Engineering in the service of society

The faculty of engineering at the university of Malta has extended it operations to serve society's emerging needs. Attempts have been made to address specific needs through the development of academic curricula and the integration of the local industry within research projects.

Several examples can be cited where the faculty is involved and which focus on societal requirements.

One such example is Flysafe which is intended to improve the safety of passenger aircraft. The project involves researchers from the department of microelectronics, Air Malta, Airbus and other companies and research institutions.

The project Sniffer Dog makes use of laser spectroscopic techniques to locate and identify concealed explosives within seconds.

The partners in this development include the Department of Metallurgy and Materials, the Department of Power and Control both from the Faculty of Engineering; the Armed Forces of Malta, Malta International Airport, Qutec, a research institute in Germany, the Technical University of Clausthal an a Danish Company.

Promet is a research project which seeks to develop transparent coating suitable for protecting artefacts such as the weapons and armour from atmosphere corrosion.

Its partners are the Department of Metallurgy and Materials at the University, the Malta Centre for Restoration and a number of universities and museums around the Mediterranean.

The faculty uses plant and equipment at its laboratories to offer a direct service to local and foreign companies. This includes calibration of electric meters and bulk and surface-engineering treatments intended to reduce tool wear and machine down time while increasing productivity and quality of the finished product.

Surface Engineering Ltd, a university company is the commercial arm offering these services to companies including Lufthansa Technik and carrying out commissioned research on behalf of Tecvac in the UK and Swarovski in Belgium among others.

The faculty of engineering has for a number of years been running an undergraduate course of the highest academic level, comparable to any offered in foreign universities of repute.

In these last few years engineering staff members have been committed to the mission of putting the faculty of engineering on the international map.

The introduction of the European credit transfer system (ECTS) gave engineering students the chance to benefit from student exchange programmes and to spend time studying overseas.

The faculty runs staff and student exchange agreements with major universities in Europe including the UK, Germany, Italy, France and the Czech Republic. Around 20 students benefit annually from these programmes and the number is steadily rising.

The faculty of engineering has been particularly successful in acquiring foreign funding from the sixth Framework Programme and others for a variety of research projects. One such project aims at developing advanced electronic surveillance sensors.

The Network of Excellence Biopattern brings together engineers and specialists in the medical field from around Europe to work and develop a system that supports bio-profiling of brain and hearth signals, and various imaging modalities.

Another programme involves the transfer of knowledge in this fast developing field of nanomaterials. The project Twister uses satellite communication systems to provide services to rural environments.

This includes applications in education, health and agriculture. The faculty is participating in 15 international research projects and has within the last year attracted over €1.5 million.

These projects offer graduates the prospect of employment as researchers and the opportunity of further study. Currently, the faculty has over 25 post-graduate students reading for an MPhil or a PhD.

Every year the faculty welcomes the public to view the projects of its final year students and its plant and equipment and gives visitors the opportunity to meet students and academic staff members. This year the project exhibition will be open to the public on Thursday and Friday between 5 and 8 p.m. and on Saturday between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The exhibition will interest students planning to study engineering and others who have not as yet made up their mind. It also offers industrialists the opportunity find out for themselves the competences and of the students of the faculty. It should also appeal to those who have research and engineering at heart.

Professor Grech is the dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malta.