Learning beyond the classroom
For marine engineering cadets, IMarEST membership provides valuable connections to the wider maritime community and broadens career horizons
When Mohd Emaad Khan was younger, he had no desire for a desk job. Instead, he set his sights on automobile engineering. “But my elder brother started his marine engineering degree and the more I learned about it through him, the more ships pulled ahead of cars in my head.”
Today Khan is a fourth-year cadet at the Indian Maritime University, Kolkata (DMET/MERI) working towards a B. Tech in marine engineering. During his first year he heard of the IMarEST.
“It felt like an essential thing for marine engineers.” Khan signed up – a decision he says is helping him during his cadetship and preparing him for his future.
Community and connection
Khan says that one of the main benefits of membership is the ability to reach out to the wider maritime community through IMarEST connect, the student section, branch events, and the M2M mentoring programme.
“Having someone a few steps ahead of you, a student section member, mentor, branch committee member, or even just an experienced professional willing to reply to a message, who's willing to answer the obvious questions without making you feel small for asking them… that kind of access shortens the learning curve enormously.”
Those connections have also broadened his view of where a marine engineering career can lead. “Talking with people who have made completely different choices with the same starting qualification is what showed me how open-ended this career actually is,” he says.
He also appreciates the access to knowledge that comes with an IMarEST membership, such as the Institute’s resource library, the Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology, the Journal of Operational Oceanography, and Marine Professional magazine.
Members also have the opportunity to publish their own work or present at a webinar or symposium “rather than just consuming everyone else’s,” Khan adds.
Learning from experience
One of Khan’s most memorable experiences was winning the David Henderson Inspiring Journeys Grant for a three-week expedition to the Aral Sea Basin – an experience that has already influenced his thinking.
“Going in, I had the textbook version of the story. Soviet planners diverted two rivers that fed the Aral Sea [a saline/brackish lake] to grow cotton, and as a result, the Aral Sea disappeared. That's true, but it's only the last chapter.”
During the journey, Khan learned the story began long before the Soviet era. Tsarist Russia expanded irrigation for cotton in the 1860s, as the American Civil War disrupted access to cotton from the USA.
“It's a reminder that infrastructure failures are rarely one bad decision,” he says. “They are usually the accumulation of decades of reasonable decisions, each one making sense on its own terms at the time.”
He saw how difficult it can be to coordinate responses across countries, agencies, and funding bodies. “That's not a story engineering textbooks tell you – that the technical fixes are often the easy part and the coordination is where things actually stall.”
Sailing onward
Khan has one more year left of his cadetship. “My plan is to sail for 10 to 15 years, maybe a little longer. That's a stretch where you actually build a depth of knowledge and experience that no classroom or simulator can substitute for.”
“What comes after that, I genuinely can't forecast with any confidence, to be honest, because there are too many variables to consider at this point. There's too much life still to happen.”
For those embarking on a cadetship or already in one, Khan points out that IMarEST student membership is free. “It removes any barrier to entry, so there's no reason not to join early.”
Find out more about IMarEST student membership here
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Main Image: Cadet Emaad Khan, Indian Maritime University
Credit: Emaad Khan
