Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 2286

A Collaborative Effort to Develop a Research Center in Engineering and Technology in Uganda

Frank T. Duda, Jr., Douglas K. Lauffer

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Grove City College, Grove City, PA 16127 / Dept. of Computer Information Systems and Telecommunications, Community College Beaver County, Monaca, PA

Abstract

In order for Uganda Christian University (UCU) Mukono, Uganda to realize its vision of training East African students to be at the forefront of the impact of technology in both a cultural and a societal sense, a committee was formed to consider how this could be accomplished. The committee was made up of an interdisciplinary team of social scientists, religion professors and engineering educators familiar with the British, European, American and Australian models of engineering education. Surveys were conducted to gauge the needs and expectations of Ugandan industries as well as to assess the quality of student preparation and developmental needs. This paper discusses the development of a research center in engineering and technology at UCU and the supportive program infrastructure. The originality of our ideas comes from our participation with educators in Uganda and the mutual recognition of the need to develop more education in science and engineering.

Introduction

This paper presents a performance process model for implementing an engineering curriculum for the Uganda Christian University. Engineering education is non existent at the Uganda Christian University. This is a university that serves the educational needs of the Church of Uganda and admits any qualified student in Uganda or students of other countries. The Church of Uganda has about 5 million members which is approximately 20 per cent of the 24.7 million population of Uganda1 . The results of a survey conducted over a four year period show that there is both a need to train scientists and engineers as well as a need to train teachers at the secondary level to teach the basics of science and engineering. The findings were similar to the findings from other field work 2. A curriculum leading to a Bachelor of Science degree in basic engineering fundamentals has been proposed to meet both of these needs.

The proposed program would include a core curriculum taken by both the students who plan to be science teachers at the secondary level as well as those who plan to complete the engineering degree. Initially, the secondary teachers who teach in both the public schools and private schools will be targeted for science/engineering post secondary training.

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Duda, F. (2003, June), A Collaborative Effort To Develop A Research Center In Engineering And Technology In Uganda Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12100