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August 2009
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Engineers serve communities
The Community Service Learning (CSL) Group Project will now be part of the Department’s practice stream and it is community-based. Essentially, students are required to identify and solve a problem related to electrical and computer engineering in a community of their choice. By participating in this project, graduates are acquiring the kinds of practical skills needed in our region as well as an awareness of the social and economic needs of small communities. As the first cycle of eight group projects ended, the Department received written expressions of gratitude from recipient organizations. Students reported a great sense of fulfillment as they gave back to their communities, which they found to be a motivating experience. Yohan Seepersad, a second-year student who has represented Trinidad and Tobago at the Mathematics Olympiad in Mexico and Viet Nam, said it was “one of my proudest moments in life thus far...” The Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation, where students developed a website featuring Valencia, said “It was actually a pleasure to see technical students taking interest in eco tourism.” One student, Jagdish Boodoosingh, reported that Toussaint Roberts, a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Home Committee, was so thankful, he said, “God bless this generation, this project was a gift from above,” while another member, Lennox Harris, said, “It makes my heart glad to see young people taking on an active interest in us older folks.” These projects were all student initiatives and were structured in such a way that each group was responsible for identifying suitably qualified persons to supervise the projects that they undertook, with approval from the Department. It was the responsibility of the students to acquire funding for their initiatives. The projects they undertook were:
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At the beginning of this year, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering introduced a module with a difference to its BSc Electrical and Computer Engineering programme.