Extracurricular Activities
Internships done at
At Mubadala I worked with the Enterprise Risk Management team where I was given the opportunity to put my skills to the test by automating the way they collect risk data within their organization and creating reports using PowerBi, a range of MS Suite applications, and Power Automate.
I designed interactive PowerBi reports that display all the risks neatly, I automated the process of sending forms to departments to gather risk data and then create interactive reports out of this data automatically. The final project was to create a website for the operational risks (Still being worked on) more to come soon…
At ADIA I worked with the IT Security team where I was mostly exposed to the different branches within cybersecurity and what kind of roles to expect within IT security in a career perspective especially at a large institution. Moreover, some of my actual deliverables were to update the security specifications of some computer applications and hardware since software gets frequent updates and hardware is replaced with newer models every couple of years.
Main topics that I covered within this internship was the cloud, as many organizations are moving into the cloud so some of the aspects I looked into was cloud security. I also explored the topic of pentesting and the testing process that real applications go through before being implemented into an organization. To better understand how it works, I used HackTheBox to learn the main steps in infiltrating websites and how one could use exploits to gain unauthorized access to databases and websites.
Additionally, I worked with the CSOC team to see how they monitor threats on a large scale and then analyze the outliers in the data gathered to figure out what is wrong with their systems and what is causing this problem. As part of this team, I was in charge of analyzing all the external emails that ADIA receives from their website’s contact form and I would distribute them based on the type of email, whether it was someone looking for a job, a spam, or etc.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Early Preparation Program (2018 - Present)
ADIA EP Program prepares top students from the Abu Dhabi region to study abroad in foreign countries. Their main destinations are the US and China.
Throughout High School, the EP Program has prepared me for university study abroad through activities and assignments. It introduced me to the TOEFL, IELTS, and SAT tests. Moreover, I learnt how to thoroughly research universities and what factors to consider when choosing a major or university. The most beneficial part of their program was the summer programs in the US. I have gone to both summer programs that were offered, one in Brewster Academy in New Hampshire and another in University of Pennsylvania. These trips showed me what a potential student lifestyle might be in a university and also improved my inter-personal skills through the activities that were given to us. The schedule was really interesting since it was fulfilled in a manner that does not bore you during any part of the day. It was thoroughly organized and each event was as interesting as the other. In short, this program had a major impact on my life outside of class, it made me grow as a person and look at things from a different perspective.
This trip was in the summer break of my sophomore year. Part of this program included some university visits to Bowdoin College, Dartmouth College, Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Boston University. This summer program was similar to the classes at school. We had four different classes: a culture class, a communication class, a reading class, and a writing class.
- The culture class taught us more about the United States’ culture and the global culture.
- The communication class was more like practicing our oral skills in English.
- The writing class showed us a side of writing that was unbeknownst to me which was writing snapshots and the freewriting style.
- The reading class prepared us to comprehend reading passages more and identify the hidden values in stories.
Along with these classes we were also practicing for the IELTS exam and took several practice tests for a benchmark and to learn which section we needed improvements in. I got to experience a college life as a student in rural areas since Brewster Academy is located miles away from a city. In addition, I improved my time-management skills since I had to plan for when to do my assignments and when to work because the schedule was loaded with events from morning till late evening.
This trip was in the summer break of my junior year(July – 2018). Part of this program included some university visits to Georgetown University, University of Maryland, Villanova University, Haverford College, University of Delaware, and Drexel University. We got to meet with the dean of Business – Paul Almeida – of Georgetown University. This trip exposed me to the student life in an urban area and many lectures were given by the professors in UPENN at Wharton School of Business. Personally, I did not know anything about the business department in real-life and these lectures showed me the different careers that people have in the business world. By the end of the program I was capable of understanding and writing balance sheets and financial statements. This was due to the insight that I got into the different types of assets, liabilities, and equity.
The following lectures were given to us:
- Unlocking Innovation
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship
- Introduction to Marketing
- Accounting Basics
- Business Communication
- Introduction to Management
- Negotiation
- Introduction to Business Statistics
- Business Ethics
- Social Responsibility.
We played Wharton’s Startup Game where each student would either be an investor, employer, or an employee. The goal of the game was to work together and sign an agreement that would satisfy the needs of all parties. I was assigned as an employee and was recognized as the best employee since I made a deal with an employer that would give me a low annual income but a higher share of the startup company. Furthermore, we had SAT preparation lectures and practice tests by Princeton Review each morning as part of the schedule. However, the major focus was on the business plan that we had to do. All the students were split into groups of 4 or 6 students to work on the business plan and present it to the judges. Thankfully, my team achieved the 2nd place in the business plan.
This summer program is called “Global Young Leaders Academy Knowledge@WhartonHighSchool” at UPENN.
