The Bahrain World Trade Center is a mammoth twin tower structure, which has won awards for groundbreaking design concepts and green impact, is the first of its kind. The two towers are connected by three bridges and mounted on these bridges are windmill turbines that are expected to provide for 15-16% of the power consumed by this skyscraper. The façade of the building is designed such that even oblique winds are accelerated and directed between the buildings and at the turbines. The various challenges faced in designing and constructing a hitherto unseen technological innovation of merging two ordinary pieces of engineering design – windmill turbines and bridges - have been extremely well documented in an episode of Mega Build aired on NGC.
While viewing this show it occurred to me (at the risk of sounding clichéd) that it was innovative yet ecologically beneficial feats such as these that inspired me to take up and pursue engineering. However mindless mugging machines, unsympathetic faculty, morbid coursework and the usage of tests and exams as instruments of vengeance have conspired to stymie its infinite possibilities and transformed it into a dreary quagmire of grades, assignments and attendance requirements.
Here's hoping that we don't lose sight.
