Research and innovation initiatives, engagements & achievements

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Compiled & Edited by: Paul Ivey, Martin Henry, Michelle Beckford, and Tashoya Streete Executive Editor: Prof. Gossett Oliver Published by: School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship and Corporate Communications Unit University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), 237 Old Hope Road, Kingston, Jamaica Acknowledgement: The Editorial Team thanks all members of the UTech community who contributed to this publication, in particular the researchers

whose work represents its main content, the Calvin McKain Library and the Marketing Department for many of the photographs. Š University of Technology, Jamaica, March 2015. The contents of this publication may be used for non-commercial purposes with appropriate credit.

ISBN: 978-976-8027-40-5

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University of Technology, Jamaica

MISSION STATEMENT

To Stimulate Positive Change in Caribbean Society through the Provision of High Quality Learning and Research Opportunities and Service to our Communities

Table of Contents Foreword

Ambassador the Hon Burchell Whiteman, Interim President

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 UTech’s Research & Innovation Management Ecosystem ...............................................................................................................................................8

Office of Research & Graduate Studies (ORGS) ............................................................................................................................ 8

School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) ........................................................................................... 8

Research Management Defined ...................................................................................................................................................... 8

Key Research Management Skills .................................................................................................................................................. 9

Specific Roles and Responsibilities of the SGSRE ......................................................................................................................... 9

Office of Research & Graduate Studies (ORGS) ........................................................................................................................... 9

College/Faculty Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Coordinators ....................................................................... 10

Research Policy ............................................................................................................................................................................ 11

Key Institutional Research-Related Initiatives ............................................................................................................................. 11

Research Management Support for Staff ...................................................................................................................................... 11

Internal Research Grant .............................................................................................................................................................. 11

Journal of Arts Science and Technology ...................................................................................................................................... 12

President’s Research Initiative Award .......................................................................................................................................... 12

Research, Technology and Innovation Day .................................................................................................................................. 13

Selected Examples of Scholarly Initiatives Engagements & Achievements .........................................................................................................14

Profile of the President’s Research Initiative Awardee for 2014 .................................................................................................. 14

High Visibility for Research Article Co-authored by Prof. the Hon. Errol Morrison .................................................................. 15

EU RING Professor Gossett Oliver nominated for National Medal for Science and Technology .............................................. 15

Is De-institutionalization of Mentally ill Patients a Good Idea?.................................................................................................. 16

Computational Science Research Group Collaborates with University of North Carolina on Information Security ................. 16

Does the Condition of School Buildings Affects Students’ Academic Performance? ................................................................... 17

Computational Science Research Group Publishes in Peer-Reviewed International Conference Proceedings .......................... 17

UTech Collaborates with Steep Hill Labs, USA, to Advance Local Cannabis Research ............................................................. 18

UTech Receives QuantaCann2TM Machine to Advance Research on the Medicinal Use of Cannabis ...................................... 19

UTech Research Concludes that Government Coffers Could Swell from the Legalization of Ganja ........................................... 19

UTech Staff Participates in Entrepreneurship Capacity-Building Workshop ............................................................................... 20

UTech Hosts Intellectual Property & Knowledge Transfer Capacity-Building Workshop .......................................................... 20

Futures Studies Research .............................................................................................................................................................. 21

Research Managers Publish Invited Paper in Leading Peer-Reviewed Research Administration Journal ................................. 21

Fellowship for Research on Property Tax Compliance in Jamaica............................................................................................... 22

UTech and DBJ Collaborate for Development of Multimedia Software for the Deaf................................................................... 22

2014 Issue of UTech’s Flagship, Peer-reviewed Journal Published ............................................................................................ 23

Should English be Taught as a Second Language in Jamaican Schools? .................................................................................... 24

UTech Research Team Unearths Tantalizing Culinary Delights of Cassava ............................................................................... 25 A Comparative Investigation of the Packing and Flow Properties of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas) Starches and Their Potential Use in Solid Dosage Formulations ................................................................................................ 25

UNESCO/UTech Tribology Research Chair, Professor Gossett Oliver, Finds that Indigenous

Biological Materials Have the Potential to Increase Surface Hardness of Steel.......................................................................... 26

Caribbean Sustainable Energy & Innovation Institute (CSEII) Established ............................................................................... 26

Integrated Optics and Photonics Research Lab Established ....................................................................................................... 27

PAHO/WHO Awards Research Contract to UTech ........................................................................................................................28

UTech Staff Member Completes Advanced Course in Technology Licensing .............................................................................. 28

UTech Staff Members Make Presentations at ACU Conference of Commonwealth Universities’ Leaders .................................. 28

Scanning Electron Microscope Now Provides Commercial Service ............................................................................................. 29

UTech’s Natural Products Research Laboratory (NPRL) to Undertake Analysis and

Preservation of Endemic Plants in the Cockpit Country Region of Jamaica ...............................................................................29

Robust Affordable Outdoor Technique for Testing and Characterizing Photovoltaic Modules ................................................... 30

UTech/JPS Unveil 100 KW Solar Energy Project …Jamaica set to save US$224,000 in fuel cost per annum............................ 31

UTech Researcher, Dr. Aneisha Collins-Fairclough, Says Large-Scale Integration of Bioinformatics is

Necessary for Strengthening HIV Prevention Efforts in Jamaica................................................................................................. 32

Offshore Wind Farm as Jamaica’s Possible Primary Source of Renewable Energy .................................................................... 32

Wind Farm Site Suitability Selection using Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and Spatial Modelling............................................ 33

UTech Files Local and International Patent Applications .......................................................................................................... 34

UTech and Bio-Tech R&D Institute Publish Book on Caribbean Herbs in Diabetes Management.............................................. 35

4th UTech Caribbean Conference on Sports Sciences Highlights Sustainable Development in Sports ........................................ 36

UTech Research Examines Mathematical Modelling for Gait Analysis ....................................................................................... 37

School of Engineering Lecturer, Dr. Dave Muir Participates in Brown University Advanced Research Institute ...................... 38

“Do Healthy Foods Cost More Than Less Healthy Options in Jamaica?”.................................................................................. 38

Research for Public Policy and Action (Mr. Martin Henry) ................................................................................................................. 40

Economic Burden of Communicable & Non‑communicable Diseases in Jamaica:

Is our Research Focus where it should be? (Christine Fray-Aiken, PhD) ................................................................................... 42

Innovation in Disaster Risk Management (DRM): Competencies and Tools (Mr. Laurence Neufville) ...................................... 43

View Points ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 39

A Perspective on Innovation and Development within a Developing Country Context (Dr. Andrea Barrett) ............................ 44 The University as a Special Intellectual Asset-Producing Machine (Dr. Paul W. Ivey, PhD) ...................................................... 45

About UTech ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 49

Foreword Research and Innovation: Initiatives, Engagement & Achievements It is universally accepted that universities exist to create and to share knowledge. This must be accomplished through sustained research that is relevant and that can be applied to solving problems and improving human condition.

It is within this context that UTech’s researchers comprising faculty, staff, students and industry partners are committed to using knowledge of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and innovation to pursue relevant, applied research to improve economic and social prosperity and the quality of life of our citizens. The compilation of articles in this publication brings together such research.

The inter-disciplinary collection demonstrates a common thread, reflected by the title – “Research and Innovation: Initiatives, Engagements & Achievements.” Together they provide a synopsis of ongoing efforts by the University to build its research capacity to meet our stated mission “to stimulate positive change in Caribbean society through the provision of highquality learning and research opportunities and service to our communities.”

Our institution is fifty-seven years (57) old, but as a young university of twenty (20) years, UTech has made encouraging strides in a number of research areas including, renewable energy, sports sciences, food security, forensic science, technical and vocational education, education transformation, Tribology, ICT, law and public health.

The progress is promising, but there is still much work to be done. We invite you to engage in the journey with this institution in making a real difference.

Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ President (Acting)

The University prides itself on fulfilling its objective as “The People’s University,” dedicated to facilitating access to opportunities for learning and to meeting the growth and development needs of Jamaica.

Introduction “The People’s University”

As Jamaica’s national university, the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), is focused on conducting high impact, inter-disciplinary, and applied research relevant to economic and social problems of the society. This is ensured by aligning research activities with national goals and priorities for national development.

The University prides itself on fulfilling its objective as “The People’s University,” dedicated to facilitating access to opportunities for learning and to meeting the growth and development needs of Jamaica. UTech is therefore one of the vehicles that must contribute to the realization of Vision 2030. Vision 2030 is Jamaica’s first long-term National Development Plan, which is aimed at the achievement of developed country status by the year 2030. The plan is based on a comprehensive vision: “Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business.”

Research Councils UK define research impact as “the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. Research impact embraces all the diverse ways that research-related skills benefit individuals, organizations and nations.”

This publication describes the University’s research management ecosystem and presents examples of scholarly initiatives, engagements, and achievements of UTech’s staff members and students. A “View Point” section is also included that offers commentary reflecting the perspectives of the authors on the topics they address.

Research & Innovation in Action

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UTech’s Research & Innovation Management Ecosystem Office of Research & Graduate Studies (ORGS) It is generally agreed that research output is one of the key indicators that sets a university apart from other post-secondary institutions (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2004). Also, research is central to the very appealing idea of the university as an autonomous entity with the freedom to make its own rules. On being accorded university status in 1995, it was important for the newly-created University of Technology, Jamaica to establish and implement a coherent research agenda and a supporting ecosystem of research management. Accordingly, the Office of Research and Graduate Studies (ORGS) was initially established.

School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) However, in 2007 with the appointment of a new president who set about establishing research and graduate studies as major thrusts at the institution, the ORGS was replaced by the School of Graduate Studies, Research, and Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) as the unit responsible for Research and Innovation Management (RIM) at UTech (Figure 1). The SGSRE is headed by a Vice President, who holds the rank of Professor. Other staff members include a Manager of Projects and Operations, two Associate Vice Presidents, a Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Officer, an Executive Assistant, and Administrative Support personnel. The SGSRE “guides and supports research activities as directed by the research mandate of the University. The research mandate aims to promote applied and commissioned research that will provide solutions to societal needs.”

Two imperatives motivated the change from the ORGS to the SGSRE. One, an understanding that “research management” comprises a distinct suite of activities separate from the conduct of research itself (Association of Commonwealth Universities [ACU], 2004). And two, the fact that university-based research has come to be seen not merely as the catalyst of economic growth, but a vital part of the research-innovation ecosystem. Indeed, the concept of the “knowledge economy” based on the application of scientific knowledge as the key source of economic and political power, and social and individual prosperity is now one of the main paradigms across the world. This correlation is strongly promoted by the OECD, the World Bank, UNESCO, and the European Union, among others, and by many national governments (Hazelkorn, 2012).

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Research & Innovation in Action

Research Management Defined According to the ACU, research management is “any activity instigated at the level of the institution which seeks to add value to the research activity of staff, without being part of the research process itself.”

Key Research Management Skills As set out in the Research Managers’ Notebook (compiled by Research Africa), key research management skills include:

• Shaping institutional research strategies (understanding the global research environment and developing systems to nurture the next generation of researchers in one’s institution);

•Project development (scouting for funding opportunities and appropriate networks, be aware of funding do’s and don’ts, assist with funding applications, budgets and progress reports);

•Project management (managing the legalities of contracts, setting up systems that support and streamline grant management, monitoring progress of projects, financial expenditure and reporting, protecting intellectual property);

•Public engagement (highlighting the extent and nature of one’s institution’s research work, ensuring the effective dissemination of research findings);

•Policy and governance (driving policies on resAearch and processes around ethics);

•Enhance research collaborations (be a hub of expertise on sound partnership practices; facilitating intellectual property management and appropriate technology transfer).

Specific Roles and Responsibilities of the SGSRE

1. Provide linkages among Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship.

2. Vigorously promote industrial/professional graduate research degrees at both the master’s and doctoral levels.

3. Develop a formula for equitable allocation of returns from income-generating research and consultancy ventures.

4. Lead inter-disciplinarity for research and consultancy among Faculty Graduate Studies Research & Entrepreneurship Units (FGSREUs).

5. Organize a system of mentorship and pastoral care for graduate students.

6. Establish system for the protection of Intellectual Property Rights.

7. Develop benchmarking of FGSREUs research activities with respect to: research planning, staff participation in research, graduate students, research income, research outcome, and research impact.

