Community Service Learning sends engineering students out to make a positive difference in T&T
Dr Jeevan Persad, Community Service Learning lecturer, with the students. PHOTOS: COURTESY DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING.
In 2014, a group of fresh-faced engineering students from UWI St Augustine journeyed to the north coast fishing village of La Fillette. Their mission: to install solar panels for the community’s power needs.
“I really didn’t want my children to have the same experience growing up as I had without electricity,” one La Fillette resident said at the time. “We’re glad for the opportunity. Our children will have betterment in their lives.”
This engineering project was one of more than 100 undertaken by students of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DECE) within the Faculty of Engineering over the past 17 years, as part of the department’s Community Service Learning (CSL) initiative.
“What we’re trying to do,” says Dr Jeevan Persad, the current CSL lecturer, “is give these students a real-world experience that teaches them the importance of using their skills to impact humanity.
“You can only truly appreciate that when you go out into the field and you work with somebody who is hurting, who is in pain, and then you see the impact that you have.”
CSL was initiated by the now retired Dr Ronald De Four, the initiative’s first lecturer at DECE. His intention was to instil in students the need to use their skills, technology and capacity for innovation to help others.
“He felt that engineers should be contributing to society,” explains Dr Persad, a former student of Dr De Four. The students worked hard on meaningful projects, and those projects should be adapted to tackle real societal issues. “He felt really strongly about that.”
“So, in 2009, under the leadership of then Head of Department Dr Kim Mallalieu, with guidance from Dr De Four, and coordination by the Department’s Engineering Practice Coordinator, Mrs Juliet Romeo-Joseph, CSL was formally integrated as a core component of the BSc Electrical and Computer Engineering programme.
Students from the CSL team that created a “real-time student parking solution that uses AI and cameras to detect available parking spots” on campus. Pictured are (from left) Renita Bharatsingh (group lead), Mr Allan Aqui (systems engineer at Campus IT Services), Dr Carlos Julien (supervisor), Andrew Soonachan, Andy Ram, and Daniel George.
CSL includes tasks you’d find at a large organisation or startup— ideation and brainstorming, project planning and SMART objectives, and product development and testing. Along the way, students also source funding, go on site visits, meet with beneficiaries and advisors, conduct risk assessments, and document every step—all under the supervision of university staff.
First, however, comes observation and compassion. Rather than assigning his students specific projects, Dr Persad asks them to look at their families, friends, classmates, and communities, and identify their needs.
“How do you look at the world differently and see somebody in need, and then identify that you may be in a position to assist?”
The intention, he says, is to have the students own the issue so they feel a personal connection to the project and the people. From autistic siblings to alma maters lacking basic technology and homes without electricity, over the years, the students have found these needs and set out to develop sustainable solutions using the skills and knowledge they’ve gained from the DECE programme.
One of this year’s projects is a bilingual résumé generator called EmpleaTT, meant to help Spanish-speaking residents prepare polished résumés and cover letters in English. It was designed after student and group leader Jade Lalla learned about the social and economic issues faced by Venezuelans living in Trinidad. EmpleaTT is now live and accessible to anyone around the world with a Wi-Fi connection.
For another of this year’s projects—a real-time student parking solution that uses AI and cameras to detect available parking spots—the group, led by Renita Bharatsingh, received support from multiple departments. The Department of Facilities Management helped install their cameras, the Department of Computing and Information Technology assisted with Wi-Fi issues, and the Student Guild, Faculty of Humanities and Education, and the Faculty of Engineering, provided funding.
“It's really a team effort,” says Mrs Romeo-Joseph, another of Dr De Four’s former students involved in CSL from the very beginning.
INNOVATION IN TRANSPORTATION: Engineering students from the group that worked with the PTSC to develop a bus tracking solution for the San Fernando to St Augustine route. Pictured are (front row left going clockwise) Dr Manoj Kollam (assistant lecturer at the DECE), along with the students Christian Joseph, Zachary Doman (group lead), Reuben John, Brent Bachoo, Matheus Baksh, Josiah James, Ricardo Gaitan, Lara Maharaj, and Amir Mohammed.
The entire campus rallies around the CSL students, year after year. Whether it’s individuals helping with field work, transport and heavy lifting, or the Engineering stores department showing students how to order equipment and supplies. Even the Engineering Institute’s accounting department guides them on how to manage their money.
“It's a beautiful thing to see everybody coming together to make this a reality,” says Mrs Romeo-Joseph.
Even external organisations are willing to support the students when they learn about the projects and their potential impact. Leader of another of this year’s groups Zachary Doman shared his experience working with the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) to develop and implement a bus tracking system for the San Fernando to UWI route.
Members of the student team that developed EmpleaTT, a bilingual résumé generator that helps Spanish speakers prepare résumés and cover letters in English, and representatives of the NGOs La Casita Hispanic Cultural Centre (La casita HCC) and Women Owned Media and Education Network (WOMEN). From left are Kurt Thomas, Darren Dhanasar, Justin Ramkissoon, Harel Ellis, Mrs Andreina Briceño Ventura-Brown (Director of La Casita HCC), Yashpal Maharaj, Jade Lalla (group lead), Stephan Chattergoon, Ms Lucia Cabrera-Jones (CEO of WOMEN), and Aidan Narine.
PTSC was helpful, he says, and “very understanding throughout the process. Even though we had a tight deadline, they accommodated us”, including, he adds, providing some funding for equipment.
“Because the initiative has been run for so many years,” says Dr Persad, “we've gotten to the point where, when the students go out to get resources or support, people are more receptive.”
Many of them are alumni who passed through CSL themselves and believe in the programme. These ready-to-support alumni are evidence of the merits of the initiative. They understand the intention and see its value. They have empathy and appreciate the necessity of championing humanitarian concerns that the programme was so carefully designed to instil in them.
From her vantage point, Mrs Romeo-Joseph sees the impact the CSL has had on students over the last 17 years, and is proud.
“I’m happy to have been involved,” she says, “and I look forward to the growth of the project.”
