Engineers told to be practical
Ministry of Education has challenged engineers in the country to be more practical than theoretical if societal challenges the country is grappling with are to be addressed.
The ministry’s director of science, technology and innovation Associate Professor Chomora Mikeka said through their research and innovations, engineers have the fundamental role to steer economic growth.
He said: “They [engineers] have the potential, but they are not doing it, if they are doing it, then they are not doing enough… This is a problem-solving profession so if you are not solving problems then you are not an engineer because what citizens in villages and towns are looking for is to see an engineer being a problem solver.
“We can formulate more standards based on practical realizations and these should solve the societal challenges. Malawi is in economic problems which are redeemable if our engineers apply themselves wholeheartedly in all the 13 sectors and 20 ministries in government. Engineering and innovation must be beyond the text books.”
Mikeka was speaking in Blantyre on the sidelines of the inaugural annual conference for the School of Engineering of Malawi University of Business and Applied Science (Mubas) held to tackle challenges of infrastructural science development.
In his address, Professor Evans Nkhalambayausi Chirwa from the University of Pretoria in South Africa said issues in contemporary research are interlinked; hence, the need for collaboration.
“Most funding institutions want to build collaboration because they want research and the solutions to be more holistic,” he said.
The conference’s organising chairperson Associate Professor Ignasio Ngoma said they hoped to come up with a reset agenda for the school that would help the country attain the Malawi 2063 through engineering and innovation.
“As a school, we have now developed more programmes on postgraduate studies, meaning more research towards practical issues because the students already work and upon doing their research they are able to look at issues they are facing in the industry and can find solutions through research,” he said.
The conference was held under the theme ‘Malawi 2063: Unlocking development through engineering and innovations’.