Figure 1: Areas of Responsibility of the SGSRE at the University of Technology, Jamaica Research & Innovation in Action

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College/Faculty Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Coordinators (C/FGSRECs) Supporting the work of the SGSRE are College/Faculty Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Coordinators (C/FGSRECs), serving as the critical link and the principal operational arms of the SGSRE within the various academic units of the University. Coordinators have the following roles and responsibilities:

1. Monitor academic quality standards on behalf of the School of Graduate Studies graduate programme.

2. Provide development oversight and coordination of graduate programmes in the Faculty according to SGSRE specifications.

3. Coordinate the preparation of materials related to the promotion of graduate programmes and the recruitment of students, the advisement of graduate students, and the management of graduate education in the Faculty.

4. Oversee the registration of graduate students in the Faculty.

5. Coordinate the administrative functions for the preparation of theses by graduate students and the logistics of graduate

programmes delivery in the Faculty.

6. Coordinate activities for the progression and welfare of graduate students.

7. Ensure that all logistics for the conduct of external examinations are in place.

8. Assist in securing funding for graduate programmes.

9. Provide administrative oversight of research in the Faculty.

10. Assist in the presentation of research results in various fora.

11. Assist in securing funding for graduate programmes.

12. Coordinate the work of the Faculty in the development of research foci, research teams and research portfolios, and provide assistance for the commercialization of research results.

13. Participate in identifying the following activities:

+ funding for research; + opportunities for commissioned applied research; + creating opportunities for research training; and + marketing expertise within the Faculty for providing consultancy services.

14. Provide general guidance on the establishment and continuation of academic publications by the Faculty to SGSRE specifications.

15. Coordinate the publication of proceedings from Faculty Conferences, Symposia and similar activities.

16. Coordinate in the Faculty the implementation of SGSRE policy for academic publications and entrepreneurship, re search and graduate education.

17. Coordinate the application on guidelines for bidding for and executing entrepreneurial projects.

18. Coordinate entrepreneurial projects, including the keeping of accounts.

19. Liaise with other Faculty Chairs for inter-faculty and inter-disciplinary activities in graduate studies, research, entrepreneurship and publication.

20. Maintain records on graduate education in the Faculty and research activities, including records of finances.

21. Prepare monthly reports on Faculty graduate studies, research activities, entrepreneurial projects and publications, and submit to the Dean of the Faculty.

22. Benchmark the following activities/programmes for the Faculties:

+ research + citations + publication + grants

+ intellectual property rights + matriculation of graduate students

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Research Policy Research at UTech is governed by the University’s Research Policy, which provides the overall framework for conducting, supporting and rewarding research. The purpose of the policy is:

•To provide guidelines for ensuring the integrity of research activity in the university.

•To provide opportunities for staff and students to engage in research according to acceptable national and international standards

•To provide a mechanism for the administration of research grants and research consultancies

•To protect the intellectual property resulting from university-sponsored research

•To ensure the safety and well-being of research staff, human and animal subjects and experiments.

•To facilitate the development of teaching, and critical enquiry and the furtherance of knowledge through research and the provision of research infrastructure.

Key Institutional Research-Related Initiatives Directed by its mission to “Stimulate Positive Change in Caribbean Society through the Provision of High Quality Learning and Research Opportunities and Service to our Communities,” key institutional research-related initiatives are included in UTech’s Strategic Plan. These initiatives are:

A. Partner with other universities and tertiary institutions to develop new research opportunities; B. Collaborate with research ‘strong’ units and organizations; C. Promote benefits of publication to staff; D. Track citations, copyright, and patents;

In addition, through a consultative process led by the SGSRE, “research focus areas” have been identified reflecting the perceived strengths of the university that may be applied to address significant social and economic problems nationally; these research focus areas are:

a. Alternative use of natural resources; b. Built environment; c. Energy; d. Forensics; e. Health; f. Hospitality & foods; g. ICT applications & information systems; h. Land management; i. Organizational behaviour and productivity; j. Technical and vocational education; k. Sport; l. Urban space management; m. Waste management.

The SGSRE has been designated “owner and driver” of UTech’s strategic research-related initiatives and is required to monitor, support, and report on their implementation. Supporting the work of the SGSRE are College/Faculty Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Coordinators (C/FGSRECs) serving as the critical link between the SGSRE and the various academic units within the university

Research Management Support for Staff Pre & Post-Award Support Services

Recognizing the importance of research to its legitimacy as a university and the benefits that will accrue to its proximate stakeholders from its research findings, if it remains faithful to its mission, UTech through the SGSRE has implemented several initiatives and provides a suite of pre- and post-award support services aimed at promoting and encouraging staff involvement in research. The pre- and postaward support services are:

a. Advice and assistance with sponsored research, grants, and contracts for research and scholarly activities; b. Identification and negotiation with potential partners and collaborators; c. Help with interpreting and complying with university policy and procedures; d. Capacity building workshops on grant proposal writing; e. Provision of information regarding the interpretation and application of the university’s Intellectual Property Policy, including assistance with the filing of patents and registering copyrights; Research & Innovation in Action

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Internal Research Grant

President’s Research Initiative Award

The SGSRE also manages a competitive, internal research grant fund - the Research Development Fund (RDF). The RDF is an institutional fund, which was originally established in 1998 to stimulate a research culture and build the University’s research capacity. The fund has been revised a number of times since its inception to respond to the growing needs of staff, and in keeping with the University’s research agenda. The RDF provides funding for the following activities:

One of the essential steps for achieving UTech’s vision of research excellence is by giving appropriate encouragement and incentives to academic staff in the pursuit of research initiatives in all areas inclusive of the main university research focus areas. “The President’s Research Initiative Award (PRIA)” is the University’s most prestigious award in recognition of individual initiative aimed at promoting research excellence in the University.

1. Research Projects 2. Publication fees for books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal papers 3. Research capacity-building activities

4. Protection of intellectual property

Journal of Arts Science and Technology The SGSRE is responsible for the publication of the Journal of Arts Science and Technology (JAST), UTech’s international, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal. JAST aims to promote and enhance research, technology, and innovation in diverse fields of knowledge, including: engineering, computing, business management, finance, marketing, health, sports, pharmacy, arts, hospitality, architecture, urban planning, education, liberal studies, and law.

JAST is published annually and is intended for readers in the scholarly community and for professionals in industry. Besides research papers, the journal publishes scholarly book reviews, conference papers, and commentaries. JAST is thus a medium through which staff members may publish the results of their research, alongside other researchers in other institutions and countries.

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Research & Innovation in Action

The SGSRE is the secretariat with responsibility for selecting annually the PRIA awardee. Specifically, the purpose of the award is to stimulate research and scholarly activities by encouraging and supporting individuals who demonstrate exceptional ability through their scholarly activities, research publications, research income generation and grants secured, creative research activity and other research outputs. Since its establishment, 12 members of staff have been awarded the PRIA. The award, in the form of $150,000 in cash and a citation, is made annually at the University’s Annual Staff Awards Ceremony. All full-time academic staff at the University of Technology, Jamaica, is eligible to be considered for the award annually. It is to the candidate’s advantage (but not essential) to possess a doctoral or research postgraduate degree. The award will be based on the nominee’s research track record over the three years immediately preceding the award.

Nominees must demonstrate exceptional research initiative as indicated by either individual research creativity, team leadership in research, postgraduate research and supervision and (exceptionally), undergraduate supervision, research mentorship, or any other individual/faculty initiatives

Research, Technology and Innovation Day The SGSRE is also the chief organizer of UTech’s annual Research, Technology, and Innovation Day, which provides an opportunity for the University to display its research work and capabilities to stakeholders. Formerly, “Research and Technology Day”, the one-day showcase has been renamed with “Innovation” included to highlight cutting-edge, applied research and innovation being undertaken by the University with the objective of significantly impacting areas of national and regional development. The event facilitates interaction between the UTech and its various publics.

In so doing, UTech not only showcases the research work of its researchers, which is of value to the society, but also seeks to develop strong linkages with industry, academia, and with government.

Research & Technology Day 2014 showcased some 30 exhibits of research work being undertaken by the University’s staff and students, and 18 oral research presentations during the Speakers’ Forum. In keeping with the focus of UTech’s research strategy and policy, the event was held under the theme, “Leveraging Research & Technology for Development.” Dr. the Hon. Henry Lowe, OJ, renowned Scientist and Entrepreneur (pictured at left interacting with students) was the Guest Speaker at the opening ceremony.

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Selected Examples of Scholarly Initiatives Engagements & Achievements

Dr. Sean Thorpe (right), Graduate Programme Director, School of Computing and Information Technology in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing beams with pride as he accepts the President’s Award for Excellence in Research from Mr. Vivian Crawford, OD, Pro-Chancellor, UTech.

Profile of the President’s Research Initiative Awardee for 2014 Dr. Sean Thorpe, Graduate Programme Director, School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT), Faculty of Engineering and Computing, was the 2014 recipient of the President’s Research Initiative Award. He has demonstrated both scholarship and leadership and in the last three years has written 20 peer-reviewed conference papers, nine peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as several significant non peer -reviewed papers.

As a member of staff in the School of Computing and Information Technology, Dr Thorpe has coordinated two successful research symposia in Cyber Security and Machine Learning. These have provided considerable exposure to students and staff in the School and Faculty, while at the same time earning UTech international visibility. Dr Thorpe’s scholarly leadership has generated new interest in research among students and has resulted in an increased enrolment in SCIT’s graduate programmes.

His research, recognized and cited by international organizations such as the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute of Electronics, Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), has been focussed on the areas of Cloud computing, Digital Forensics, Data Mining and Information Security and has included the introduction of a new sub-field referred to as Cloud Computing Log Forensics.

In addition to supervising UTech/FENC Masters degree students’ capstone projects and providing co-instructional support and supervision on classes in the Master of Philosophy Programme, he has since the summer of 2013, been providing co-supervision for two students at the University of Miami.

In 2013, a successful collaboration with the University of Miami resulted in a research grant of US$6000 cosponsored by the American National Science Foundation (NSF) for a project entitled “Mobile Crowd–Sourcing within the Data Clouds.” Three new proposals in collaboration with the University of Miami, Indiana State University and the University of North Carolina have been successfully achieved, plus grants valued at US$6000 and US$2000, respectively Through these initiatives, select students will pursue projects on data cloud based security at these institutions. Reciprocal student and staff exchanges are expected to follow.

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Dr. Thorpe’s achievements have earned for him three American National Science Foundation (NSF) travel grants and the prestigious international Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Research Initiative Award. He has been invited to present keynote addresses, to chair sessions at international conferences, engagements, and as a visiting professors in institutions abroad.

Dr. Thorpe’s robust scholarly initiatives, engagements, and achievements earned him the President’s Research Initiative Award for 2014.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Thorpe has the distinction of being the recipient of the first doctoral degree awarded by UTech in 2013.

High Visibility for Research Article

Co-authored by Prof. the Hon. Errol Morrison The article “Interdisciplinary approach to the demography of Jamaica” by Michael L Deason, Antonio Salas, Simon P Newman, Vincent A Macaulay, Errol Y ST. A Morrison (former president of UTech, pictured at left) and Yannis P Pitsiladis, which was published in BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12:24 (23 Feb 2012) http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/12/24, has been accessed 855 times since its publication.

This figure includes accesses to the full text, abstract and PDF of the article on the BMC Evolutionary Biology website. It does not include accesses from PubMed Central or other archive sites (see http://www.biomedcentral.com/ info/libraries/archive). The total access statistics are therefore likely to be even significantly higher.

Article download statistics and citation figures can be effective ways to demonstrate the impact of published research.

Prof. the Hon. Errol Morrison

EU RING Professor Gossett Oliver nominated for National Medal for Science and Technology

EUR ING Professor Gossett Oliver was nominated for the 2014 National Medal for Science and Technology. Professor Oliver was nominated for his work and outstanding contribution to scientific and technological research in production and metallurgical engineering. Professor Oliver holds a designated title of “EUR ING,” which makes him eligible to practice as a professional engineer throughout Europe.

Professor Gossett Oliver

The National Medal for Science and Technology is intended to highlight the importance of the application of science and technology to promote national development. The Award may be made posthumously or during the lifetime of persons who are judged to be deserving of special recognition on the basis of their outstanding contribution to the nation. Professor Oliver was one of three nominees who were selected based on technological and/or scientific innovations and whose discoveries have resulted in lasting contributions to the enhancement of Jamaica’s competitiveness, standard of living and store of scientific knowledge.

