET communities and engineering institutions such as the ICE and IMechE to gain advice and look at cooperating on future events. Currently they are using the IET Present around the World (PATW) competition as a way to involve new students and young professionals.

 

“This year we plan to hold a PATW competition at a local level and invite students from other universities in Kazakhstan,” said Aisulu. “We would like to propose other English-speaking universities in our country open their own student chapters, so we can compete with each other,” she enthuses.

 

“We’re also looking to cooperate with other IET chapters in Russia and Azerbaijan.”

 

“Due to the language barrier it is not an easy job to promote the IET within the region but I think this is exactly where the opportunity lies for everyone,” added Dr Kho. “For the IET it is a vast untapped region of potential members, and for the central Asia region it is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with a global professional engineering body.”



(this has been taken from an article published in Member News and written by Keri Allan)