IET Germany LN: "Present Around the World" in Munich, 26.03.2015

The chairman of the IET German Local Network (LN), Alistair Gill, opened the Munich round of "Present Around The World" not just with a speech, but also with a plank of wood. On it were the words: "You don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate", which emphasised the importance of presenting effectively, certainly in the engineering world. This heat of the PATW competition was organised by the IET's Germany LN and was held at the Aviation Electronics Europe trade fair in Munich, to an audience consisting of LN volunteers, exhibitors, visiting engineers and other industry guests.

Two contestants participated, both from Achaffenburg, both presentations having a common theme: Renewable Energy. Leon Keller presented first, giving a talk on Solar Updraft Towers, developed in Germany and tested in real-life in Spain. Hendrik Gehder chose hydropower – Underwater Turbines – for his talk, underpinned by the remarkable statistic that less than 1% of the energy in the oceans could power twice the world's current population.

Both gave excellent presentations, identifying the advantages and drawbacks of the technologies, and the prospects for the future.

The lectures were judged mostly on presentation skills (75% of the points) and also on technical knowledge (25%). The jury, which consisted of two IET LN Volunteers (Rees Phillips from the UK and Tania Campbell from Munich) and a university professor (Dr. Sylvana Krausse, of the Engineering Faculty, the University of Applied Sciences, Aschaffenburg) said that they had difficulty in making a decision, but there could only be one winner. They chose Hendrik, with Leon coming a very close second. Hendrik will proceed to the next round, though both demonstrated that they could easily get not just what they deserve, but what they could negotiate.

Report kindly written by Andy Sinharay

Photo courtesy of Alec Clelland