The other two nominees were Dr. Henry Lowe, biomedical scientist and S&T entrepreneur, and Professor Terrence Forrester, medical practitioner and research. Dr. Lowe emerged the eventual winner and was presented with the award by the Prime Minister, The Most Honorable Portia Simpson-Miller, on Wednesday November 12, 2014, as part of the activities to celebrate National Science and Technology Month in November, under the theme: ‘Science for Life.’

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Is De-institutionalization of Mentally ill Patients a Good Idea?

Lead Researchers, Professor Hermi Hewitt, Mrs. Andrea Pusey-Murray, and Ms. Karen Jones of UTech’s College of Health Sciences, in August 2014 successfully completed a study on “Psychiatric workers’ perception of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill in government hospitals in Jamaica.”

The study, which represents the kind of research that is consistent with UTech’s strategy of focusing its research activities on relevant national issues, was fully supported by the University’s Research Development Fund (RDF), managed by the School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE).

The results showed that psychiatric workers’ perceptions of deinstitutionalization were both positive and negative. The main themes that emerged were: family bonding; stigma and discrimination; community reaction/unpreparedness; regression of patients; inadequate community resources; absence and noncompliant with medication; caregivers coping mechanism; benefits of institutionalized care and mental health officers’ roles. This research was subsequently published in the International Journal of Nursing Science, Vol. 4 No. 2, 2014, pp. 26-31. doi: 10.5923/j. nursing.20140402.03.

Computational Science Research Group Collaborates with University of North Carolina on Information Security During the period November 2014 to November 2015, the Computational Science Research Group, School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) will participate in a year-long joint research project with the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, USA. UTech’s participating researchers are Dr. Sean Thorpe, Senior Lecturer in Computer Security and Digital Forensics and Mr. Kedrian James, Lecturer.

The collaborative research and capacity-building initiative received funding support from UTech’s Research Development Fund (RDF) and the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance (CERIAS), Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina.

Dr. Thorpe notes that “specific to the aims of this year-long collaborative project is the experimental design of solutions for vulnerable security access control environments. The need to design and test the vulnerability of software designed cloud computing networks critical to the security infrastructure of the enterprise cannot be underestimated,” he emphasized.

These efforts are expected to lead to new publishable findings along with content that supports the enhancement of curricula capacity in both introductory and advanced level security graduate specializations within UTech’s School of Computing and Information Technology.

Dr Thorpe notes that the expected research findings is to “gain new insights on how one protects the critical infrastructure of web and cloud based computing networks which have become quite ubiquitous in the context of how companies and individuals store and access data. A Memorandum of Understanding between UTech and the University of North Carolina will be established to cement a long-term research capacity building relationship.

Does the Condition of School Buildings Affects Students’ Academic Performance?

Dr. O’Neil R. Roper, Senior Director, Facilities Management Department, UTech, for his doctoral dissertation for the Doctor of Business Administration degree, which he completed in September 2014 at the Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom, examined the link between the condition of school buildings and students’ academic performance in Jamaican High Schools.

The aim of the study was to examine the findings of previous researchers to determine if the same variables they found that were impacting student attainment were also affecting the Jamaican education system in light of some of the students’ low academic performance. The sample was 83 public high schools that offered Mathematics, English Language, Principles of Business, Principles of Accounts, Social Studies and Visual Arts. Student achievement was measured by final examination scores collected from the Ministry of Education and derived from Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate Examination (CSEC) results.

Dr. O’Neil R. Roper

Senior Director, Facilities Management Department

The important findings of the study were that eight of seventeen variables relating to school facilities showed strong and usually statistically significant correlations with students’ academic attainment, as did five of the six variables relating to noise generating facilities. There was an unexpected finding with regards to building age: an original contribution to knowledge of this research is that, contrary to studies in developed economies, it is older schools in Jamaica that tend to be in better condition. Principals attributed this finding to the assistance of Past Student Associations. The findings of this research will help to address built environment related problems in the education system.

Computational Science Research Group Publishes in Peer-Reviewed International Conference Proceedings

Dr. Sean Thorpe

Mr. Julian Jarrett

Mr. Rohan Malcolm

Senior Lecturer, School of Computing & Information Technology

Lecturer, School of Computing & Information Technology

Lecturer, School of Computing & Information Technology

Academic staff, pictured above, in the School of Computing and Information Technology, (SCIT), University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) co-authored and presented peer- reviewed research papers at two international Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) conferences. The research papers were presented at the 2nd IEEE Big Data conference held October 27 –30 in Washington DC, USA, which provides a leading international forum for disseminating the latest research in the growing field of “big data,” and at the 10th IEEE International Conference on Collaborative Computing: Networking, Applications, and Work Sharing, held October 22-25, 2014, in Miami, USA. The titles of the papers that were presented are: (1) “Combining human and machine computing elements for analysis via crowd- sourcing” and (2) “Increasing the Accessibility to Big Data Systems via a Common Services API tool.”

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Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, (3rd left) Acting President, University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) and Dr. Donald Land, Chief Scientist, Steep Hill Labs Inc., USA shake hands following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between both entities, to examine the scientific and medicinal application of legal marijuana, held Friday, November 14, 2014 at UTech’s Papine campus. Sharing in the landmark moment from left are Dr. Claire Sutherland, Senior Director, International and Institutional Linkages, UTech, Hon. Phillip Paulwell, MP, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Dr. Ellen Campbell-Grizzle, Dean, College of Health Sciences, UTech and Dr. Cliff Riley, former Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship, College of Health Sciences, UTech.

UTech Collaborates with Steep Hill Labs, USA, to Advance Local Cannabis Research The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) on Friday, November 14, 2014, advanced national discussion and efforts to examine the scientific and medicinal application of marijuana, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Steep Hill Labs Inc., USA - a California-based medical cannabis laboratory. Hon. Phillip Paulwell, MP, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining participated in the signing of the MoU which was signed by Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ Acting President, UTech and Chief Scientist, Steep Hill Labs Inc., Dr. Donald Land at UTech’s Papine campus.

Ambassador Whiteman in his remarks said that UTech was pleased to be advancing what is now a very important area of national development and looks forward to the partnership with Steep Hill Labs. “This is largely about science and technology and development, all of which UTech is committed to advancing,” he said, adding that, “we expect that the appropriate uses and benefits to be derived from the processing of cannabis, will be properly codified and developed and be of value not only to Jamaica’s economy, but to the world and to science.”

Dr. Donald Land in his remarks said he was excited about the partnership with UTech to study medicinal cannabis and Jamaica’s impending regulatory framework for the decriminalization of marijuana. He acknowledged that there is much to be studied and learned about the plant, affirming that “UTech is perfectly positioned to be at the forefront” of such scientific investigation.

Minister Paulwell said that “the industry for the development of medicinal marijuana/cannabis is an irreversible thrust that has been endorsed by the Cabinet.” The Minister expressed hope that “UTech will become a Centre of Excellence out of the collaborative effort that will derive financial and other benefits for students and the wider society in what is going to become a very dynamic industry for Jamaica.”

He noted that the government is moving to ensure that the regulatory framework is in place for the medicinal ganja industry.

The execution of the collaborative arrangements will be led by UTech’s College of Health Sciences. Dean of the College, Dr. Ellen Campbell-Grizzle explained that the partnership represents a real opportunity for UTech to provide a service to an emerging industry. She said that among other things, “students will be able to look at the products of the cannabis plant, prepare formulations and have those formulations tested with the appropriate equipment.”

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UTech Receives QuantaCann2TM Machine to Advance Research on the Medicinal Use of Cannabis Posing with the QunataCann2TM instant Cannabis analysis machine donated to UTech by Steep Hill Labs Inc, USA on January 29, 2015, from left are, Dr. Donald Land, Chief Scientist, Steep Hill Labs Inc., Associate Professor Ellen Campbell-Grizzle, Dean, College of Health Sciences, Dr. Dwight Ramdan, Director of Science and Technology, Bureau of Standards, Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ, Acting President, UTech, Dr. Cliff Riley, former Associate Professor and Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship, College of Health Sciences and Dr. Andrew Lamm, (partially hidden) Head of Division for Research Projects, Natural Products Research Laboratory, Faculty of Science and Sport.

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) on Thursday, January 29, 2015 further advanced research efforts to examine the scientific and medicinal properties and medicinal potential of the Cannabis (Marijuana) plant. UTech received the first QuantaCann2 analytical machine donated by Steep Hill Labs Inc. USA - a California-based medical cannabis laboratory with which the University last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding. It is the first such analytical machine in Jamaica.

Acting President, Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ, in receiving the QuantaCann2 Machine, said that it will break frontiers and place UTech at the forefront of research on Cannabis. This will be of particular national relevance as Jamaica moves forward with legislation for the decriminalization of marijuana for medicinal and industrial purposes. The machine is located in the pharmaceutics research laboratory within the School of Pharmacy, College of Health Sciences.

Dr. Donald Land, Chief Scientist, Steep Hill Labs Inc, in presenting the equipment explained and demonstrated its unique properties. The web-based QunataCann2 testing unit can provide the potency of active ingredients within sixty seconds of applying the sample and is able to perform unlimited testing of quantities of the major active ingredients of the cannabis plant. It tests both flowers and leaves for Tetrahydrocannabinol, Cannabinols, and moisture content. The machine also performs non-destructive, chemical-free near infrared test.

UTech Research Concludes that Government Coffers Could Swell from the Legalization of Ganja As part of the current international debate on the decriminalization of marijuana, UTech Researcher, Ms. Tameka Lindo (pictured at left), Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Economics, College of Business and Management, conducted a study on “The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition in Jamaica.� She examined the quantum of savings that could accrue if there were no enforcement costs, as well as income that could be earned if marijuana were regulated and taxed similar to other goods.

Ms. Tameka Lindo

The researcher estimates that in 2007, decriminalizing marijuana in Jamaica would have saved approximately J$5.54 billion per year; between J$263 million to $363 million annually if marijuana were taxed like normal goods and between J$877 million to J$1.3 billion if marijuana were taxed at rates similar to those on cigarettes and alcohol. She posits that an additional J$15 billion could be earned if companies were allowed to pay a tax for marijuana exports.

Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Economics

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UTech Staff Participates in Entrepreneurship Capacity-Building Workshop Within the framework of the EU-ACP financed project “Knowledge transfer capacity building for enhanced energy access and efficiency in the Caribbean” (CAP4INNO), Dr. Andrew Isaacs, Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering and Computing, and Dr. Paul Ivey, Associate Vice President (AVP), Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship, participated in a training workshop on “Entrepreneurship,” held from October 20-23, 2014, at the Instituto Technologico, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The workshop provided insights in the different ways of exploiting research results and intellectual assets, from the different methods to evaluate an idea, to deciding on how to best exploit it, and how to develop entrepreneurial projects. A special focus was how to develop a curriculum for university courses to inspire and enable entrepreneurship in the energy sector.

The workshop was facilitated by experts from the University of Alicante (Project Leader), Chalmers University, Sweden, and the UniversityEnterprise Foundation of Alicante, Spain.

The first training workshop under the project, “Strategic Use of Intellectual Property in the Innovation Process: a Focus on Patents,” was held at the Institute of Critical Thinking, The UWI, St. Augustine, Trinidad, from June 30-July 04, 2014. These workshops are aimed at building the capacity of the participants to deliver replication workshops to staff and the creation of new courses for students at UTech on how to identify state-of-the-art technologies and evaluate them, how to transfer technologies and know-how, and how to create value that can be commercialized from research results, using the intellectual property system. The next workshop in the series will focus on “Strategies for Teaching Innovation” and will be held at UTech.

UTech Hosts Intellectual Property & Knowledge Transfer Capacity-Building Workshop UTech, through the School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE), from Thursday, November 27, 2014 to Friday, November 28, 2014, successfully hosted the first capacity-building workshop under the EU-ACP funded Project, “Empowering knowledge transfer in the Caribbean through effective IPR & KT regimes (IPICA).” The Project is led by the University of Alicante, Spain. Other project partners and associates are Oficina Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial [ONAPI] and Instituto Technologico [INTEC], Dominican Republic; UWI [Cave Hill, Mona & St. Augustine]; Trinidad & Tobago Intellectual Property Office [TTIPO],Trinidad and Tobago; Jamaica Intellectual Property Office ([JIPO]; and Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy & Mining [MSTEM], Jamaica.

The workshop was aimed at providing participants with an overview of how to promote innovation and knowledge transfer on strategic and practical levels, involving key stakeholders in the Jamaican Innovation System. The results of a regional benchmarking study on intellectual property and knowledge transfer practices in Caribbean HEIs and research Organizations was also presented at the workshop.

