Esi Cobblah found out about Ashesi’s Mechatronic Engineering program from an advertisement when she was an undergraduate electrical engineering student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. The program was new, but the industry partners and the opportunity to receive guidance in starting a career appealed to her. She applied, and in January 2022, she arrived on campus as a member of the program’s pioneering cohort.
As a master’s student at Ashesi, Cobblah found a strong sense of camaraderie and support from her peers, as well as from the program’s faculty and staff.
“We bonded and developed good relationships because we spent quite a bit of time together,” she says. “We relied on each other and knew that we could count on each other. You could knock on someone’s door for whatever you needed and knew that they would help if they could.”
Despite the focus of her learning being mechatronic engineering, the program also exposed students to subject areas they may not have considered as necessary for their chosen field. Courses on leadership, economics, and financial accounting included in the curriculum, for example, stood out for Cobblah.
During her internship with Nestlé, Cobblah quickly realized that her supervisors trusted the level of expertise and work ethic she and her peers from Ashesi’s Mechatronic Engineering program brought.
“They appreciated the fact that we were coming from this program that had taught us to think broadly and were open to hearing our ideas,” she explains. “They supported us with company knowledge, but we also had the freedom to explore and share what we thought could work. And I believe the program prepared us well for this kind of environment.”
Cobblah has now come to believe that this interdisciplinary training is crucial to preparing for a well-rounded career.
“Even if you’re entering a technical field, you won’t only be interacting with people with similar educational backgrounds and expertise. This programme opens your mind to different perspectives and lets you know that it takes more than the technical expertise to make you a good engineer.”
