We had a great time at the PAN networking event held on July 20, 2024! Here are some pictures from the event.

Professor Tesfaye event pre-recorded presentation

Two senior executive team members of PAN have recently visited Bahir Dar Institute of Technology (BiT) and expressed their appreciation of how PAN has been able to establish relationships with its mother institution. Berhanu Kebede and Tewodros M. Dessalegn (PhD), as graduates of BiT and PAN’s executive members, enjoy the deep connection with BDU. The duo travelled to Ethiopia for separate family visits; however, they have decided to spend some of their valuable vacation time by visiting the universities and carrying out PAN’s mission. Berhanu has played a key role in sourcing recently donated High Performance Computing Servers (HPCs) from the USA to some universities in Ethiopia including BDU. During his visit to BDU, AAU, and other universities, Berhanu told the managements of the universities that the servers were shipped and have now been on their way to the Djibouti port. PAN has been heavily involved in facilitating the shipping process and made a significant financial commitment by paying for the shipping and packaging costs of donated servers. Berhanu went on to say that he had very productive discussions on how the servers can be distributed among the universities and he promised that PAN will be closely following the remaining steps. According to Berhanu, PAN may also be involved in the technical aspects of how the servers can be used. Berhanu later stated to PAN leadership team that he believes PAN should continue to work collaboratively with the universities and delivered the “thank you” messages from the would-be receivers of the servers to PAN members.

Tewodros, on his part, spent significant time at BiT teaching postgraduate civil engineering students, meeting with various academic staff, and BiT’s senior management team. Tewodros has long been teaching courses at BIT civil engineering department remotely. Tewodros’s visit BiT and his subsequent in-class teaching has given students the opportunity to meet him in-person allowing them to interact without barriers.

In the meeting Tewodros had with the BiT senior management team, he met with Dr. Bimrew (BiT’s Scientific Director), Dr. Mekuanint (BiT’s Research and Community Services Deputy Director), Dr. Amare (BiT’s Maker Space – Incubation Center Director), Mr. Temesgen Getnet (PAN member and BiT’s Communication Director), and Mr. Abebaw (PAN’s representative at BiT). At the meeting, Tewodros went over a few PowerPoint slides about PAN and its goals after introducing himself. Following Tewodros’s presentation, BiT’s management team reiterated their recognition of PAN’s efforts in helping BiT, students, and the community by expressing their appreciation of the works PAN does.

During the same meeting, the management team vowed to work very closely with PAN’s leadership team and introduce PAN to students and promote PAN in every way they see possible. The senior management team has emphasized to Tewodros that it wishes to have PAN help BiT with staff shortages, incubation center funding, education materials like the HPCs, and facilitation of collaboration between BiT’s incubation center and peer incubation centers that may exist in other universities abroad.

Tewodros’s visit to the BiT didn’t only end with teaching and having the meeting with the senior management. He also visited BiT’s incubation center having conversations with young innovators and engineers. The innovators explained to Tewodros what they do by demonstrating their experiments. Tewodros has since been inspired by the level of commitment those young innovators show and the power of their ideas and creativities. The innovations Tewodros had the chance to look include: 6^th grade student making drones out of wood, a young female computerizing a manual plasma cutting machine, and another innovator producing packaging paper out of grass and straws. Other innovative ideas included developing apps for security cameras, making floor finishing products, producing plant-based protein powders, and making jams from sugarcane.

At the incubation center, Tewodros also got a chance to see the work of high school students who were working on the idea of making drones using some of the components from inhouse 3D printer, inhouse made microscope, soil-moisture sensor,  and an intelligent multitasking home machines (LED light, Calculator, Fan and etc).

➡️Bahir Dar University, Technological Education Research and Innovation

A Message from Atekelt Abebe Ketema (PhD)

“ I’m Atekelt, A proud Alumna of BIT-BDU. My BDU journey traced back from Peda as a freshman student in September 1998, when BDU had 2 main campuses named Peda & Poly. After one semester of adventures and memorable time at Peda campus, we engineering students were transferred to Poly, later called Engineering Faculty. Succeeding 5 hard and quality years, I graduated with a BSc degree in Civil Engineering in 2003 and continued to serve my own institution as Assistant Lecturer.