Some 50 stakeholders drawn from local HEIs, Public and Private Industry Research Institutes, and Government Ministries participated in the workshop. Participants from UTech were: Ms. Dionne Palmer, Incubator Manager, TIC; Ms. Margarene Spence, Administrator, CSEII; Mr. Martin Henry, Manager of Projects & Operations, SGSRE; and Dr. Paul Ivey, AVP, SGSRE. The workshop programme was presented by resource persons from the University of Alicante, FH JOANNEUM, Austria; World Intellectual Property Office [WIPO], Switzerland; Spanish Patent & Trade Mark Office [SPTO], Spain and the CARICOM Secretariat, Guyana. In addition, innovators with the Jamaican energy sector, two of whom were winners at the recently held National Innovation Awards, made presentations on their projects and shared their experiences in relation to the IP system.

The workshop provided good practice examples and stimulated discussions around the following topics: Caribbean STI systems and the role of IPR; How National IP Offices can support HEIs to foster innovation; University IP Policies, good practice; how to identify, report and use IP for strategic management; IP and KT support services at universities; key processes and support measures for universityenterprise cooperation; and International platforms and resources for knowledge transfer. The next workshop will focus on STI policymaking issues and is planned for the UWI, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados in March 2015.

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Futures Studies Research The fascinating multi-disciplinary field of futures research was the focus of a public lecture hosted by the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, UTech, on Tuesday, November 25, 2014, at its Papine campus. Dr. Juha Kaskinen (at left), Director of Finland Futures Studies Research Centre, University of Turku, Finland, delivered a lecture on “Future Studies: Opportunities for Innovation, Research and Entrepreneurship” The renowned Future Studies practitioner’s expertise spans foresight and futures research in regional business and innovation policy. Since the late 1990s, he has dealt with development issues from the point of view of infrastructure, indicators, business and innovation.

The lecture was part of a four-day workshop hosted by the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at UTech, within the framework of the University of Turku led, EU/ACP-co-financed “Promotion of Capacity and Energy Education Development in the Caribbean Region - PROCEEDCaribbean” project on which UTech is a partner. The workshop provided a forum for academics, students and industry players to discuss such topics as off-grid energy planning; the role of future studies for academic institutions and policy planning and the energy planning with Longrange Integrated Development Alternatives (LINDA) Jamaica Model.

Future Studies, which is considered a branch of Social Sciences, is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures to understand what is likely to continue and what could plausibly change. Dr. Kaskinen explained the usefulness of applying this discipline to understanding and predicting change in major global issues and megatrends. These include globalization; population growth; environmental problems such as climate change; energy supply and security; and accelerating technological developments, etc., which all impact the quality of human life. Dr. Kaskinen argued that society’s rapid and continuous changes in social, cultural, economical and ecological conditions demand future thinking and gives us the moralistic ground to do future studies and foresight.

Research Managers Publish Invited Paper in Leading Peer-Reviewed Research Administration Journal “Evaluating the Impact of Research Produced by a Mission-Directed Emergent University,” a paper co-authored by School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship staff members Dr. Paul Ivey, Prof. Gossett Oliver, and Mr. Martin Henry , was published in the Fall 2014 Issue of the Journal of Research Administration (JRA). UTech’s Research Managers were invited by JRA’s Editorial Board to submit the paper for publication after they made a presentation at the International Network of Research Management Societies (INORMS) Congress held April 10 – 13, 2014, in Washington, DC, under the theme, “Enabling the Global Research Enterprise from Policy to Practice.”

The Research Managers argued in the paper that the two main traditional metrics – peer-reviewed publications and citations - which are used in evaluating research productivity and impact, respectively, of a university, while useful, are not sufficient. They then proposed an expanded schema that includes “Fidelityto-Mission (FTM),”which is based on the premise that an emergent university’s first obligation, especially in resource-deficient contexts, must be to address through its research the needs of those it purports to serve, as expressed in its mission statement. Therefore, the extent to which it does so in objectively verifiable ways is a legitimate metric worthy of recognition. By adopting a reflective inquiry method, the co-authors cited two examples of how research by UTech staff members has had positive impacts on the university’s proximate stakeholders. The co-authors summed up their arguments in the conclusion, which is reprinted below: “Traditional metrics - peer publications and citations - are not ignored in measuring UTech’s research productivity and influence. However, the university’s mission includes “service to our communities” and its research focus is on “interdisciplinary and applied research relevant to economic and societal problems.”

Therefore, fidelity-to-its-mission is also given significant weight and is measured by the extent to which the university’s research output benefits proximate stakeholders, which can be broadly viewed as the people of Jamaica, given that UTech is a publicly funded as a national university.

In the first case study, Carron Hall Solar-Powered Water Pump, Storage & Treatment Facility, we cited the impact of UTech’s research on proximate stakeholders. The quality of life for approximately 2,000 local residents was significantly enhanced through securing easy access to potable water as a consequence of the intervention of researchers/engineers (Dr. Michael Case, Dr. Noel Brown, and Dr. Earle Wilson) from UTech’s Renewable Energy Research Group, Faculty of Engineering and Computing. It was also noted that the project has attracted strong Government of Jamaica interest towards country-wide deployment of projects similar to the Carron Hall one in other communities.

With respect to the second case study, Celebrating the Culinary Wonders of Cassava, we have demonstrated that the publication in popular form of applied research with high social and economic utility placed the university at the centre of another important local issue - encouraging the increased consumption of locally-produced agricultural commodities as public policy.

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More generally, we posit that emergent universities in Jamaica, the wider Caribbean, and elsewhere should regard themselves as critical tools, not only for traditional “scholarship,” but also for social & economic empowerment of the communities they serve. This posture is consistent with that of Weidman and Delgado (2009) and Mohamedbhai (2012), who asserted, with respect to universities in Latin American and African countries, that the emphasis should be placed on research aimed at their countries’ development and solving proximate (or local) problems. Implicitly, the extent to which these objectives are achieved is the extent to which the research performance of these institutions has been impactful.

Interestingly, in their analysis of the mission statements of seven HEIs in Jamaica, Ellis & Miller (2014) found that only UTech and the University of the West Indies (UWI) mentioned “research” in their mission statements. This being the case, we believe it further underscores our view that research conducted by these institutions must benefit their proximate stakeholders. Moreover, “service to our communities” is also explicitly stated in UTech’s mission statement.

Finally, we believe that the main thrust of this paper is consistent with one of the “good ranking practice” statements promulgated by UNECSO in its “Berlin principles on ranking of HEIs,” which is that rankings should recognize the diversity of institutions and take account of their different missions and goals (UNESCO, 2006).”

Fellowship for Research on Property Tax Compliance in Jamaica A four-member Research Team from the Faculty of the Built Environment was awarded the 2014 David C. Lincoln Fellowship in Land Value Taxation for research on Property Tax compliance. The David C. Lincoln Fellowship in Land Value Taxation (LVT) was established in 1999 to develop academic and professional interest in this area through the support of major research projects.

The research team which comprises Miss Tina Beale, Programme Director/Lecturer, Mrs. Cadien Stuart, Senior Lecturer, Mrs. Rochelle Channer-Miller, Assistant Lecturer and Dr. Amani Ishemo, Associate Professor, was awarded US$28,000 for their research proposal titled, “Towards Property Tax compliance: A case study of attitudes toward paying property taxes in Jamaica.” This is an area that promises to make significant contribution to national growth and development.

In their proposal, the researchers noted that “the rate of property tax compliance in Jamaica has been declining, with the average rate of compliance falling from 70% to fewer than 50% between 2003 and 2010. Property tax is used in Jamaica for the funding of local government services, for example, street lighting and garbage collection, and is therefore a critical component of providing public goods and services by the state.” The overall aim of the study is the creation and implementation of a model geared at bringing about a positive change towards property tax compliance in Jamaica.

UTech and DBJ Collaborate for Development of Multimedia Software for the Deaf The prospects for improving the learning of the English Language among the deaf and hard of hearing community got a further boost on Wednesday, January 14, 2015, with the formal signing of a partnership agreement between UTech and the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ).

The DBJ has provided a technical assistance grant in the amount of J$7.3M towards the development of the UTech-developed multimedia software, dubbed U-Touch 2. UTech through its Research Development Fund is also co-financing the project. The project aims to use both Jamaican Sign Language and Standard English to improve the understanding and use of the English Language and to enhance the reading and comprehension skills among deaf and hard of hearing students at the pre-primary to high school levels. The software will teach deaf and hard of hearing students a basic component of grammar – prepositions, which is not currently used as part of their Jamaican Sign Language.

The groundbreaking U-Touch software has been developed by Associate Prof. Paul Golding, Dean, College of Business and Management, UTech, along with a team of researchers including other members of faculty and students, in partnership with the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf and the Jamaica Association for the Deaf. UTech in February of last year unveiled and presented Version 1 of the U-Touch e-learning software to the Lister Mair Gilby School.

Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ, Acting President, UTech, in his remarks commended the team of researchers led by Associate Professor Golding for “the passion and commitment to doing what is good for Jamaica.” He noted that UTech is committed to building Jamaica, adding that “the University is about research, teaching and service,” all of which have factored into the conceptualization and development of the U-Touch software. He expressed thanks to the DBJ “for supporting this project and enabling it to take wings to reach higher levels.”

Associate Prof. Golding in his overview at the MoU signing ceremony held at UTech’s Papine campus noted that “we at UTech want to open opportunities for education and growth and development for all persons.” Lamenting that data from the World Association for the Deaf indicate that only 5% of deaf people in the world can read and write, he emphasized the imperative to make English available to as many people as possible to open opportunities for matriculation for further studies and for personal growth and development.

Mrs. Claudine Tracey, General Manager, Strategic Services at DBJ who represented Managing Director, Mr. Milverton Reynolds, expressed that the DBJ’s Board is “excited and passionate” about supporting the project. “We believe that this project is directly aligned to our mission and this administration has been speaking about economic growth with social inclusion and that is a mandate that we

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have been given. We believe that this project is an excellent opportunity to reach out to disadvantaged groups, to marginalized groups to include them in economic growth and prosperity.” Mrs. Tracey noted that among the main selling points in the DBJ’s Board decision to embrace the project was “the confidence we have in UTech to manage and continue to manage this project,” adding that the intervention is expected to act as a catalyst to spawn entrepreneurship initiatives in the deaf community.

Chair of the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf, Mrs. Carole Fox expressed gratitude to UTech and the DBJ “for making the lives of the deaf persons at Lister Mair Gilby and the entire Jamaica, better.” In attendance at the MoU signing ceremony were teachers and students from the School as well as representatives from the Jamaica Association for the Deaf.

Representatives from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) and the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf pose for a group photograph following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding partnership agreement between UTech and DBJ on Wednesday, January 14, 2015 at UTech’s Papine campus. Pictured (L-R, seated) are Mrs. Claudine Tracey, General Manager, Strategic Services, DBJ, Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ, Acting President, UTech, Associate Prof. Paul Golding, Dean, College of Business and Management, Prof.

Colin Gyles, Deputy President, UTech. Standing (L-R) are Dr. Iris Soutar, Executive Director, Jamaica Association for the Deaf, Mrs. Carole Fox, Chair of the Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf, Ms. Audrey Watson, Acting Principal, Lister Mair Gilby School, Mr. Fabian Jackson, Head Boy, Mrs. Mignon Manderson-Jones, Manager, Capacity Development, DBJ, Miss Yakera James, Head Girl, Ms. Carol Williams, teacher, Lister Mair Gilby School for the Deaf and Dr. Claire Sutherland, Senior Director, International and Institutional Linkages, UTech.

2014 Issue of UTech’s Flagship, Peer-reviewed Journal Published The University of Technology, Jamaica’s multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed Journal of Arts Science and Technology (JAST), Vol. 7, 2014, was published by the School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) in November. In addition to hardcopy, the journal is also online on the EBSCOhost Caribbean Search Database. EBSCOhost comprises of e-books, e-journal and research databases.

The 2014 issue of the journal offers the usual mix of peer-reviewed papers across the academic disciplines in the publisher institution, UTech. In this issue 10 papers are carried, leading with a creative new look at a little explored angle of the work of Jamaican National Hero, pan-Africanist, philosopher, and man of action, Marcus Garvey.

Following the Garvey paper, an empirical case is made for the large-scale integration of genotypic bioinformatics for strengthening HIV prevention efforts in Jamaica.

