Engineering department fosters brains for industry

Last Wednesday’s presentation of a laparoscopic surgery tool developed by a team at the University’s Faculty of Engineering turned the spotlight on the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, whose students have discreetly provided Malta’s manufacturing industry with solutions for years.

The department prides itself on being a product development specialist led by “forward-looking” staff working to prepare students for future industrial scenarios.

“Industry and manufacturing are alive and well in Malta despite public perception that the sector is dying,” head of department Jonathan Borg told The Sunday Times.

“We teach all aspects of product development: design, manufacturing, assembly, and now even disposal. The department has carried out research in many product development-related fields.

“Our work in design focuses not only on products and concepts but also on design methods, and we also research manufacturing and assembly processes. The operations of many companies in Malta are still related to fabrication and only a few are involved in design.”

Prof. Borg said local industry – encompassing Malta’s major manufacturers and some growing industrial services firms – was particularly pleased with the collaboration it had struck with the department. Come project publication time, there is a two-way exchange of ideas between the University and the industrial and manufacturing sector.

Department staff takes the most interesting ideas or challenges on board, draws them up to be academically sound, and publishes them for student selection. Challenges may involve procedures to increase the efficiency of systems and processes like automation, product design refinement concepts to enhance user experience of items like cosmetics or toys, or environment-friendly variations of existing products.

“These challenges provide valuable opportunities for students and it is a great way to map theory into practice,” Prof. Borg added. “For the past 10 years, the department has done some remarkable work. Industry brings ‘real world’ problems to academia. The entire process is not only about identifying solutions but also about ways to make them viable and applicable.”

In its bid to provide continued learning opportunities for professionals, the department has also designed a part-time evening MSc in Integrated Product Development that is two-thirds engineering and one-third business management.

The department’s staff dedicates much time to the painstaking task of tapping European Union funding which has brought state-of-the-art equipment to the campus, including machines that allow rapid prototyping of concepts in metal or plastic.

Prof. Borg added that the department believed it had an important role to play to help Malta become more high value-added. Throughout his own 20-year career within the department, Prof. Borg has pressed for more investment to be channelled into design.

“To sustain the health of our manufacturing industry, we have to invest more in design,” he stressed. “Malta has directed much investment towards ICT but we also need to focus on research and innovation.

“This is also important if we want to attract more foreign direct investment. We have talented scientists and engineers locally, and the planned Life Sciences Park will help matters in this regard, but Malta requires even more human resources.”

Prof. Borg pointed out that many graduates dream of pursuing careers in research at the University but the lack of funding meant it was impossible to offer such posts.

Surprisingly, the best brains do not emigrate on completion of their studies, despite the more attractive financial rewards and interesting prospects. They tend to accept largely engineering roles with responsibility for manufacturing processes. It was only the more forward-looking of Malta’s companies which were offering a handful of research-related posts.

The 30-month project to develop the laparoscopic tool was financed the Malta Council for Science and Technology through a €200,000 grant from its National Research and Innovation Programme. The funding allowed the employment of full-time engineers.

The tool, developed by a team comprising one undergraduate, two postgraduate researchers, and department staff, combines a miniature hook, a grasper, and scissors on a single device for use in keyhole surgery.

Prof. Borg explained that initial research identified surgeons’ working methods during minimal invasive surgery, which involved various tools and 30 per cent more time. The department then set itself the challenge to develop a single tool that would also help cut operations’ duration.

“Multi-functional surgery tools are not new, but we believe that the combination this prototype features is,” Prof. Borg pointed out. “We have made a technical claim for local and international patents. We hope we will be able to approach organisations who might be interested in commercialising it when we succeed in filing a patent overseas.”

Back at the department, research into some exciting technology is ongoing. The University has just won a €0.7 million MCST tender across three departments for research in manufacturing.