SUNDAY 8TH MAY, 2016 – UWI TODAY
3
Six students get
HUAWEI
TRIP TO
CHINA
On April 29, 2016,
members
of The UWI Council – the
highest governing body of the
regional institution – met at
the St. Augustine Campus for
the Council’s annual business
meeting. At this meeting,
several important decisions
were taken as it relates to the
leadership of our University
as The UWI continues to
demonstrate its immense value
as a contributor and repository of human development and
intellectual capacity of our West Indian community.
Indeed, The UWI is witnessing a
‘
wind of change and
transition’ which I firmly believe is not only inevitable, but a
process that readily lends itself as a natural catalyst to foster
further growth, relevance and impact as we continue to evolve
into an entity that meets the daily expectations of the people
of our region.
It is within this context and with pride that I would like to
extend heartfelt congratulations to
Professor BrianCopeland
who has been appointed Campus Principal Designate of The
UWI St. Augustine Campus. As a Professor in Electrical and
Computer Engineering and former Dean of the Faculty of
Engineering at the St. Augustine Campus, he has been my
well-respected colleague for over two decades. For many years,
I have known of his commitment to The UWI as a colleague
in the Faculty of Engineering when he was Head of the
Department of Electrical andComputer Engineering and I was
the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. His drive and passion
for excellence and strong focus on developmental research has
resulted in outputs such as the first Electronic Scoreboard at
the Queen’s Park Oval and the development and patenting of
the G-Pan, a re-engineered form of the traditional steelpan,
as well as the Percussive Harmonic instrument (P.H.I.), an
electronic form of the traditional steelpan.
I extend my very best wishes to Professor Copeland,
and I have every confidence that he will continue to build this
Campus on the solid platform that has been laid by all past
Principals of the St. Augustine Campus over the last 55 years.
I also wish to thank and congratulate the Deputy
Principal of The UWI St. Augustine Campus,
Professor
Rhoda Reddock
, for her sterling service throughout the years.
Professor Reddock has been given a one-year extension as
Deputy Principal which will be instrumental in the transition
period of leadership at The UWI St. Augustine Campus.
Inaddition,
ProfessorIndarRamnarine
was reappointed
as theDean of the Faculty of Science and Technology. Professor
Ramnarine has brought considerable creativity and innovation
to this Faculty, especially as it relates to the development of
new postgraduate programmes. I also extend a warmwelcome
to the new Dean of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture,
Dr.
Wayne Ganpat
, someone who brings considerable experience
in the agricultural sector of Trinidad and Tobago and the
region. I wish to thank the outgoing Dean,
Dr. Isaac Bekele
for his stewardship of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture and
the establishment of the Agricultural Innovation Park (AIP)
at our East Campus in Orange Grove.
At the regional level, I congratulate and extend best
wishes to
Professor Archibald McDonald
the Pro Vice-
Chancellor and Campus Principal of The UWI Mona
Campus, who was granted a one-year post-retirement
extension which will enable him to complete several major
developmental projects including The UWI Mona, Western
Jamaica Campus in Montego Bay, and
Dr. Luz Longsworth
who was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor and Campus
Principal of The UWI Open Campus, and as such, will lead
and forge the transformation and new direction of the Open
Campus based upon the recommendations of the Open
Campus Task Force established by the Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.
The University leadership also welcomes a new Pro
Vice-Chancellor for Planning andDevelopment in
Professor
Densil Williams
(former Executive Director of the Mona
School of Business and Management) who will oversee the
development of The UWI’s new Strategic Plan 2017-2022,
to align industry with academia to create wealth; to expand
access to tertiary education; and to seek global opportunities.
I take this opportunity to commend Professor Williams
on his new assignment and express thanks to the former
PVC of Planning and Development,
Professor Andrew
Downes
for his prominent role in conceptualizing and
operationalizingThe UWI’s current Strategic Plan 2012-2017
and his stewardship of SALISES. I wish him the very best in
his retirement.
As I personally also prepare to demit the Office of the
Campus Principal, and more broadly, retire from The UWI
on September 30, 2016, to encounter what lies ahead in my
journey of life, I must say that it has been a truly incredible
journey for me that started way back in 1969 (as a student),
and I recount with a great sense of joy and pride some of the
extraordinary accomplishments we have been able to achieve
as a team. And while I believe that there is still so much to
achieve, after a 47-year association with The UWI, I remind
myself of the belief that ‘there is a time for everything, and
a season for every activity…a time to plant and a time to
uproot….’ (
Ecclesiastes 3
).
Indeed, our beloved regional university has an ageless
mandate of serving the Caribbean region and beyond,
and I remain confident that our new leaders will espouse
a philosophy of leadership based on servant-hood, a style
of leadership that I have embraced. I close with a quote
from Rabindranath Tagore, words I underscored at my final
presentation to Campus Council:
‘I slept and dreamt that
life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and
behold, service was joy…’.
CLEMENT K. SANKAT
Pro Vice-Chancellor & Principal
EDITORIAL TEAM
CAMPUS PRINCIPAL
Professor Clement Sankat
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Dr Dawn-Marie De Four-Gill
EDITOR
Vaneisa Baksh • email:
CONTACT US
The UWI Marketing and Communications Office
Tel: (868) 662-2002, exts. 82013 / 83997 or email:
OUR CAMPUS
Change and Transition
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Six UWI students
will be selected for a training
programme financed by Huawei Technologies (T&T) Ltd.,
and carried out in China. The focus of the selection panel
will be students working in the field of telecommunications
and technological research and innovation.That panel will
comprise representatives fromThe UWI, Huawei and the
Ministry of Education.
On April 25, The UWI and Huawei signed the MoU
for the agreement, which enables the students to attend
training sessions at the Huawei Campus and Research
and Development Centres in Shenzhen and Beijing. The
MoU indicates that they will be “studying innovation
topics related to the development of the next generation
networks” and, “will experience the ‘cloud-room’, where
researchers are connected through cloud and collaborate
and share resources for planning the future of ICT.”
The students will also have the opportunity to
experience China’s culture.
Signing on behalf of Huawei was Mr Jason Deng,
while St. Augustine Campus Principal, Professor Clement
Sankat signed for The UWI. Minister in the Ministry of
Education, Dr. Lowell Francis was also present.
The MoU indicates that they will be
“studying innovation topics related to
the development of the next generation
networks” and, “will experience
the ‘cloud-room’, where researchers
are connected through cloud and
collaborate and share resources for
planning the future of ICT.”
PHOTO: ATIBA CUDJOE
