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Offerings
of the ITC Centre
THE
University of T&T’s programmes represent a departure
from traditional university programmes in that they consist
of a strongly forged relationship between local industries,
foreign universities and academia. The programmes of the Information,
Computing and Telecommunications (ICT) Centre of Excellence
of UTT are no exception.
Need for integrated exposure
The ICT Centre of Excellence recognises the increased need
for students to acquire competence in computer hardware, networking,
telecommunications and software engineering.
Traditionally, graduates of programmes in computing have emerged
with skills in one area or another, but not an integrated
set of skills in all of these areas. Modern computer systems
engineering demands such integrated expertise.
ICT’s programmes will ensure that graduates possess a
wide repertoire of techniques and skills, as well as an integrated
view of the subfields of computer systems engineering.
Alliance with industry and foreign partners
The ICT Centre is working closely with industries in T&T
as well as advisory boards to ensure that its academic pursuits
are consistent with industries’ technological requirements.
Its undergraduate programmes will provide a rich academic
experience that will enable students to gain exposure to appropriate
theoretical studies, research problems and industries’
real-life applications.
The post-graduate programmes will address the rigorous preparation
required of applied research professionals in technologically-based
industries, as well as intellectual depth.
Both the undergraduate and post-graduate offerings will consist
of a carefully constructed balance between theory, industry-related
applications and research initiatives.
In addition to a close alliance with local industries, the
ICT Centre has developed affiliations with major foreign organisations
including a prestigious university.
These alliances will be used to ensure that the academic component
of our programmes and the applied research initiatives are
globally consistent with those of major organisations and
universities abroad.
The alliances will also be used to acquire high-level expertise
to assist in the delivery of some of the advanced courses
of the undergraduate programmes and the post-graduate offerings.
In addition, the alliances will be used to initiate high-level
application development with government agencies and industry.
ICT degrees offered
The aforementioned undergraduate programmes refer to a four-year
BSc degree with specialisation in one of the following: computer
engineering, telecommunications engineering or information
systems.
Graduates of the BSc programme may pursue post-graduate studies,
initially via an MSc degree in their area of specialisation
and eventually through a PhD programme.
Workplace experience included
The programmes are structured to include three work semesters
during which students gain practical experience. Every attempt
will be made to match students with positions whose requirements
most closely align with the students’ curricula and professional
career goals.
It is expected that participating employers will include large
industrial corporations, small specialised companies and government
agencies. This work experience usually proves to be an excellent
path to permanent and satisfying employment.
International accreditation
In addition to addressing the computer application development
needs of industry, the BSc degree is structured in a manner
that satisfies the criteria for accreditation from the Accreditation
Board for Engineering and Technology (Abet).
Satisfying Abet’s criteria for accreditation lends tremendous
credibility to the BSc programme and ensures that the graduates
possess the competencies required to embark on their professional
careers immediately upon graduation.
Dangers
of aluminium smelters
By
Ishmael Samad
A reader of Maraval
IN HIS response to the residents of Cap-de-Ville/Chatham pertaining
to their adamant objection to the construction of an aluminium
smelter in their backyard, the Prime Minster emphasised “the
national objective of creating meaningful employment opportunities
particularly for our young people.”
He informs them in no uncertain terms that the plant will
be built “in accordance with the Environmental Management
Authority Act” (Guardian, March 30).
I wish to summarise information gleaned from two Web sites—“Behind
the Shining: Aluminium’s Dark Side (www.saanet.org),
and CorpWatch: Holding Corporations Accountable, dated January
26 (www.corpwatch.org).
In 2003, the US Justice Department and the Environmental Protection
Agency found a company guilty of violating the Clean Air Act
at one of its aluminium smelters, which produced 260,000 tonnes
of aluminium annually while emitting over 40,000 tonnes of
smog-producing nitrogen oxide and 60,000 tonnes of acid-rain-generating
sulphur dioxide, as well as highly toxic metals, namely mercury,
copper and lead which accumulated in lakes and rivers.
The company was also found guilty of hazardous waste violation
at another of its aluminium smelters, the refinery being one
of three plants which poisoned a river and its ecosystem with
PCBs, dioxins, heavy metals and other pollutants, leaving
the indigenous Mohawk community with birth defects, miscarriages,
and cancer.
And because of the presence of industrial contaminants in
the food chain, “mothers are advised not to breast-feed
their children.”
In the province of Quebec, Canada, where the St Lawrence River
meets the North Atlantic’s frigid Labrador Current, pollution
from upstream industry poses the greatest threat to the St
Lawrence beluga population which dropped from 5,000 to approximately
650 in the past century.
Veterinary pathologists at the University of Montreal have
identified PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) “discharged
from upstream aluminium smelters” as a contributor to
a cancer epidemic among these small white whales. One out
of five adult belugas suffers from cancer.
In the words of Daniel Martineau, University of Montreal researcher:
“Such
a high percentage had never been observed in any wild animal
species, terrestrial or aquatic (with the important exception
of fish). To our knowledge, this is the first population of
wild animals that can be compared to humans in this regard.”
One company has four smelters in the vicinity of the beluga’s
habitat.
According to a Canadian Government survey, the Lac-Saint-Jean/Saguenay
region leads the country in cancers and birth defects. This
region also leads the province of Quebec “in deaths caused
by cardiovascular and cerbovascular diseases and malignant
tumours” as revealed in a separate study by the Quebec
Department of Health.
And in a study published in 1995, medical scientists at the
University of Montreal, after analysing workers’ health
records at an aluminium smelter in Quebec, confirmed “the
relationship between exposure to coal tar pitch volatiles
and bladder cancer among primary aluminium production workers.”
Furthermore, the Canadian Board of Occupational Health ruled
that between 1986 and 1995, 23 workers were disabled or died
as a result of on-site exposures to tar fumes, pitch/coke
dust, PAHs and other materials which caused mesothelioma,
skin cancer, bladder cancer and lung cancer in millwrights,
potroom workers, poliners and other operators and servicemen.
The aluminium smelting industry’s highest volume solid
waste is spent potlining most of which is landfilled. However,
in the US the Environmental Protection Agency lists spent
potlining as a hazardous waste and prohibits its use in landfilling
unless it has been treated to reduce its 25 hazardous constituents
which include cyanide, fluoride, lead and mercury.
In conclusion, I quote Dr Kua Kia Soong, head of a non-governmental
coalition in Sarawak, Malaysia:
“Why
do we want toxic and energy-hungry industries such as aluminium
smelters? Aluminium smelting is one industry that the developed
countries want to dump on suckers like us because it is environmentally
toxic and consumes voracious amounts of energy.”
Instead of utilising the enormous revenues from gas and oil
to subsidise the cost of computers so that every individual
secondary school student could access the Internet, the Patrick
Manning administration has chosen to subsidise the cost of
electricity to set up an aluminum smelter and endanger our
fragile ecosystem.
This country needs an aluminium smelter as much as it needs
a hole in the head.
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