Faculty Report 10/11 - The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

Department of Mechanical
& Manufacturing Engineering
Members of staff in the Department of Mechanical and
Manufacturing Engineering have been actively involved
in Research and Innovation. The fruits of the research
conducted during the 2010/2011 academic year resulted
in three MPhil/PhD graduates and nineteen (19) Journal
Publications.
The five postgraduate programmes were well subscribed.
The MSc programme in Engineering Asset Management
started two years ago and is well subscribed with a
total of 40 students. Three years ago, the Engineering
Management Programme was offered in Guyana for
Professional Engineers and the first graduates are
expected in the next reporting period.
The Department finalised its curriculum review of
the three undergraduate programmes (Mechanical,
Mechanical with Biosystems and Industrial Engineering)
and obtained the necessary university approvals in
June 2010. Implementation of the first year changes
began in September 2010 and that of the second year
started in September 2011. The Department also had
an accreditation visit by the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers (IMechE) of the United Kingdom in May 2011
and received reaccreditation for a 5-year period for
the 2011 to 2015 intakes for all the Undergraduate
programmes and three of the Postgraduate
Programmes: MSc in Production Engineering, MSc in
Production Engineering and Management and MSc in
Engineering Management.
FACULTY REPORT 2010/2011
CHANGING CULTURE,
PROCESS & QUALITY ASSURANCE
Department of Chemical Engineering
The Department undertook a strategic review of its
operations between October-November 2010, facilitated
by Consultants, GBest Trading Company Limited. This
is further expanded upon in the Teaching and Learning
section of this report. In addition, a team of assessors
from the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
visited the department from April 18-19, 2011. Resulting
from this visit was the re-accreditation of the BSc and
MSc Programmes in Chemical and Process Engineering
for a 5-year period, from student intake 2010 to 2015.
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Since the launch of the restructured undergraduate and
postgraduate programmes in 2010, five of the programmes
were submitted for accreditation: BSc Civil Engineering
and Civil with Environmental Engineering as well as
the MSc Civil Engineering, Civil with Environmental
Engineering and Construction Management. A
subsequent visit by the JBM took place in November
2011. The JBM Accreditation team was comprised of six
members including three regional contributors. The final
report is to be submitted to the Department in the first
quarter of 2012.
Efforts to Improve Recruitment/Retention
The Department of Chemical Engineering made progress
in its succession planning activities with the addition of
new faculty members Drs. Saheeda Mujaffar, Carmen
Riverol and Andres Marquez.
Significant Training Initiatives
IDU Training Workshops Attended
Twenty-five (25) members of staff participated in various
IDU Training workshops during the 2010/2011 Academic
Year, including one member of staff who completed the
Certificate in University Teaching & Learning (CUTL).
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