Noting the large energy demands for air-conditioning and other refrigeration requirements, the third paper reports a novel system for the improvement of refrigeration systems to be more energy efficient.

From engineering to biomedical science, the fourth paper by Brazilian researchers reports on the positive antinociceptive, or analgesic, and anti-inflammatory properties of extracts from the plant Lychnophora pinaster, commonly known as arnica in its native environment and widely used in folk medicine for these properties.

The next paper tackles the perennial problem of how best to teach English language to improve student performance in the bilingual environment of Jamaica with an oral creole language and Standard English as the official language. The English paper argues for teaching English as a second language (ESL) and “suggests that the ESL approach must be guided by a carefully devised plan of action rooted in the findings of applied linguistics, and endorsed by policy-makers at the highest level.”

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The paper, “Effect of Cooperative Learning on the Performance and Attitude of Chemical Engineering Students in Mathematical Modelling at the University of Technology, Jamaica”, found that “higher academic performance was achieved with the use of cooperative learning”, with 80% of the participants in the study embracing working in groups cooperatively.

“Fostering an Innovation Mindset amongst Jamaican Youth”, “is intended to stimulate discussion amongst educators, employers and the private and public sector on the need to foster an innovation mindset amongst…youth so that we can bolster the future competiveness, productivity and economic growth of Jamaica.”

Coming out of the Built Environment, is a paper on disaster risk reduction reports on collaborative work done by the Caribbean School of Architecture and the Jamaican Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management on shelter solutions for disaster emergency management. Following is a paper on customer service and customer satisfaction in the experience of graduate students in a university seeking to expand its graduate programmes and its graduate student population.

The 2014 issue of JAST closes with a study of “The Relationship between Traumatic Life Events and Depressive Symptoms among a Sample of Jamaican University Students.” The results of the study indicated that 99% of the students reported experiencing at least one traumatic event in their lifetime and students who reported a higher number of traumatic events reported significantly more symptoms of depression.

Should English be Taught as a Second Language in Jamaican Schools?

UTech English Language Specialist, Dr. Clover Jones-McKenzie (pictured at left) has weighed in on the weighty question posed above. Drawing on a large body of scholarly research on the application of the principles of second language acquisition (SLA), Dr. Jones-McKenzie makes several recommendations for policy makers at the tertiary level.

She posits that “the protracted discussion surrounding the teaching of English in Jamaica rages on while students continue to face numerous problems.

Various persons have voiced opinions as to how the situation may be fixed.

One prominent and valid suggestion is the adoption of the English as a second language (ESL) approach to the teaching of English. However, there is evidence that some Jamaicans have inadequate knowledge of what this approach entails.”

Dr. McKenzie argues that “while some see it as merely having implications for English Language educators, ESL also makes demands on policy makers, budget holders and content specialists. Based on conclusions drawn from the findings of research in the field of second language teaching and learning, the ESL approach must be guided by a carefully devised plan of action rooted in the findings of applied linguistics, and endorsed by policy-makers at the highest level.”

Dr. Clover Jones McKenzie Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies

She concludes that “tertiary institutions, especially universities, with their mandate to assist in and perhaps lead national development, should set the pace, by creating and implementing language education policies influenced by the findings of relevant research.”

Editor’s Note: Full details on the recommendations Dr. Jones-McKenzie makes for the effective implementation of ESL are available in the Journal of Arts Science & Technology, Vol. 7, 2014, pp. 46-64.

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UTech Research Team Unearths Tantalizing Culinary Delights of Cassava Jamaica has an annual food import bill of US$1 billion. Policymakers and other stakeholders believe this can be reduced by up to US$300 million. Among the initiatives being pursued to contribute to this reduction is a campaign dubbed “Eat what we grow, grow what we eat,” and is aimed at encouraging increased consumption of locally-produced agricultural commodities. One of the crops specifically identified as having good potential is Cassava (Manihot esculenta).

Following the launch of the “Eat what we grow, grow what we eat” campaign, a team of researchers from UTech published the book, Celebrating the Culinary Wonders of Cassava. Although it could be mistaken as a mere recipe book, it is definitely more. It is a fine research publication, compiled by a three-member cross-disciplinary, cross-faculty research group. Two members (Mrs. Janeen McNish and Mr. Ceretsie Rowe-Campbell) are lecturers from UTech’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) and the other (Mrs. Sheerin Eyre) a registered nutritionist and lecturer in the School of Allied Health and Wellness.

The nutritionist contributed “critical nutritional analyses” to the formulations of the two culinary innovators. The authors note that the book was published “to promote the consumption of cassava and cassava value-added products…” The authors and the book are focused on nutrition for wellness based on local foods, and the publication contains innovative lab-tested cassava products which now need to be marketed.

In his foreword to the book, former president of UTech Prof. Errol Morrison (pictured, left, receiving a copy of the book from Mrs. Eyre) noted that, “UTech is committed to fostering development through the contribution of our research output in a number of relevant areas that can drive national and regional advancement. Our indigenous foods clearly represent an important area of comparative advantage ... that has significant potential for not only boosting brand Jamaica, but for earning foreign exchange and reducing our food import bill.”

A Comparative Investigation of the Packing and Flow Properties of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea Batatas) Starches and Their Potential Use in Solid Dosage Formulations A comparative evaluation of the flow and packing properties of starch products extracted from three sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) cultivars grown in Jamaica was done in 2010 by Dr. Cliff Riley (left) and Dr. Sarafadeen A. Adebayo of UTech’s College of Health Sciences, with a view to assessing their suitability as excipients in solid drug dosage formulations.

Significant differences were observed in the properties of the starches obtained from the different sweet potato cultivars (p<0.05). The mean granular diameter ranged from 13.4 ± 0.42 (Eustace) to 20 ± 0.85 µm (Clarendon). Clarendon starch was found to be the least cohesive and bulkiest with Compressibility Index (CI) of 32.69 ± 0.28%, angle of internal flow (θi) of 12.70 ± 0.12° and maximum volume reduction (a) of 35.65 ± 1.02%, while Eustace was the most cohesive and least bulky with CI values of 37.74 ± 1.06%, θi of 19.68 ± 0.22°, and a of 43.60 ± 0.95%.

The starch powders had similar bulk densities and packing fraction (p>0.05).

All other fundamental properties calculated from the projected mean diameter including surface mean diameter (dvs), Heywood equivalent diameter (de) and specific surface (Sw) varied significantly (p<0.05) in a cultivar-dependent manner but with no consistent pattern of variation among cultivars. The results indicate intra-varietal variations in the packing and cohesive properties of the starches studied which may be a result of variations in the fundamental properties of the granules. These differences in properties may prove significant when predicting the behaviour of starches during handling and pharmaceutical formulations.

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UNESCO/UTech Tribology Research Chair, Professor Gossett Oliver, Finds that Indigenous Biological Materials Have the Potential to Increase Surface Hardness of Steel The use of indigenous plants containing nitrogen such as Blue Mountain coffee shells and cassava leaves were used to evaluate the possibility of case hardening plain low carbon steel by diffusion process. The comparative case hardness of the plain low carbon steel of each product was studied as a function of time and temperature. Both plant products and six (6) plain carbon steel specimens were used at three (3) independent diffusion times three (3) hours, six (6) hours, nine (9) hours at temperatures of 850oC and 1050oC. The results indicate that both cassava leaves and dried blue mountain coffee shells can be used for case hardening of plain low carbon steel. Surface hardness values for specimens subjected to case hardening medium of cassava leaves were generally much harder than those obtained using Blue Mountain coffee shells, where at a temperature of 1050oC at six (6) hours it peaked to 900 HV. Blue mountain coffee shells as a medium showed through hardness values superior to those obtained using cassava leaves. At a case depth of 3mm, hardness value of 480 HV was obtained at case hardening parameters of 1050oC at six (6) hours.

Editor’s Note: Tribology is the science, engineering, and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It evolved from the classical fields of friction, lubrication, and wear, and has been a significant research area at UTech for the last 8 years.

Caribbean Sustainable Energy & Innovation Institute (CSEII) Established The Caribbean Sustainable Energy & Innovation Institute (CSEII) is a division of the School of Graduate Studies and Entrepreneurship at the University of Technology, (UTech) Jamaica. The Institute operates as a sustainable energy service entity, under the flagship UTech Brand, to provide solutions in research, development and innovation; special projects and consultancies; advanced education, and public relations throughout the Caribbean. The CSEII is headed by Dr. Ruth Potopsingh (pictured left), Associate Vice President, Sustainable Energy.

The CSEII offers the following:

Dr. Ruth Potopsingh Associate Vice President, Sustainable Energy

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Services/Projects

• Energy Audits

• Consultancy Services in Energy, Environment, Engineering, Fuels

• Retrofitting for Energy Efficiency Courses:

• Energy Management in Buildings and Industry

• Energy Auditing

• Solar PV Design & Implementation • Green Growth and Green Business

• Sustainable Planning and Climate Change

• Solar-driven Hydroponics Coming soon! Masters in Sustainable Energy & Climate Change

Integrated Optics and Photonics Research Lab Established The sustained effort of Mr. Maurice McGlashan-Powell (below), Research Fellow, Faculty of Science and Sport at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) continues to bear fruit with the establishment of the now functional Integrated Optics and Photonics Research Lab (IOPRL) housed in the Faculty’s Centre for Science-based Research, Entrepreneurship and Continuing Studies (CSRECS) at UTech’s Papine campus.

Three laboratories now comprise the IOPRL: the Integrated Optics and Photonics Laboratory, the Scanning Electron Microscopy Laboratory and the Optical Spectroscopy Laboratory with the integrated optic and photonics lab in the most complete state of development. The IOPRL has strengthened the research and teaching capabilities at UTech in integrated optics and experimental Physics.

Photonics is the field of physics that include the generation, transmission, modulation, processing, amplification and detection of light and integrated optics is the study, research and technology of optical, electro-optical and magneto-optical devices that are based on light transmission in a planar waveguide.

The Integrated Optics and Photonics Research Lab will focus on magneto-optics for optical interconnect technology and optical computing, but will also have capabilities in the areas of laser spectroscopy, laser cytometry and optical fiber communications. In addition, a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) which is part of the laboratory will enable research in the areas of materials analysis and characterization and electron beam lithography.

Mr. McGlashan-Powell explains that “the University will continue to undertake research which has the potential of generating technologies that may be commercialized thereby realizing returns of foreign investment and revenue for Jamaica.” Commenting on the vast potential for earning in this area, he points out that “IBM generates more than $1 billion dollars per year in revenue from IP alone.”

McGlashan-Powell disclosed that he is currently engaged in research for the innovation of technologies that will enable computers to operate at a much faster speed. This needed increase in computing capabilities is particularly essential in areas such as weather prediction and in pharmaceutical drug testing.

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PAHO/WHO Awards Research Contract to UTech The University of Technology, Jamaica, through the College of Health Sciences, has been awarded a contract by the Pan-American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) to undertake a research project titled “An Analysis of the Capacity of A&E Departments in the Caribbean to Manage Red Tag (Critical) Victims as well as to Mobilize and Manage On-Scene Advanced Medical Posts.”

The evaluation component of Emergency Departments (EDs) under the Caribbean Mass Casualty Management (MCM) System is designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the capabilities of Regional EDs, to effectively respond to, triage, treat, and stabilize victims in a Mass Casualty Setting.

The project is extremely relevant and important as it comes against the background of the Caribbean experiencing a significant increase in Mass Causality Incidents over the last decade. The most severe of these incidents was the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010. The Contract was signed on June 22, 2012, and successfully completed in March 2013.

UTech Staff Member Completes Advanced Course in Technology Licensing Universities can derive significant income from licensing their intellectual property derived from innovations they develop and protect. It was against this background that Dr. Paul Ivey, AVP, Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship, successfully completed the “National Advanced Training Program on Successful Technology Licensing (STL)” organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO, and The University of the West Indies (UWI).

The course was held at the Regional Headquarters of the UWI, Mona, from December 2 to 6, 2012. Topics covered included: key terms of a licensing agreement; anatomy of a license agreement; intellectual property valuation; and licensing and other IP related collaboration contracts between research institutions and industry.

Course facilitators were Mrs. Olga Spasic, Head, Innovation Structures Section, Innovation Division, WIPO; Mr. Dennis O’Reilley, Partner Lawyer, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett and Dunner, Washington, DC, USA; and Mr. Ralph Villiger, Partner Avance, Basel, Switzerland.