The NSLC is an extraordinary leadership program for outstanding high school students. Students from over 70 countries are selected to participate based upon their academic excellence, extracurricular involvement and demonstrated leadership ability. During this leadership development program, students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of meaningful leadership exercises and simulations which explore the nature of leadership and the skills that define the great leaders of our time.
At the NSLC, I had a life-changing experience that made me mature exponentially in one week. I did not go through boring leadership lectures as I anticipated: NSLC calls it “experiential learning” where sessions would look like parties from a student’s perspective, but in reality, were enriching them with knowledge far quicker than via conventional teaching methods. For example, the activities during class were interactive in a way that captured the student’s attention; not obliging them to sit on a chair and listen to a speaker.
For the very first time in my life, I was in a group of international students filled with enthusiasm and support for one another. We got on well with one another in one week thanks to the activities that the TA’s hosted. Those were essentially bonding sessions where students got to know each other through writing notes and sharing them anonymously, which surprised us all after knowing each other’s background. I discovered that my personality was that of ‘a koala’ – a term used to describe a good listener – and I realized that I should be flexible with different leadership styles and not stick only to one that defines me.
Thanks to these experiences I have come to know who I am today and what I could become in the future through the opportunities for self-improvement that await me. Additionally, my perspective of leadership changed from being in the spotlight to nurturing others to be in the spotlight.
Volunteering in food banks is something that I have experienced for only five hours in my lifetime when I was at the NSLC, yet that exposure was enough to make me want to continue volunteering in food banks because the importance of the work is far greater than any other effort I have engaged in, and the surge in satisfaction from seeing those smiling faces is unrivaled. Therefore, I have decided to participate actively in volunteering programs when I am at a university through community service in order to help the surrounding communities and by preparing boxes of food in food banks to help feed people in need.
The ‘National Student Leadership Conference’ – Mastering Leadership Program – took place in Georgetown University from July 28th to August 2nd of 2019.
Applied Technology High School - Activities Through School (2017 - Present)
If you have gone through the education section you would know that ATHS has career fairs where companies would look for students to provide internships and scholarships. Moreover, there were some competitions on a national level as well like the ones listed below. Since our school has partnerships with the competition hosts they encourage students to join these competitions. These competitions were engaging students in different fields since they had diverse categories of possible fields to compete in ranging from agriculture up to programming.
Dassault Aviation is a French aerospace company that shapes the future by designing and building military aircraft, business jets and space systems. Designer and builder of the Rafale, a twin-engine multirole fighter that performs all types of combat missions for both air forces and naval air arms. Designer and builder of the Falcon family of business jets, recognized for their handling qualities, operational flexibility, low fuel consumption and innovative solutions. The hub of a strategic industrial network comprising hundreds of companies in France and international markets. Pioneer in digital technologies and behind CATIA™, the 3D CAD / CAM system that has become a global standard. Creator of more than 100 prototypes in the last century, with over 10,000 aircraft delivered to 90 countries.
01/04/2019
We went to Dassault Aviation’s main building in Saint Cloud, we met with the team and were given a presentation about this internship.
02/04/2019
We went to Dassault Aviation’s industry at Argenteuil. A presentation about Dassault Aviation was given, following that, Dassault Aviation’s current and future projects were shown, as well as the progress in design and manufacturing. We got to see the different aircraft models at Dassault such as business jets, fighter jets, and rockets that are being manufactured. Furthermore, we learnt about the production line of airplanes and that only the cockpit part of the plane is made in Argenteuil and then it is transported to other factories, so the rest of the parts get attached together. Finally, we went to the immersive reality center (Virtual Reality) and used their equipment. Amateur engineers use this center to learn more about airplane maintenance, It is just like a game, though more informing than fun.
03/04/2019
We worked on a metal plate: we drew equally spaced lines (horizontally and vertically). We learnt how to mark and drill accurate holes on the intersections of the drawings on the plate. We used different tools to drill and smoothen the cut. After that, we were given differently shaped rivets each with a unique assembly method. One required two people to fit while the other only required one person.
We also saw the remake model of the first airplane made by “Marcel Block” – Dassault’s founder.
04/04/2019
A side project was given to us where we used 4 metallic plates to make a rose. We used hammers to engrave patterns on the rose. then, drilled a hole into the petals to shape the metallic parts into a flower.
05/04/2019
We continued work on the metallic flower and made two metallic leaves as decoration to the flower. Then, we drilled holes on the different layers of the flower and attached a rivit to fit them together. This way our flower would be fit and would not break. Furthermore, today was our last workday of the week, so we cleaned our workspace and organized everything.
08/04/2019
We began a second project, a metallic globe. We brought flat metal parts and shaped them into different continents. Then used a filing tool to make a curvature at the corners of the pieces and smoothened the edges.
