SUNDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER, 2014 – UWI TODAY
9
Faculty of Engineering
2014-2015
initiatives at a glance
The Faculty of Engineering is looking at
several ways for improving the educational
experienceaswell as theoverall development
of students. Some of these initiatives will be
embarked upon in 2014-2015, others are in
the proposal phase.
Student engagement
Improvement in course quality and systems
to better maintain course quality so as to
provide students with a better learning
experience.
Research and Development
Establishing UWI’s first start-up company.
Student Employment
Expansion and formalisation of the ADARA
programme to employ engineering students
for research and development activities
during the summer. The new programme
will be called the Summer Research Activity
Programme (SROP).
Infrastructural Improvements
Introducenewtechnology into the classroom
to further stimulate students’ interest and
learning.
g for
ation
ering Faculty
s to market
n
e
Resilient Citizens
For decades now, this realisation has influenced
Professor Copeland and contributed to his approach as Dean
of the Faculty of Engineering. Today he sees a Faculty-driven
innovation agenda as urgent. Not only because Trinidad
and Tobago’s need for economic diversification has become
pressing but also because 2014-2015 will be his seventh and
final year at the head of the Faculty.
“I want this year to be special because there are things
that need to happen,” he says.
The Professor has a fairly comprehensive agenda for
2014-2015 and beyond, which, apart from strengthening
how the Faculty and its departments deliver education and
promote research, will also create more space for innovation
and enterprise for students and faculty.
“We want to bolster our capability to help thembecome
innovators if they so desire. The majority of students will
still go out and join the workforce as professional engineers,
but the one or two who are interested in innovation (and
that number is increasing) in addition to their studies, we
want to be able to give them more support.”
Professor Copeland himself is an innovator. “I’ve always
been a thinker. I’ve always been pulling devices apart.
Looking for the ‘man in the radio’ is where it started,” he
laughs.
He has invented both the G-Pan (an advancement in
steel pan design) and the PHI (an electronic instrument
using the steel pan design), and is working along with a
University team to eventually bring the PHI to the market
through a start-up company with input from UWI.
“We need a process in this university that carries us
through the whole value chain, right through to commercial
reality,” he explains. “Somebody comes up with a brand new
idea and within the next two to three years it is a saleable
product through a company that UWI has some kind of
interest in. You build your students by exposing them to
that whole cycle. You encourage staff. You have an alternate
income stream. And you are adding to the country and
region’s economic landscape.”
The Faculty alsoplans on increasing the size and scope of
its Academic Development and ResearchActivity (ADARA)
programme, which provides employment opportunities for
students during the vacation period. ADARA is currently
a Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering
programme, but Professor Copeland wants to expand it to
the entire Faculty in a new programme called the Summer
Research Opportunity Programme (SROP), a name coined
by fellow steelpan researcher Dr April Bryan who proposed
the SROP. But even outside of the ADARA the Faculty has
been employing students for about 15 years now, increasing
from an initial number of five up to about 50. With these
plans the number can increase dramatically.
“Innovation comes from experience, Says Professor
Copeland, explaining the effect of student employment at
the Faculty. “If you look at most of the innovation in the
world it arose frompeople engaged in an activity and finding
a need within that activity. You don’t get that experience by
just reading a book. You have to be engaged, see the problem
and then create the solution.”
Students who work at UWI within the Faculty are
engaged in research and publication, as well as bringing
projects to commercialised states.
“Last year we had four undergraduate students working
on pan research. We got a paper out of it. This year we have
four more students and we hope to get two or three papers,”
he said.
“The Faculty is actually having a closing ceremony to
celebrate the work of these students.The goal is to recognise
their work and encourage them in the process of research
and development. I have seen students grow enormously
within the first month of a programme like this because
they are getting experience and building confidence. I have
seen confidence take off. And that, I think, is an enormous
benefit.”
Professor Copeland will also encourage the engineering
departments in creating an environment that promotes
and supports innovation, including working to ensure that
intellectual property rights are protected.
And these initiatives that are specific to fostering
innovation within the Faculty of Engineering are only
part of the Dean’s agenda for improving the teaching of
the engineering discipline within UWI at the St Augustine
Campus. It is an enormous task for his final year and
Professor Copeland is realistic about his chances of
completing it all within the timeframe. His goal is to ensure
that the essentials are in place so that they can be continued,
completed and expanded going forward.
Yet tapping into the nation’s potential for innovation is
one of his greatest priorities:
“Tome innovation is about more thanmaking money,”
he says. “Yes, money is important because we have to survive,
but that’s only the first step. Take a look at people who are
quick on their feet, can come up with new ideas and solve
problems. If you have that kind of citizen your society has
a much more resilient core. You are building a very capable
people.”
And wou ldn’t that be the u lt imate feat of
engineering?
He went on, “we came to the conclusion that our society
was not designed that way, maybe because of its size or its
history. We came up with the notion that the Faculty of
Engineering needs to be the body that pushes the concept
of innovation and ties it to entrepreneurship.”