UTech Staff Members Make Presentations at ACU Conference of Commonwealth Universities’ Leaders The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Conference of Executive Heads, co-hosted by UTech and the UWI, was held on November 9-11, 2012, at the Regional Headquarters of the UWI under the theme “University Rankings and Benchmarking: do they really matter?”

The Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, Prime Minister of Jamaica, opened the conference. In her remarks, she welcomed the emphasis of the conference on performance indicators in higher education. She recognized that, sensitively handled, such rankings can strengthen the culture of transparency, quality, and inform better decision making from students and other stakeholders.

There was concern, however, that to be relevant rankings should be aligned with the aims of universities in their particular regions. In the case of the Caribbean region, these included the need to equip students with critical thinking and practical skills, produce research that was both accurate, capable of implementation and countered the brain drain which had affected the region for many years. There was a need to be skeptical of measures which did not take such aims into account.

UTech presenters at the conference were: Dr. Paul Ivey & Prof. Gossett Oliver (“Measuring research impact within the context of an emergent university”); Dr. Cynthia Onyefulu & Dr. Elaine Wallace (“Assessing levels of satisfaction amongst staff and students involved in the newly instituted semesterization exercise at the University of Technology, Jamaica”); Dr. Paul Golding (“Measuring Student Satisfaction for Programme Relevance”); and Dr. Patrick Dallas & Major G. Junior Virgo (“Innovation – The Forgotten Factor: The University, STI and development for Jamaica”).

In addition to host country Jamaica, the conference was attended by delegates from Bahamas, Canada, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad, UK, and USA.

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Scanning Electron Microscope Now Provides Commercial Service The Scanning Electron Microscope at UTech is now providing commercial analytic service. The SEM was acquired by the University under the European Union/EDULINK Forensics project with joint financing from the project and the Research Development Fund of the University. The equipment was purchased to facilitate academic staff, graduate student research, and consultancy services. Special emphasis will be placed on the analysis of Forensic materials and evidence for industry and legal entities.

The Scanning Electron Microscopy Unit (SEMU), operating an ASPEX PSEM 3025 Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with variable pressure chamber, EDS, BSED and SED detectors, provides a stateof-the-art facility for the observation and analysis of all types of vacuum tolerant materials. Standard analysis includes sample preparation, and high-quality black and white photomicrographs at various magnifications.

The SEM can be used to analyze metals, ceramics, glass, dust, hair, teeth, bone, minerals, wood, paper, rubber and polymers, as well as including imaging modes that are of special value to the semiconductor and electronics industry.

The SEM unit is managed by the School of Graduate Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) but is conveniently housed in the College of Health Sciences under the direct supervision Dr. Kavian Cooke, Lecturer in the School of Engineering and an expert in electron microscopy provides technical services for sample analysis to the Scanning Electron Microscopy Unit. July 23, 2012.

UTech’s Natural Products Research Laboratory (NPRL) to Undertake Analysis and Preservation of Endemic Plants in the Cockpit Country Region of Jamaica The Cockpit Country region of Jamaica is a dry limestone forest with extensive, Karst topography. It is characterized by numerous roundtopped, conical hills and sinks. Much of the region has retained its natural vegetation with a high level of endemic species. The unusual landscape creates vastly different, isolated microhabitats which supports many unique organisms. Most of which have unexplored phytochemical and medicinal properties.

The Natural Products Research Laboratory (NPRL) at UTech was established in 2012 through grant funding from the Global Environmental Facility/Small Grants Programme/United Nations Development Fund (GEF-SGP-UNDP) and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ). Dr. Andrew Lamm (pictured below, with his graduate student Mr. O’Brien Brown [in lab coat]), a Senior Lecturer in UTech’s Faculty of Science & Sport, is principal researcher and manager of the NPRL. The laboratory’s objectives are: 1) to conduct basic pharmacological, biomedical and phytochemical investigations of endemic and endangered plants of the Cockpit Country; 2) to expose the human value of these species thereby promoting conservation; 3) to foster discovery and scientific interests among high school students through active engagement; 4) to train undergraduate and graduate students; and 5) to engage in collaborative research with local and international partners for enhanced success. The NPRL is also creating a repository of endemic plant extracts for the further investigation and development.

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Robust Affordable Outdoor Technique for Testing and Characterizing Photovoltaic Modules Photovoltaic (PV) modules undergo several types of quality assurance procedures before being certified for the market place. Hence, the quality assurance techniques for PV modules are fairly well established and very costly, with maximum power point tracers, reference modules, and solar simulators employed. Tests include mechanical testing for structural rigidity and to ensure durability under severe weather conditions such as hail storms. Various forms of functionality tests (e.g. optical, electrical and electronic testing) are also done.

As solar PV technology gets more popular in developing countries, the need has arisen for new standards, systems and procedures that adequately reflect the uniqueness of the economic realities of this region. The objective of this research, undertaken in 2013 by Dr. Michael Case and Mrs. Audra-Jade Baker of UTech School of Engineering and collaborators (Paul Ruscher, Tarsha Eason and Hans Chapman from the USA), centered on the electro-testing of PV modules.

The goal was to investigate an outdoor technique developed to test several photovoltaic modules for equality of mean energy production, subsequently rendering insignificant such variables as: the variability in atmospheric conditions, irradiation, module variability, time of day, solar altitude, and other meteorological factors. The experimental procedure involved simultaneously exposing three statistically equivalent silicon modules to the outdoors for several days and collecting data on module current-voltage parameters as well as meteorological factors.

A mixed effects design, utilizing module as a random factor, cloud cover as a fixed factor, and the meteorological parameters as co-variates was used to analyze the data. Uncertainty, sensitivity, and economic analyses conducted confirmed the robustness and affordability of this procedure.

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: Full details about this research are available in the Journal of Arts Science & Technology, Vol. 6, 2013, pp. 83-100.

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UTech/JPS Unveil 100 KW Solar Energy Project …Jamaica set to save US$224,000 in fuel cost per annum Admiring the newly unveiled UTech/JPS Solar Project sign located at the front field of UTech’s Papine campus from left, are Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ, President (Acting), UTech, Dr. Ruth Potopsingh, AVP, Sustainable Energy, Caribbean Sustainable Energy and Innovation Institute, UTech, Mrs. Kelly Tomblin, President and CEO, JPS and Hon. Julian Robinson, MP, Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Mining.

The sign which is powered by solar energy was unveiled on July 10, 2014 at UTech’s Papine campus.

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) and the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) on Thursday, July 10, 2014, formally commissioned a 100kW Solar Energy Project at a special ceremony and unveiling held at the University’s Papine campus.

Both entities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the development of the Project in October 2012. The project was completed within budget at a cost of US$308,000 and was put into service on June 12, 2014.

Acting President, UTech, Ambassador the Hon. Burchell Whiteman, OJ in his remarks described the collaboration as a “win-win” for both institutions and for the people of Jamaica. He thanked the JPS for the continued investment in an “active partnership” with the University, which encompasses academic delivery, training, research, service and outreach.

Caribbean Sustainable Energy and Innovation Institute, UTech, and David Cook, Head, Projects Management and Engineering, JPS provided an overview of the steps involved in the design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the 100 kW grid connected photovoltaic (PV) solar system which has been mounted on select roof tops and on the front lawn of the UTech Papine campus.

Mr. Cook reported that the scope of services included securing relevant permits, site selection, training and procurement of all equipment. The project team began working in December 2012 with the collection of solar data and preparation of the bid documents, culminating in the issue of a Request for Proposals. YZ Industries, a company out of Mandeville, Jamaica was chosen and the contract awarded on November 7, 2013.

The project provides research opportunities for the first time on the performance of mono crystalline and poly crystalline panels installed under local conditions as well as the performance of inverters of different sizes at a commercial scale. A database will be created on a number of parameters which can be shared with industry and the wider public to support the local solar PV industry.

A web based solar log allows for easy access and monitoring of the system output and its cost savings capacity.

Mr. Cook announced that the photovoltaic system is expected to generate approximately 15,800kWh of energy annually, representing an average usage of 93 households. This will save Jamaica US $224,000 in fuel cost per annum.

President and CEO, JPS, Kelly Tomblin told the gathering that JPS is committed to renewables as part of the energy mix and to leading an energy revolution to further Jamaica’s growth and prosperity.

She noted that JPS hopes to achieve fuel diversity through the development of an integrated resource plan bolstered by market demand and the appropriate regulatory frameworks which supports this.

Dr. Potopsingh explained said that the project was pursued out of an acute need to lower UTech’s electricity bill which averages $20 M monthly. She noted with pride that the partnership took place as a team effort, within the context of a “shared vision, mutual respect, trust and flexibility of business processes and thanked all stakeholders involved in the realization of the project. She reported that the renewable energy generating plant has been feeding into the UTech electricity grid since June 5, 2014.

Project Leads, Dr. Ruth Potopsingh, AVP, Sustainable Energy,

Twenty-one (21) students who helped to build the plant were trained

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in photovoltaic and panel installation with one graduate having secured a job in the industry based on his engagement with the project.

Mechanical Engineering student, Fitzroy Delaney, who addressed the gathering, said that he benefitted tremendously from participating in the project implementation from the casting of the foundation to the alignment of the panels. He urged UTech to integrate into the curriculum, more similar opportunities for hands-on training.

Hon. Julian Robinson, MP, Minister of State in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Mining said that Jamaica’s energy bill in 2013 was US$2.21 Billion, representing about 15% of GDP and exceeding all of the country’s import costs. He lauded the UTech/JPS solar project, as an “excellent initiative” consistent with the Government’s role to reduce energy, emphasizing that the only way Jamaica can “move to a more sustainable economy is to bring our energy costs down.”

UTech Researcher, Dr. Aneisha Collins-Fairclough, Says Large-Scale Integration of Bioinformatics is Necessary for Strengthening HIV Prevention Efforts in Jamaica The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a debilitating virus that infects 35 million people worldwide. To date Jamaica’s HIV response has heavily utilized behavioural, clinical and social observations in creative ways to inform and guide prevention and treatment efforts.

With the emergence of new threats to successful HIV management in the island, treatment and prevention would benefit from increased insights from HIV genetic sequences.

To validate this assessment, a meta-analysis was conducted on studies that have reported bioinformatics analyses of HIV genetic sequences from Jamaica. This meta-analysis revealed that nucleotide sequence is available for no more than 1% of the approximately 32,000 persons living with HIV in Jamaica. This situation exists despite the generation of crucial insights from the few HIV genetic studies conducted in the island; further it emerged that only 52% of nucleotide sequence data is shared by scientists who report HIV nucleotide sequences in Jamaica, even after publication of their study. Together, the data suggest that increasing utilization of HIV sequencing and bioinformatics will be highly beneficial to supporting HIV prevention and treatment in Jamaica, as well as protecting prior successes gained in Jamaica’s HIV response.

Full details about this research are available in the Journal of Arts Science & Technology, Vol. 7, 2014, pp. 12-20.

Offshore Wind Farm as Jamaica’s Possible Primary Source of Renewable Energy Jamaica has been exploring energy alternatives in a bid to diversify the energy mix and reduce the cost of energy to the final consumer. Extensive research concentration has been placed on Onshore Wind Farms (OnWF) and potential locations across the island yet these OnWF have been able to supply ~40MW only of the over 600MW of electrical energy the island currently demands.

Research by Mr. Kimroy Bailey (pictured at right), UTech School of Engineering graduate and Energy Consultant, Dr. Dave Muir, and Dr. Therese Chambers, Lecturers, UTech School of Engineering involved preliminary engineering work for an Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) capable of supplying 360MW of energy to the island’s electricity grid. The most suitable location for the OWF in Jamaican waters is presented along with selection of appropriate foundation structure. The impact of waves on the wind turbines was analyzed using models and soil analysis; meteorological and oceanographic data were also collected and utilized.

The research presents results using earth station data on the average projected wind speed of 9m/s at the proposed location, prevalent wind direction, and grid access. The capacity of each wind turbine proposed for the OWF are factored using international standards. Results are from a farm located 7km offshore in 13–25m depth and within 50km grid access.

Full details about this research are available in the Journal of Arts Science & Technology, Vol. 6, 2013, pp. 34-52.

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Wind Farm Site Suitability Selection using Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and Spatial Modelling Since the decade of the 1970s, Jamaica’s economy like that of many countries without indigenous sources of fossil fuels has suffered from the inflated and fluctuating prices of petroleum products. Latterly, such economies have had to grapple with the negative environmental consequences of using fossils, notably climate change and global warming. The strategic and logical response therefore, was to encourage the development of renewable energy resources (RES) namely wind, solar, and hydropower. This was in spite of the absence of an enabling legislative environment.

