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Faculty Report 08/09 02 Dr. Professor Hamid Brian Ghany Copeland 38 10 18 25 Professor Professor Professor Dyer Funso Samuel Narinesingh Aiyejina Ramsewak THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES – ST. AUGUSTINE CAMPUS FACULTY REPORT 08/09 Making Our Mark Students, lecturers, administrators and support staff – have been making our own mark on our Campus, our University, our region and our world. he 2008/09 Faculty Report provides students more ready for entry into the Faculty, Department for Festival and Creative Arts – an a detailed summary of the activities and even before enrolment for a first degree, international competition to encourage the T of the five Faculties and specialised graduates of the programme will have a level creation of new music specifically for the steel Institutes, Centres and Units on the St. of certification recognised throughout the pan! Augustine Campus. To understand the degree region. On the other hand, some innovations Outreach at St. Augustine was just as to which the changes called for in the new in Teaching and Learning are as simple as varied. At the Faculty of Medical Sciences, staff Strategic Plan are taking place on the Campus, ensuring that lecturers in the Department of and students continued to help heal the sick this report allows you to dig deeper and unearth Chemistry post their schedule of office hours at public institutions across the country; our the activities and initiatives which took place to assure students of more valuable one-on- writers, artists, musicians, filmmakers and over the course of the year. one face time with lecturers – especially first- thespians brought their own brand of healing Take for instance the introduction of the year students who are now each assigned to a through award-winning performances; and new Foundation programme in the Faculty of lecturer. our social scientists raised the level of discourse Engineering which is geared towards making In the area of Research and Innovation, the 2008/09 Faculty Report provides insight on the burning issues of the day. into some of the rich research undertaken or There was no shortage of ideas and 02 Engineering 25 Science & Agriculture completed during the period. There are the commitment to overcoming the challenges 10 Humanities 37 Social Sciences created by the shortfall in the Campus budget, & Education 43 Centres & Units more traditional projects in literature, history, 18 Medical 55 Publications medicine and the sciences. Then there is and to ensuring that our Campus continues to Sciences and Conferences research of a different kind coming out of the make its mark! A PUBLICATION OF THE MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE – THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, ST. AUGUSTINE CAMPUS THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES – ST. AUGUSTINE CAMPUS THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING Dean, Faculty of Engineering or the period under review the Department of Civil PROFESSOR BRIAN COPELAND Faculty focused its activities in & Environmental Engineering F three areas related to the UWI The Department of Civil & Environmental Strategic Plan 2007-2012, i.e., Curriculum Engineering provides, through a and Pedagogical Reform (CPR) at the structured programme, the educational undergraduate and postgraduate levels, base for the formation of a chartered/ Research and Innovation, and Support professional engineer in accordance with Systems. In particular, a new set of Faculty the requirements of the Engineering regulations took effect as of September Council (EC) in the United Kingdom. The 2008 and a revision of the Mathematics Joint Board of Moderators (JBM) of the offering began. In addition, the Faculty UK Institutions of Civil and Structural completed plans for the creation of a pre- Engineers carry out the accreditation on engineering programme, inclusive of a behalf of the EC, and a re-accreditation certified vocational training component, visit by the JBM is expected in April 2010. to be offered Caribbean-wide through Moreover, the afore-mentioned structured the Open Campus. Discussions were also programme offering puts the graduates on started on the delivery of programmes in even keel with graduates from Europe, and Engineering at Mona culminating in an is also internationally recognised through agreement on the delivery of Electronics the Washington Accord. Engineering as of September 2009. Of the 266 undergraduate students, Work continued through the Engineering approximately 90% are from Trinidad and Institute in the renormalized offering of Tobago. Thus there is a case for increasing Continuing Professional Development regional diversity in enrolment since it courses. creates a more wholesome and attractive learning environment. To date, the The Faculty completed its Research and average time of completion is 3.5 years, Innovation strategy and began engagement and the average ratio of output (number of various stakeholders inside and outside of students graduating per year) to input of The University for further input into the (number of students admitted into the plan. programme is approximately 0.7. The student to staff ratio, at the undergraduate The Faculty used its internal resources, level, is 16:1, which is considerably higher including staff as well as students, to than the JBM recommended threshold of ready the new Block 13 building for use 13:1. At the graduate level, approximately by September 2009. Greater emphasis 100 students are enrolled in the teaching was placed on established standards programmes, and ten (10) are registered in maintaining and upgrading its for MPhil and PhD degrees. infrastructure. In this regard, the Faculty adopted the Penn State standards for Department of Electrical classrooms for future work in this area. & Computer Engineering The Department of Electrical and DEPARTMENTAL Computer Engineering made significant EXECUTIVE SUMMARY contributions and enjoyed tremendous successes in the area of research and Department of Chemical Engineering innovation in the academic year, 2008/ The Department of Chemical Engineering 2009. Three academic staff numbered continued its tradition of seeking ways to among the University’s sixty honoured improve and enhance the quality and the in the institution’s sixtieth anniversary effectiveness of its programmes. celebrations in 2008, primarily for contributions in these areas. One staff Staffing continues to be a challenge for member, Prof. Brian Copeland, was the first the Department. In this regard, during recipient of the Order of the Republic of the review year a small committee Trinidad and Tobago, the Nation’s highest was established to address succession award. He received two patent grants in planning. The Committee was mandated the Trinidad and Tobago jurisdiction his to develop and propose action plans and work on the steelpan. Dr. Ronald De Four’s strategies for academic staff recruitment Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Patent and succession planning to meet current Application was published in March 2009 and further needs of the Department. in the United States of America, following Some recommendations have already an earlier grant of a positive International been made and the work of the Committee Preliminary Examination Report (IPER) is ongoing. for his work on a Self Starting Method and 2 FACULTY REPORT 08/09 an Apparatus for Sensorless Commutation The Department is focusing on Teaching of Brushless DC Motors. and Learning and in particular curriculum Students redesign and development. This process The Department strengthened its involves all members of academic staff Undergraduate .......................... 2826 institutional collaborations for research, and is ongoing. Postgraduate ............................... 850 adding a formal collaboration through Total ........................................... 3676 the development of a proposal for a Department of Surveying * Figures are as at February 2010 Caribbean ICT Research Programme & Land Information with the Caribbean Telecommunications (now Geomatics Engineering Undergraduate Union, the Economic Commission for and Land Information) For the academic year 2008/09 the Latin America and the Caribbean, the undergraduate intake for all programmes in the Observatorio para la Sociedad de la Academic year 2008/2009 marked the Faculty was 293 students, 33% fewer than the Información en Latinoamérica y Caribe first year of full implementation of previous year. With the exception of the Land and the Mona School of Business. Staff the major review of all offerings of the Management programme, which experienced in the Department also continued to Department, using the learning outcome a 60% increase in intake, and the Petroleum lead the development of the Caribbean approach. The Department focused on Geoscience programme which had the same Accreditation Council for Engineering and the implementation of the University’s intake as in 2007/08, all the other programmes experienced a decrease in enrolment ranging Strategic Plan and significant gains were Technology. from 12% (Civil Engineering) to 63% (Geomatics made in different areas. – formerly Surveying & Land Information). The Department continued to develop its framework for effective teaching and Academic staff continued to make Postgraduate significant contributions to professional learning with its strong and effective The Faculty attracted 292 new students into curriculum of transferable skills, delivered bodies, attainment of scholarships and its taught Postgraduate Diploma/Master’s through thematic and skills threads recognition for excellence and promotion programmes,
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