“I was always interested in how things worked,” says Professor Sanjay Bahadoorsingh, Head of The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DECE) at The UWI St Augustine. As a child, said Prof Bahadoorsingh, he was always curious about the workings of toys and was “...generally inquisitive with artifacts”.
That curiosity, combined with a natural ability for math, led him to study sciences in school, and eventually, to the world of engineering. He considered, for a time, pursuing instead a different career— either a pilot, for his love of flying, or a lawyer, in the footsteps of his late father. But engineering won out, and after doing his BSc at The UWI’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he went on to do an MSc at The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Manchester (UoM).
Prof Bahadoorsingh took up the mantle of Head of Department in 2021, in the midst of the nationwide lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, he was one of five appointed as professors effective from February 1, 2023, and is continuing his work in a swathe of areas including renewable energy, adoption of electric vehicles, and the mouthful that is “dielectric ageing focusing on electrical treeing within polymeric cable insulation”.
“I remember [during my PhD] having to explain to a lot of people— what is an electrical tree?” he laughs. The focus of his study while at Manchester, it gave him lots of practice explaining. “Basically, it is a form of degradation within polymeric insulation that takes the form of a tree-like structure.”
He recalls, “After completing that PhD, I remember telling myself - will I ever use this again?”
Surprisingly enough, around 2014 his knowledge was called upon for a national legal case involving the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC), involving a failed submarine cable from Trinidad and Tobago. As the expert in this niche area, Prof Bahadoorsingh was able to put his years of study and all those “what is an electrical tree” questions to good work. “I was able to make a positive national contribution. To me, that was a very rewarding experience.”
It is clear that making a contribution to the country, and even the world, has been a powerful driving force in Prof Bahadoorsingh’s research, much of which explores ways to function more sustainably on a large scale. Electric vehicle integration and adoption, and renewable energy integration are two of his ongoing passions.
“We do recognise that there is a push towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and an integral part of these strategies required power generation from renewable energy sources. It’s not just about the technology, but its seamless integration and how you can make it work,” he says.
Because Trinidad and Tobago (and the Caribbean in general) is physically very small compared to continental landmasses, we have unique challenges when it comes to issues like renewable energy production.
“If wind is not blowing in one area, it’s not going to stop everywhere else,” says Prof Bahadoorsingh about the advantages of larger countries with interconnected power systems. “In these islands, we just have one power system. So a lot of the work we do has to be in line with understanding the challenges that these smaller islands have as we integrate renewable energy.”
Another area that Prof Bahadoorsingh is currently working in also targets the issue of sustainability— through electric vehicle integration and adoption. In 2020, CARICOM established the Regional Electric Vehicle Strategy Framework, available online, and states that it “aims to specifically catalyse the deployment of electric vehicles across all modes of transportation in the Caribbean”. For teams like Prof Bahadoorsingh’s, this means solving problems such as how to handle electrical grid integration.
“When these electric vehicles come onto the grid, you want to be able to ensure that you can supply the power demand,” he explains.
The UWI opened its first electric vehicle charging station in 2019, and recently got funding to upgrade the facility to a renewable energy-powered charging station. Although there has been limited activity on campus during the COVID-19 lockdown periods, there has been increased interest in the project. While the station is currently closed pending its new makeover, there are greener days ahead.
“The intention,” Prof Bahadoorsingh says, “was always to move it across to a renewable energy source, so that it now becomes a totally carbon-free, green source that is open to use by the campus community.”
After shepherding the DECE through lockdowns and then a reintroduction of in-person systems of operation, Prof Bahadoorsingh is continuing to work passionately on these vital projects, as well as in his own words, “guiding not only the department, but the Faculty of Engineering into the rapidly changing environment of the 21st century… so that students are well positioned to get not only the best of what the university has to offer, but also to leverage the experience and the network of our academics — many of whom are actively involved in industry and making contributions from policy to studies, technical and otherwise.”