09/04/2019
We added islands to the globe. We hammered the islands to give it a good look and used a certain substance on the pieces to remove the marker prints left on the piece. After that, we used a polishing tool to polish the parts and glued them to the globe.
10/04/2019
We continued work on the islands and made two copies of each island, one copy for the globe and the other copy for the flat world map. We stuck the islands to both maps and then put both world maps in the furnace to ensure that they stick well.
12/04/2019
This was the final day where we took some group photos and received our certificates for attending this internship program.
The Emirate Skills National Competition is the UAE’s premier event celebrating the outstanding Emirati talents in technical and vocational skills and inspires the young generation to get passionate about new trades, as well as embrace technology-based career pathways.
The competition was held in the city of Abu Dhabi and lasted for three days. I along with my partner chose the ‘Building & Flying Drones’ category since it did not require any prior experience in the field and there were some training sessions on how to get started before, we were assigned the tasks. On the first day, we were tasked with the assembly of the drones and were given laptops with linux operating system installed. Although I had no prior experience using linux, I have watched some people using it before and therefore it was easy to adapt to using this operating system. We were taught the basic commands of movement and used MatLAB and another software to program the drone. On the second day, we programmed the drones to move in specific paths and tested the speed and precision of the drones. Due to there being air resistance and external forces affecting the drone, the units that we would input in the program would not produce the expected output, so we had to experiment with some values to know what distance in the program represented 1 meter in real-life. On the third day we had actual competitions with the other teams. The goal of the competition was to program the drone to fly while avoiding obstacles, sort objects, fly safely through narrow spaces and land on specific moving targets.
Shams Power Company is a sustainable energy company in the UAE. They operate on solar panels and are known for their SHAMS 1 project which is a large solar panel system that produces electricity in Madinat Zayed, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
They hold annual competitions related to solar power for grade 11 and grade 12 students at our school. Each year the idea would be different so for example, the previous competition was to use solar power to power a cooler/ac. This year articipants – in groups of 4 – had to design and build a solar water heater that would rise the temperature of 3 liters of water from room temperature to 40-50 degrees Celsius using solar power in 1 hour and maintain warm water for 30 minutes.
The budget of the project should not exceed 500 AED ~136 USD. We first researched cheap solar water heater solutions online and then brainstormed to figure out a design. we modeled a few designs using CAD drawings before proceeding with the actual project. Finally, we went around the Industrial area and asked people in workshops about water heaters and finally built one using copper pipes, wood, and plastic. We used the copper piping in air conditioners as the pipes where water would move. We pained the pipes with black paint so that the pipes absorb sunlight and therefore result into increase in temperature of the pipes. The design we had in mind was that there would be two openings for the pipe, one at the bottom of a water container and another at the top of the water container.
Colder water flowed through the pipes slowly since the cross-sectional area of the pipes was ~ 0.6 inches. This allowed the water to thoroughly increase in temperature when it reached the top end where it would go back into the water container. Since the density of cold water and hot water is different, the warm water stayed at the top while cooler water kept passing through the pipe therefore heating the water overall. We managed to heat the pipes up to 55 degrees Celsius and this caused the plastic that we used to act as a transparent cover to melt and get stuck to the pipes. Even though this had no impact on the performance of the heater, it made the looks of the water worse since plastic was stuck to the pipes.
New College Durham is a higher education college in county Durham, UK that has been founded in 1977. This college has partnerships with our school and offer an industrial internship focusing on engineering to students. However, unlike the other internship that I had done, students had to pay to do this internship but fortunately our school decided to pay half of the expenses while we paid the other half. This made the internship more attractive since students would get to go to the UK to do an internship. Personally, I did not know what internships were at that time and this was my first internship experience or any travel abroad without my parents.
This internship included 35 hours of practical and theoretical workshops including Electromechanical Engineering, Welding, Fabrication, and Automotive Engineering. We had 12 hours of Technical and General English Lessons. We made some industrial visits to UK-Nissan, Liebher, and Caterpillar where we learned more about what happens inside these factories. After gaining the skills to use different machines, we made a hollow aluminum dice, drilled holes into it, and smoothened the edges to prevent injuries. We visited some cultural sites in Newcastle such as Durham Cathedral, Alnwick Castle and Northumbria. Through these visits we learnt about the culture and traditions of people in Newcastle.
We were a large group of students probably around 40 students. Therefore, we were split into 4 groups of 10 and each group did a different activity. For example, one group would work on car engines in the automotive engineering workshop and another group would learn how to weld metallic parts together. I do not quite remember what we did in electromechanical engineering but I do know that I enjoyed making the dice using the different drilling machines and I also had fun taking apart a car engine and reassembling it from zero with my peers.
Soon