Manipal’s Local IAESTE Chapter held a technical workshop on 24th and 25th March 2018. Three workshops were conducted simultaneously on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Android App Development, and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Design. They were conducted by trainers from HT India Labs, a company that focuses on conducting workshops and providing educational training to college students. The workshops aimed at building the technical skills of the participants. It was IAESTE’s first ‘member benefit’ event, and non-members were required to pay a fee to attend. Certificates were awarded to those who completed both days of the workshop.

On 24th March, the workshops were held from 6 PM to 9 PM, and on the 25th, from 8 AM to 9 PM. Both days of workshops were hosted at NLH. After the distribution of the requisite software, the trainers began by introducing the basic concepts they planned to build upon. At the CFD workshop, the trainers started by giving an overview of the history of fluid dynamics and the different approaches to analyzing fluid dynamics. They then went on to introduce the ANSYS Fluent Workbench software. Participants were taught controls such as meshing, surface association, blocking, and splitting. These guidelines nudged the students in the right direction for their further studies on the subject.

The Android Development workshop began on a light note as the trainer shared various anecdotes from his own college life. He gave a brief introduction to the history of Android and the reasons for its popularity. He explained the salient features of Android and also took questions from the participants. He kept the introductory session interactive as he shared his experiences in the corporate world and offered tips that students would find helpful. Over the next day, the participants were introduced to different varieties of apps and created a music app demo at the end of the workshop.

The Printed Circuit Board Design workshop began with the trainer distributing circuit boards to all the participants. He then explained how to use the KiCAD software. He gave them step-by-step instructions on how to input, delete, and manipulate components, as well as on how to create a circuit and footprints, and arrange the final layout. It was later explained how the fabrication and hardware components were to be associated with the software.

All the trainers were very helpful and patiently resolved any doubts and issues that the students had. It is, in general, quite the task to familiarise oneself with new software and learn new subjects. However, this workshop presented a seamless introduction. The participants took back new and useful knowledge with them, along with their certificates of achievement. IAESTE was successful in organizing this intensive workshop and will hopefully, continue to reward its members with such events.