8
UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER, 2014
ENERGY
RESEARCH
“One man’s magic
is another man’s engineering,” Robert
Heinlein, the famed science fiction author once said. Driving
along the highway at night and seeing the smoking towers
of the Point-a-Pierre refinery, or spying the monolithic
platforms off Trinidad’s east coast, it is easy to believe in
the magic of engineering. But more than its impressive
spectacles, the alchemy of engineering has made an
enormous contribution to the prosperity of the entire
region.
Since its formal opening on February 1, 1963, the
Faculty of Engineering of The UWI, St Augustine Campus,
has educated many within the profession – nation builders
in the most literal sense. There is no better example of this
than Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector, which not only
depends on a cadre of UWI graduates, but is also very much
the creation of UWI innovation and technical expertise.
The energy model has been so successful that developing
nations interested in establishing sectors of their own seek
the assistance of Trinidad and Tobago over much larger and
more developed players.
It’s an important equation to remember: oil and gas
plus innovation – particularly because the oil and gas are
finite. The date of their expiration is already on the horizon.
But the third variable is not only renewable; it has endless
potential for expansion. Seems like a good time to start
drilling for innovation.
In fact, planners and policymakers have been grappling
with the challenge of energising the society’s creative
potential for invention and entrepreneurship for some time.
Most recently, the Ministry of Planning and Sustainable
Development set up its Council for Competitiveness and
Innovation in 2011 to encourage local innovators.
For decades now the Faculty of Engineering has used
technical innovation to solve problems. From the 2014-
2015 academic year, the Faculty will be working to make
Caribbean societies more innovative and entrepreneurial.
“If you listen to the conversation now, everyone is
talking about innovation,” says Professor Brian Copeland,
Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. “It has to happen. Oil
and gas are not going to last forever. It takes a generation to
change mindsets so the best time to start changingmindsets
is now.”
What this means for the Faculty is that across its five
departments of engineering – Civil and Environmental,
Chemical Engineering, Electrical andComputer,Mechanical
andManufacturing, and Geomatics and LandManagement
– not only will students receive an education in their
respective disciplines, they will also, should they desire,
be supported in developing their inclinations for creative
ventures. From the development of innovative projects to the
creation of start-up companies, the Faculty of Engineering
has ambitions of becoming a regional innovation hub that
fosters a culture of inventive entrepreneurship and facilitates
its success.
The new age of invention
Around two years ago, the Department of Mechanical
andManufacturing Engineering at the St Augustine Campus
acquired its first 3D printer. The purchase was the most
recent of several moves over almost a decade to use advances
in technology to accelerate regional manufacturing. It
represents UWIs determination to use its resources for the
material benefit of society. It’s a determination that Professor
Copeland says was born in the Faculty of Engineering.
“The whole concept of innovation and entrepreneurship
that is led by innovation originated here,” he says. “I
remember well when the discussion started in the mid
1980s. There was a ‘publish or perish’ paradigm at the
time and a lot of us were frustrated with it. We said that
the University needed to understand the big picture and
although publishing is very important, what completes the
picture is innovative activity.”
Indeed, there are many examples worldwide of
universities acting as engine rooms for game-changing
technologies and processes. In the US, the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) has earned a reputation
as a cathedral of human ingenuity on a perpetual quest
for new and improved solutions to a host of real-world
challenges – including economic challenges. Silicon
Valley, the technology hub of the United States, operates
in a near symbiotic relationship with Stanford University,
relying on them for research, manpower and budding tech
entrepreneurs.
It is through these academic/industry collaborations
that phenomena likeweb giant Google, Samsung Electronics’
smartphone empire (using Android technology) and the
aforementioned 3D printing, were spawned. Professor
Copeland and his colleagues envisioned the same type of
relationship between UWI and the private sector.
With this in mind, his colleague Professor Emeritus
St Clair King spearheaded the formation of the Real Time
Systems Group (RTSG) within the Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering during the 1980s. RTSG has
worked with industries within Trinidad and Tobago on
several notable projects, among them the first electronic
scoreboard in the Queen’s Park Oval, an offshore data
movement system for Trinmar, as well as work for the
Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago
(TSTT).
Drilli
Inno
How the Engin
is taking its ide
B y J o e l H e n r y
“We need a process
this university that
carries us through t
whole value chain,
right through to
commercial reality.”
However, RTSGhas not received the kindof engagement
from business that would have established an innovation-
generating relationship.
“The kind of engagement we saw with universities
involved in other countries, pushing boundaries in research
and using that research to push their products and processes
on a total operational basis, we didn’t see it happening here,”
Professor Copeland said.
