KNUST COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING RESEARCH HOLDS 8TH RETREAT IN TAMALE

KNUST COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING RESEARCH HOLDS 8TH RETREAT IN TAMALE

The 8th Retreat of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in
Kumasi’s College of Engineering Research is underway in Tamale under the theme,
“Technology for sustainable accelerated national development.”
The four days retreat is to offer the participants the opportunity to reflect
on their past performances in their various areas of research and to initiate
simple technologies that will impact positively on the lives of Ghanaians.
The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority is one of the major topics
expected to be deliberated on by the participants.
Other topical issues of national concern tabled for discussions are improving
the structural strength of clays for constructing mud houses in rural
communities, the role of the Irrigation Development Authority in water resource
management for mitigating droughts and floods whilst ensuring food and income
security. On crime combating in Ghana, the participants will look at what is termed a
“Geospatial suite” and if possible recommend to the Ghana police service to
adopt it as best practice to deal with the situation.
Speaking to Fiila News at the opening ceremony, Professor Ato Bart-Plange,
convener of the retreat explains that the event creates an enabling platform
for members to share their expertise and challenges in engineering and
technology and its importance to national development.
He added that such an occasion- is used to foster new innovations to enable the
college researchers develop a culture that promotes university and industry
collaborations through invited presentations from industry funding agencies and
other researchers. Professor Ato Plange further stated that the retreat serves as mentorship for
young researchers to ensure that their research works will meet good standards
through what he described as “Peer questioning.” Welcoming the participants to Tamale, the Mayor of Tamale, Alhaji Abudulai Harunah Friday praised the organizers for choosing Tamale as the venue and concluded that it was largely because of the prevailing stabled peace residents
were enjoying. He admitted that scientific knowledge formed the basis of creating wealth
through activities such as agriculture, health, manufacturing and the exploitation of natural resources to achieve sustainable national development. Alhaji Abudulai Friday therefore emphasized that government and its development partners will accord researchers their paramount importance by adopting most of their useful findings to balance Ghana’s economy as a means of raising the citizens living standards. The College of Engineering and Research Retreat is an initiative that was started in 2001 to provide opportunities for senior members of the college to share their research and development activities and findings with other colleagues. It among other goals aimed at providing an opportune time for researchers to meet and interact and form research groups to tackle national problems and also build professional relationships between faculty members and industry.