As Professor Bheshem Ramlal, the new Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, settles into his role at the St Augustine campus, he emphasises the importance of humility and understanding that you have to “know that you don’t know” – an approach he has long taken in other roles in his career. He also enters the position from a different perspective than the more well-known engineering streams, but sees this as a strength and opportunity.
As Professor Bheshem Ramlal, the new Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, settles into his role at the St Augustine campus, he emphasises the importance of humility and understanding that you have to “know that you don’t know” – an approach he has long taken in other roles in his career. He also enters the position from a different perspective than the more well-known engineering streams, but sees this as a strength and opportunity.
“People wonder why Geomatics Engineering is part of the Engineering Faculty, which is the very different place that I come from,” he says. “Geomatics engineering was perceived by some to not belong with the rest of engineering. But it is very significant in terms of what we do. The whole genesis of geomatics comes from the perspective of effectively managing land resources. Geomatics is the big picture side of engineering.”Professor Ramlal holds the position of Professor of Geospatial Engineering and officially assumed the role of Dean of the Faculty of Engineering on October 1. His research focuses on advancing spatial data infrastructures and integrating geospatial technologies into society. He has also served in several high-level capacities at the university, and governmental and regional bodies. His particular interest is in applying principles and knowledge of geospatial engineering to change how things are done.
“Almost everything that pertains to human endeavour is about space and what happens in that space. Geomatics engineering can be applied to all the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One needs to understand the overall context of why and what you’re doing before the other aspects of engineering are engaged. These decisions all have domino effects.”
This bird’s eye approach to the work of geomatics engineers is needed now more than ever, according to the dean. The university is engaged, through the Engineering faculty, in numerous facets of research and development aimed at solving significant challenges in the Caribbean, chief among them is the need for a sustainable energy supply for the region.
The current challenge in the Caribbean is to produce renewable energy that can be transported and stored in ways that are good for the environment. Batteries, for instance, represent a major environmental problem. Prof Ramlal explained that the university is currently engaged in various streams with stakeholders to address this issue and recently focused on green hydrogen.
“If we can take wind and solar and convert it to hydrogen, that’s green hydrogen. That’s better for us all. In T&T, a recent study suggested that we use 20 percent more energy than we ought to, especially in the industrial sector. If we can improve the energy efficiency across the country and use the surplus to generate hydrogen, then we are consuming the same amount of fossil fuels to create an additional energy source without increased impacts.”
The Faculty of Engineering is supporting the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science and Technology to conduct a wind resource assessment with private sector support. Additional effort is being made to conduct research on electric vehicles. The National Energy Corporation and the National Gas Company also installed an EV charging station on the southern side of the Engineering faculty. The station uses solar panels to generate all the electricity for this purpose.
The professor notes that we need to escape the thinking that a hero is coming in to solve Caribbean challenges and save us. He also highlighted the recent appointment by UN Secretary-General António Guterres of Dr Craig Ramlal (no relation), Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering, to the UN Multistakeholder High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence as another way in which the faculty was actively seeking to solve challenges that benefit the broader population of the wider Caribbean region.
The faculty also recently signed an MOU with the Government of Mexico for the development of the Geospatial Observation Centre to process satellite imagery for the Caribbean. This centre will generate geospatial information to support the monitoring of coastal erosion, Sargassum seaweed tracking, forest degradation, flooding and more, and will form part of a global network in the Americas, Africa, and Australia doing the same in those regions.
The Engineering faculty is one of the larger ones on the St Augustine campus. It has 13 different blocks, which are the remit of the dean and departments to maintain and upkeep – and this includes a services section with machine, welding, and carpentry shops to support the five departments. These departments are Geomatics, Mechanical and Manufacturing, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Computer, and Chemical and Process Engineering. Despite this significant administrative aspect of the role, he puts human resources at the centre of his work.
“We have over 230 members of staff in the faculty, and having been an educator my entire life, I believe that it is most important of all to educate and empower people. When they are happy and comfortable, and when they are valued, they translate that into real value for the institution,” he says.
The new dean’s vision is also to continue to grow a network of talent, including alumni worldwide, to create a critical mass of people and knowledge that can benefit the country and the region.
He says, “We need to invest in more bankable data and to leverage the human resources we have access to here on the campus, but also those with ties to the university globally too.”
With over 20,000 graduates from the faculty since 1975, the possibilities are numerous and, more than ever, needed.