Harnessing the potential of wind energy is predicated on accurate identification of suitable sites for establishing wind farms in Jamaica. Research conducted in 2013 has shown that the use of a deterministic GIS model that is supported by multi-criteria decision making and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) represents a robust approach for achieving this objective.

Deployment of this GIS model resulted in the selection of 113 optimal wind farm sites that were further optimised by filtering out small non-contiguous areas. The optimal sites occur at locations with average wind speeds ranging from 4.4– 8.28 m/sec.

However, sites with suitability values of 7 occur at locations with average wind speeds ranging from 6.72 – 8.28 m/sec.

Mr. Laurence Neufville Head of School, Building & Land Management

Future research of this type can be advanced more seamlessly by resolving issues relating to data quality, data accessibility, and ground truthing.

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UTech Files Local and International Patent Applications According to the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), “Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.”

WIPO further indicates that “IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create. By striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.”

International Patent Application The University of Technology, Jamaica achieved another first when, on July 02, 2013, a patent application was filed on its behalf with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by the Virginia-based Law Firm, EdwardsNeils PLLC. The particulars are as follows: Application type: New U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application U.S. Patent Application No.: 13/933,669 Inventor: Maurice MCGLASHAN-POWELL Assignee: University of Technology, Jamaica AND Maurice MCGLASHAN-POWELL Title: MAGNETO-OPTICAL LOGIC DEVICES AND COMPUTATION This international patent application filing is the culmination of several months of close collaboration between Mr. McGlashan-Powell, Research Fellow, FOSS and Dr. Paul Ivey, AVP, SGSRE, in completing the relevant documents and liaising with the Law Firm.

Initial discussions with a representative of the Law Firm resulted from networking by Dr. Ivey when he attended and participated in the “10th Annual Intellectual Property Law Seminar,” hosted by Howard University School of Law, Washington, DC, in March of this year.

Local Patent Applications A patent application for the invention, “Magneto- Optical Logic Devices and Computation,” was submitted to the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) on December 20, 2012, prior to be being submitted later to the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO).

In addition, another patent application was filed with JIPO on March 25, 2014, for the invention “Modular LED Lighting System for Street Lighting” developed by Dr. Earle Wilson, Mr. Dwight Reid and Mr. Steve Baker of the School of Engineering, Faculty of engineering & Computing.

Prior to these recent applications, UTech was granted a patent by JIPO/Governor-General on January 13, 2011, for the invention “Case Hardening of Mild Steel Using local Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Shells,” based on work done by Professor Gossett Oliver.

These significant development surrounding intellectual property produced by UTech are consistent with the University’s Intellectual Property Policy, which, among other things, “is intended to promote and encourage excellence and innovation in scholarly research and teaching by identifying and protecting the rights of the University, its faculty, staff and students.”

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UTech and Bio-Tech R&D Institute Publish Book on Caribbean Herbs in Diabetes Management Professor the Hon. Errol Morrison, OJ, former President of UTech, and Dr. Cliff Riley, former Associate Professor Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research in the College of Health Sciences, collaborated with Dr. Henry Lowe and Dr. Perceval BahadoSingh, Chairman and Director of Research and Development, respectively, of the Bio-Tech R&D Institute to co-author the book “Caribbean Herbs for Diabetes Management: Fact or Fiction?”

The book was officially launched at the 18th International Diabetes Conference on March 30, 2012, at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort and Spa. In his Foreword, Professor Winston Davidson, Head, UTech’s School of Public Health and Health Technology, while effusively congratulating the authors, describes the publication as “a must read and a reference manual for all practitioners who wish to remain relevant and keep abreast of the rapid changes in the vast array of new emerging health and medical therapeutic industries.”

Professor Davidson also observed that “the management of Diabetes mellitus in Jamaica and Caribbean societies has always posed a challenge for practitioners as there is always competition and sometimes contradictions between the use of the prescription of conventional medical treatment by the physician and the patient’s concomitant use of traditional, herbal and ethno-medicines derived from traditional folklore sources” and therefore the book was the first to be “published in the Caribbean of credible scientific rigour which attempts successfully to bridge that gap.”

And in his Preface, Professor E. Albert Reece, Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean University of Maryland School of Medicine, while noting that the book “is a valuable primer for anyone wishing to understand diabetes and its consequences as well as those therapies that have been scientifically proven to be effective for its management” also opined that “further research is urgently needed in this area not only to protect diabetic patients from potentially worthless or toxic folk remedies but also to allow us to someday incorporate patients’ cultural preferences into their diabetes management plans.”

“the management of Diabetes mellitus in Jamaica and Caribbean societies has always posed a challenge for practitioners as there is always competition and sometimes contradictions between the use of the prescription of conventional medical treatment by the physician and the patient’s concomitant use of traditional, herbal and ethno-medicines derived from traditional folklore sources”

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4th UTech Caribbean Conference on Sports Sciences Highlights Sustainable Development in Sports The Caribbean School of Sports Sciences (FOSS), Faculty of Science and Sport, University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) hosted its fourth annual Caribbean Conference on Sports Sciences under the theme, “Promoting Sustainable Development in Sports Through Science and Research” on April 11, 2014 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Kingston.

Prof. Colin Gyles, Dean, FOSS in his welcome said the Conference represents a part of the national thrust to develop sports in Jamaica. The Dean emphasized that “sports science goes beyond coaching and natural talent it involves all the elements that make for successful and sustainable development.” He noted that the University has a responsibility to this generation to establish what works for us on a sustainable basis and also to gain the best that we can for national development.

The conference was officially opened by Prof. the Hon. Errol Morrison, OJ, President, UTech who noted that “the conference represents a good preparation for Jamaica to remain at the top of its game as a world beater for a long time to come.” Prof.

Morrison lamented that in the last half century many of our high performing high school athletes who have gone on scholarships to North America have not succeeded at the international level. He praised the quality of local coaches, the supportive environment and the study of the scientific underpinning as the factors behind the continued enhanced success of our home grown athletes at the highest international level. He said, “it is this type of sustainability that UTech intends to pursue.”

Keynote speaker was Dr. Richard Godfrey, renowned Exercise Physiologist and Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Human Performance at Brunel University, UK. In his presentation titled, “Providing Sports Science Support in Practice,” Dr. Godfrey emphasised that in order to provide support in sport, certain questions must be taken into consideration – What are the demands of the sport? How do we meet those demands? What is the current condition and state of the athlete? He noted that

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these questions must be answered before offering advice in order to meet the competitive demands of both the coach and the player.

He also emphasised that the health condition of the athlete must be closely monitored including body weight, morning heart rate and blood urea.

Dr. Godfrey further elaborated on the challenges specific to Olympic Games. He pointed out that moving from one country to another means moving to different climates and surroundings.

Athletes, coaches and health providers must therefore be aware and prepare to practice safety regulations. He highlighted specific challenges related to past Olympic Games – heat and humidity, Atlanta 1996; jet lag, Sydney 2000; altitude, Salt Lake City 2002; heat and pollution, Athens 2004 and heat, humidity and pollution at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Sports Psychologist, Olivia Rose in her presentation discussed “The Bench Theory Model of Confidence in Team Sports.” She presented her research based on a Bench theory model of confidence in team based sports from a Jamaican perspective.

The model seeks to bring about an awareness of the impact of players’ confidence based on when they get the chance to play.

She discussed a variety of techniques that can boost athletes’ confidence. She noted that when someone knows what the target is they are more confident in working to achieve it, adding that the reverse is also true.

Dr. Derrick McDowell, Regional consultant and orthopaedic surgeon/sports and exercise medicine physician, St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital, looked at chest trauma in football players. He noted that while chest injuries are not common they can be life threatening, emphasising that rapid identification and treatment are therefore paramount in improving outcomes and decreasing mortality for athletes with chest traumas.

Sports Journalist, Mr. Hubert Lawrence spoke on the topic, “YouTube and Accelerated Learning of Sport Technique.” He advocated the use of videos as a tremendous resource in the learning of sports techniques. This he said is useful in identifying weaknesses and strategies. He noted that the use of YouTube has eliminated the need for storing old perishable videotapes as a reference resource.

Prof. Fitzroy Henry, Professor of Public Health Nutrition, FOSS, UTech spoke on “Sports and Nutrition; Twins for Success.” He lamented that nutrition is an area that is under-emphasised in our attempts to beat the world in sports. He examined the special nutritional requirements for speed, strength and endurance events. He also looked at the health consequences of sports drinks and other substances purported to enhance performance. He urged sports administrators, coaches, trainers, counsellors and athletes to become familiar with the nutritional preparation that is required to maximise performance.

For the first time the conference included a student research presentation.

Mr. David Bromfield, student, Caribbean School of sports Science delivered a presentation on national football coaches’ association in Jamaica. Are we ready?” Mr. Bromfield argued that as the role of the football coach becomes more specialized, a coaches’ association is a “critical avenue to raise the profile and professionalism” of football coaches and the sport in Jamaica. He noted that football is not only revered as a worldwide sport and discipline, but as a socio-economic and political cohesive force among communities and nations.

Ms. Carole Beckford, media specialist and President, Business of Sport and Carole Beckford and Associates discussed “Bridging the Gap in Sport: the Role of a University.” She noted that tertiary institutions in Jamaica in an effort to attract elite student-athletes have diversified their programme offerings by becoming more flexible and offering scholarships so that athletes can pursue their athletic dreams while pursuing studies and competing globally. She noted however that there is still room for improvement in this regard to ensure that an elite athlete is able to perform at the highest levels in both sport and academia, particularly at the tertiary level.

UTech Research Examines Mathematical Modelling for Gait Analysis Dr. Felix Akinladejo (left) demonstrating the use of the Polhemus Electromagnetic tracker systems used for various research activities such as cricket batting training and post stroke rehabilitation at the Virtual Reality Lab located at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing.

Dr. Felix Akinladejo, Associate Dean, and Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Coordinator, Faculty of Engineering and Computing, has pursued research work on using Gait Analysis - a method of diagnosing the way people walk.

Being unable to walk makes it very difficult for an individual to be a full functioning member of society. Gait Analysis is the method of diagnosing the way people walks, assessing, planning and treating their walking disabilities. Gait analysis is employed in sports biomechanics to train athletes how to run effectively and help with posture challenges due to injuries. The presentation explained how the Mathematical model can be used to attain the arc of dorsiflexion and plantaflextion during gait analysis.

Walking problems such as equinus (toe walking) and passive equinus are caused by dorsiflexion and plantar flexion. A Virtual Reality Lab was set up at the Faculty of Engineering and computing with the VR head sets and sensors of Polhemus Electromagnetic tracker systems for various research activities. Virtual Reality Technology, the sensors of Polhemus Electromagnetic tracker systems, and the mathematical model were employed by the author for post stroke rehabilitation. The mathematical model may be useful for professionals in the study of human movement. Motion sensors from the Polhemus electromagnetic tracker system were employed to capture patients gait variables through pre and post computer- based intervention.

Dr. Akinladejo explained the steps of the placement of sensors on hemiplegic leg, where four sensors were attached to the foot. Java program was developed that employed the vector analysis to calculate the theta values from the data obtained.

Results show that all the patients improved on their range of motion in the ankle joint due to the computer-based intervention program.

These results buttressed the literature that supported the usefulness of computer technology in therapeutic rehabilitation.

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School of Engineering Lecturer, Dr. Dave Muir Participates in Brown University Advanced Research Institute Dr. Dave D Muir, Lecturer in Control Systems, School of Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) participated in the Brown International Advanced Research Institute (BIARI) held at Providence Rhode Island, USA from June 8-22, 2013. He was selected by the organizers as part of a faculty development initiative that brings promising young scholars from the Global South together with leading researchers in their fields for two-week intensive institutes each summer. BIARI has built a scholarly network of more than 500 alumni in more than 80 countries, providing them with ongoing support for collaborative research and professional development.

Dr. Muir’s involvement at the institute was in the area of “Connections and Flows: Water, Energy and Digital Information in the Global South.” He explored new and emerging concepts in engineering design and development, as well as new ways to prepare and develop practitioners working in this field, or in adjacent areas of endeavor. The Institute considered not just the spaces of technology application, but also of implication.

Dr. Muir notes that his involvement with this academic research institute has created further opportunities for UTech to strengthen international partnerships that have the potential to define industrial and academic research. “This will be critical as we address our current energy crisis and move forward,” he said.