Since 1998, the current BIT-BDU, the former Engineering faculty, has been my school, workplace, home, community and remains part of me. I couldn’t imagine myself without poly. Most of my academic, social, spiritual and emotional strengths have been molded from the BIT-BDU community. I’m an ever proud alumna of BIT-BDU and will continue to be passionate about its advancement wherever I’m currently stationed.

I have loyally served BIT-BDU for 16 years at different academic and administrative positions (2003-2019). For the past 3 years I’ve been working as Senior Research Data Scientist at one of the Global Financial institutions abroad. I always wish and committed to contribute toward the outstanding of BIT-BDU in all aspects.

I also would like to commemorate and acknowledge our late BIT-BDU teachers and Colleagues: Mr. Gebeyehu, Mr. Kasaye, Mr. Fasil, Mr. Yibelital, who have changed so many of our lives as mentor/colleague/friend for the better and contributed much for the BIT-BDU brand, though they have gone so fast without getting enough recognition. “

       Atekelt Abebe Ketema (PhD)

                        USA

#ATW_ኢንጅነሪንግ በ2007 የሽመና ማሽን በማምረት ስራውን የጀመረ ሲሆን ምርቱን በዓይነትና በመጠን እያሰፋና እያዘመነ በመምጣት አሁን ላይ ዲጅታል ቴክኖሎጅን የሚጠቀሙ ማሽኖችን ወደማምረት የተሸጋገረ ኢንተርፕራይዝ መሆኑን የኢንተርፕራይዙ መስራችና ስራ አስኪያጅ አቶ አይሸሽም ጥላሁን ተናግረዋል፡፡

#ATW_ኢንጅነሪንግ የተለያዩ አምራች ኢንተርኘራይዞችና ፋብሪካዎች የሚጠቀሙባቸውን ማሽኖችን እያመረተና እያቀረበ የሚገኝ ሲሆን 85 በመቶው የሚሆነውን ምርቱን የሚያመርተው በደንበኞች ትዕዛዝ፣ 15 በመቶው የሚሆነውን ደግሞ በምርምር እየሰራ ለገበያ እያዋለ ይገኛል።

ኢንተርፕራይዙ ምርቶቹን በአዲስ ካፒታል እና በዋሊያ ካፒታል ዕቃ ፋይናንስ በኩልም ለአምራች ኢንተርፕራይዞች እያቀረበ ይገኛል።

ከ15 በላይ ቋሚ ሰራተኞች ያሉት #ATW_ኢንጅነሪንግ የሀገር ውስጥ ጥሬ ዕቃን በመጠቀሞ ከዲዛይን አንስቶ ከግብዓት መረጣ እስከ ምርት ሂደት ድረስ ባሉት ባለሙያዎች ተኪ ምርትን መተካት የሚችሉ ማሽኖችን እያመረተ ይገኛል።

➡️ Ethiopian Enterprise Development_ATW_ኢንጅነሪን FP Post

PAN member, Fasil Woldegebriel.

“I work as a consultant to STEMpower Inc non-profit working to expand STEM education in Ethiopia. We supported establishment of more than 50 STEM centers in Ethiopian Universities including our Bahir Dar University Incubation and STEM center.”

Website: Home | STEMpower | Africa (Email: info@stempower.org)

A Team has something to Prove!

Sept 26 (Reuters) – NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully slammed into a distant asteroid at hypersonic speed on Monday in the world’s first test of a planetary defense system, designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth.

Trying to Shift the position of asteroid (killer rock) sounds like a big deal and NASA”s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) program is aimed at achieving that goal. Melak (PhD), Senior Systems Engineer at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center, is part of this exciting project. WE, as PAN family, are very proud of Melak and celebrate their achievement in the successful test of slamming the spacecraft into an asteroid in unprecedented way. Congratulations to you and the agency’s DART team!!!

PAN will not only celebrate the successes of its family members in various areas, but also will be looking at ways to create a medium for PAN members’ children to interact with them, ask questions, learn and be inspired.

“NASA works for the benefit of humanity, so for us it’s the ultimate fulfillment of our mission to do something like this – a technology demonstration that, who knows, some day could save our HOME’s.”

Thank you!!!

You can comment here, make sure you have to PAN account!