The School of Engineering at the Wa Polytechnic has launched its Engineering Research Centre for Social Intervention ERCSI.
The ERSCI is expected to transform real societal and industrial problems into research topics while coming up with innovative ways of solving them with engineering principles.
It will also help ready engineering students to adequately fit into the job market right after school.
Speaking at the launch of the centre at Wa in the Upper West Region, the Acting head of the Engineering Research Centre for Social Intervention and a lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Martin Donani, was optimistic that the Centre’s research and findings will play an essential role in solving society’s basic problems like waste management saying “this is a research Centre that is going to have direct impact on society. The problems are identified, transformed into research topics and are worked on, these are problems generated by society.”
The School of Engineering’s Engineering Research Centre for Social Intervention ERCSI is the first of its kind in the Wa Polytechnic. The Centre was formed by the School of Engineering in partnership with the University for Development Studies’ Library, Gratis Foundation and other academic and industrial organisations.
The Acting head of the ERCSI, Dr. Martin Donani said boxes have been placed at vantage points across the region, to collect real problems. These problems will then be brought to the centre and turned into research topics with the help of industry to find workable solutions.
“We have problem submission forms which have been distributed along with problem boxes which have been distributed at vantage points in town. These forms are then completed and returned into the boxes,” he said.
The Dean of the School of Engineering, Dr. Hamidatu Darimani appealed for strong collaboration from government and the private sector to make help make the centre successful. She said “what we will be asking for is government support and that of partners around us because we cannot do this alone.”
She stressed the need for innovation to make our daily lives hassle free saying “we are living in an economy that if we just sit alone and do this, we will bring up these brilliant ideas and they might not work at the end of the day. We want to come up with innovative ideas that really can help solve societal problems.”
Dr. Darimani added that “promoting innovation in our society is not only about new inventions; it’s about using and current resources in a more innovative way.”
The launch of the ERCSI was attended by lecturers, heads of departments of various faculties of the school and some private partners.
Story by Mark Smith