Dr. Dave Muir Lecturer, School of Engineering

Dr Muir is the Chair of the Jamaica Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Energy Unit in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing and sits on the University’s Cost Savings committee.

“Do Healthy Foods Cost More Than Less Healthy Options in Jamaica?”

Professor Fitzroy Henry (Principal Investigator), Mrs. Sheerin Eyre (Co-investigator), Ms. Deonne Caines (Research Assistant) from UTech’s College of Health Sciences, and students (Data Collectors) conducted a study to answer the important question posed above. The study was funded through the University’s Research Development Fund. Professor Henry and his team reported the following findings: “Several studies have evaluated whether healthier foods or diets cost more but a full range of health criteria has rarely been explored. Rather than merely comparing high and low energy dense foods, this study also included type of fat, vitamin, mineral and fibre content of foods in classifying them as healthy and less healthy.

Both ‘commonly consumed’ and ‘available’ foods were ranked according to their nutritional value and potential positive or negative contribution to the development of major health problems in Jamaica such as obesity and chronic diseases. The costs of 158 food items were averaged from supermarkets, municipal markets and wholesale outlets in six parishes across Jamaica. Cost differentials were then assessed in comparing healthy and less healthy foods. The study found that among the commonly consumed foods in Jamaica healthy options cost J$88 more than less healthy ones.

However, when all the available food items were considered, the less healthy options cost much more. The cheapest daily cost of a nutritionally balance diet in Jamaica varied considerably by parish, but was on average J$269. For a family of three this translates approximately to the total minimum wage per week.”

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Prof Fitzroy Henry

View Points

This section offers commentary reflecting the perspectives of the authors on the topics they address.

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Research for Public Policy and Action Coming out of a recent Gleaner Editors’ Forum with Mona School of Business and Management (MSBM), we are hearing that the business school is set to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Government to generate research data to inform policy decisions. The deal is specifically with the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce.

There are 14 other ministries and hundreds of departments and agencies of government, all of which can benefit from targeted research data for both policy and action. And on the academic side, there is the rest of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and several other research-capable higher-education institutions like the University of Technology, to which I am connected, which can provide the targeted research data on commission.

MSBM’s Executive Director Prof Densil Williams told the Editors’ Forum that the use of research data by Government and businesses, although far from satisfactory, is slowly improving. As cases in point, Prof Williams noted that, as part of a “greater convergence between academia and policymakers”, the Ministry of Finance has been relying increasingly on research data to inform much of the tax-reform policies that it is seeking to implement. And other government bodies, including the Ministry of Agriculture, have been making increased use of research data, he said.

A research group out of the School of Building and Land Management at UTech has just signed a grant contract with a foreign donor to research property-tax compliance. The applicability of this research to national affairs is so potent and obvious that the university has gone on to recommend the young and productive lead researcher as its nominee for a Commonwealth doctoral scholarship.

Government owns and operates a College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE), which is almost exclusively limited to teaching. The Government’s own agricultural research facilities have been run into the ground from neglect. A lot of the research problems in agriculture are practical fact-finding investigations that do not require blue skies science and could well be undertaken by CASE faculty and students, with appropriate support.

While I am happy for the MSBM, with which I have been associated for many years, being specially tapped for providing research solutions to the ‘business’ ministry of Government, I want to take the opportunity to again make the case for a much broader and deeper collaboration between Government and academia - and industry as well. That famous triple-helix model of these three sector strands wrapping around and supporting each other. Prof Williams cited the case of our transnational GraceKennedy entering the Ghana market and commissioning from MSBM a cultural study to “better understand the cultural dynamics” of that market.

In the triple-helix model, nobody is granting a favour, nobody is begging anything. It is neither welfare nor philanthropy, it is strictly business. Mutually beneficial business.

Higher-education institutions like MSBM and UTech urge their staff to research and even threaten them that they must publish or perish. But, particularly in these applied institutions, it is the practical problems for which research solutions make a difference in society that matter most. A group of us at UTech have just put out a paper in which we wrestle with the problem of measuring the research impact of a young university of technology beyond the counting of papers published and the citations they receive.

We used two cases to make the point of alternative impact measurement. In one case, an engineering research consultancy

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Mr. Martin Henry Manager of Projects & Operations School of Graduate Studies, Research & Enterpreneurship

group has delivered a solar-powered piped water system to a community in Carron Hall, St Mary, which for generations had to scramble down a steep hillside to collect water from a waterhole.

How many published papers is that worth as a measure of impact?

That work was supported in cash and kind by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica, the National Water Commission, and the St Mary Charities Organization.

The other case was innovative work done on creating food products from the humble cassava by staff in hospitality and nutrition, resulting in a published book.

Right now, another engineering group, grant-financed by the European Union, is working on using hydrogen gas generated from water as a safe, cheap and efficient alternative fuel to liquefied petroleum gas.

A lot of the little work being done is externally financed. I have been hammering the point that one of the important ways in which Government can and should support research with a positive payback is by establishing a national research fund into which productive researchers can tap through competitive bids.

Every developed country has one, and an increasing number of developing countries, including South Africa, have research funds.

I have taken the trouble to show how a Jamaican research fund could be financed pretty painlessly and managed effectively.

Ideally, a percentage of the annual budget should be earmarked for a research fund if the country is serious about research and innovation as a key driver of growth and development. The research fund is separate from operational subventions to research agencies and would be managed by an independent centralised agency like the South African National Research Foundation. A mere one-tenth of one per cent of the 2014-2015 Budget would provide $540 million for the research fund. Even one-tenth of that one-tenth would be a fair start.

The country, I have proposed, should adopt the practice of attaching a small R&D levy on to the international contracts for services to the GOJ which contractors would be required to pay as

a relatively painless cost of doing business. Their operations in Jamaica would thereby leave a tangible legacy of development through the development and applications of S&T. And we can go the same route of negotiating with donors the allocation of portions of grants to research and development as standard procedure.

But beyond this more generic financing of research, which can inform policy and action, both Government and industry can seriously benefit from buying specific commissioned research services from the technical expertise in higher-education institutions. And the institutions would benefit from sale of services as a fair commercial transaction.

We have seen GraceKennedy commissioning a market study from MSBM as a business deal. In recent years, a UTech/UWI research consultancy consortium provided the data work for a national housing policy. Another UTech group conducted a study of the domestic banana market for RADA paid for by the European Union Banana Support Programme and designed to drive policy decisions on the future of the banana sector.

UTech has just been contracted by the Education System Transformation Programme to conduct a quality assurance needs assessment for teacher education, and the university is being supported by the Development Bank of Jamaica to undertake further work on the U-Touch computer software which researchers are developing to assist deaf students to learn language better. The university has recently signed a commercial agreement with a computer company for students to develop apps in a joint venture for a market the company already services.

I am pulling stuff with which I am most familiar, and MSBM will forgive me for not being more familiar with its applied research output. But the point is clear. There are several good cases out there as living examples of what can be done, but not nearly enough of them.

The interest of the Ministry of Industry Investment and Commerce to tap into the research capability of a leading business school is commendable and a pacesetter for the rest of Government to seek research-based solutions for policy and action out of its own academic institutions. And business can follow the lead. When the triple helix flourishes, national economies do better. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Knowledge is powerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is more than a slogan; it is a fact, certainly for applied knowledge.

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: This view point was first published by the Gleaner Company Limited and is reprinted with permission.

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Economic Burden of Communicable & Non‑communicable Diseases in Jamaica: Is our Research Focus where it should be?

The Caribbean has moved from under‑nutrition and communicable diseases to over‑nutrition and chronic non‑communicable diseases (CNCDs) being the major public health problems over the last several decades. The Region has seen great improvements due to immunization coverage which has resulted in the eradication of several communicable diseases (e.g. poliomyelitis; last outbreak, 1982), measles (no cases diagnosed since 1991), and rubella (no cases diagnosed since 2002).

The average life expectancy in Latin America and the Caribbean has risen from 51 to 76 years in the last few decades along with an improvement in nutrition quality.

Simultaneously, the Region has seen a switch in dietary intake from vegetable to animal protein, as well as an increase in the percent of energy coming from fat intake.

Like the rest of the Caribbean, Jamaica has changed from under‑nutrition and communicable diseases being the major causes of death and disability to CNCDs over the last five decades. In 2000, the prevalence of obesity among Jamaicans Christine Fray-Aiken, PhD 15‑74 year-old was 9.6% among males and 29.9% among females. Cerebro-vascular Lecturer, College of Health Sciences diseases, ischemic heart diseases, hypertensive diseases, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, and coronary and other forms of heart disease were among the 10 leading causes of death in Jamaica during 1998. These diseases are all linked to obesity. Between 2001 and 2005, there were no cases of measles, polio, diphtheria, rubella, congenital rubella, or reserved neonatal tetanus due to immunization in Jamaica. In addition, between 1950 and 2012, life expectancy increased from 58.5 years to 74 years.

Therefore, there has been a definite change in the overall health profile at the Regional level. This transition also occurred in Jamaica which supports the point that CNCDs are not diseases of affluence, as developing countries now bear the major burden. With this public health transition, it is thus quite understandable that the focus of research over the years, moved from under‑nutrition and communicable diseases to over‑nutrition and obesity and obesity‑related diseases - the chronic non‑communicable diseases (CNCDs). However, where should our research focus be now?

Editor’s Note: This view point was first published in Farmeconomia. Health economics and therapeutic pathways 2014; 15(3): 57‑60.

“Like the rest of the Caribbean, Jamaica has changed from under‑nutrition and communicable diseases being the major causes of death and disability to CNCDs over the last five decades. In 2000, the prevalence of obesity among Jamaicans 15‑74 year-old was 9.6% among males and 29.9% among females.”

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Innovation in Disaster Risk Management (DRM): Competencies and Tools Disaster Risk reduction (DRR) involves many sciences and technologies, particularly those concerning hazards and human behaviour. DRR also includes the natural, social and applied sciences, and relevant technologies and techniques. Cited below are examples of the effective application of science, technology, and innovation in DRR:

• China, flooding in 1931 and 1959 caused millions of fatalities, but now with early warning and evacuation systems, as part of risk reduction policies such great loss of life no longer occurs.

• In Bangladesh, a national flood warning system provides warnings up to 10 days ahead to millions of villagers, helping them defend against the regular flooding and preserve household assets. Studies indicate savings of about US$40 for every dollar invested.

• In The Netherlands, a long term US$3 billion programme “Room for the River“ is undertaking dozens of infrastructure projects to mitigate the likely impacts of climate change and to support development that reduces flood risks and negative environmental impacts.

Mr. Laurence Neufville Head of School, Building & Land Management

• In the shared Caribbean Island of Saint Martin (French) and Saint Maarten (Dutch), the damage from Hurricane Luis in 1995 was substantially less on the French side owing to better construction, particularly through the checking processes of engineering “bureau de controle.”

• In New Zealand, the severe 2011 Christchurch earthquake confirmed the benefits of national building codes and property \ insurance. But scientific knowledge on soil liquefaction had been neglected in planning laws, resulting in billions of dollars damage to houses and infrastructure.

The scope of Build Environment Practice (BE) results in its professionals and practitioners having a direct role in DRR. This is so because the built environment refers, in general terms, to: human settlements, buildings, and infrastructure (transport, energy, water and waste and related services). The Built Environment sector includes the commercial property and construction industries and the related built environment Professions. Built environment professionals and practitioners are primarily concerned with providing technical support services such consultation and briefing, design, planning, project management and implementation, technical investigations including monitoring and evaluation studies to the sector.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is applicable and has an important role to play in DRR, which is critically dependant on the accurate dissemination of data, often with such speed that it must be in real-time. This information relates to safety issues concerning the physical environment, it usually has a strong geographical component. GIS technology provides a vehicle through which many types of information (e.g., census data, weather conditions and map data) can be visually depicted. Queries can be performed on the data types that would be labor-intensive and error-prone if done manually, but are executed quickly and accurately in the GIS environment. The results can be immediately displayed in map form such that the concepts are easily comprehended by those unfamiliar with DRR or GIS GIS as predictive modelling tool is:

• Powerful • Of immeasurable value in the development of optimum procedures in all stages of DRR. • Involves multi-criteria analysis (MCA) • Requires involvement of expert stakeholders (BE professionals & others)

Science, technology, and innovation (STI) has a role to play in DRR as evidenced by the examples used in this article, not to mention those used in Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, USA, in 2005.

The World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in January 2005 in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, adopted the current United Nations Framework for Action 2005-2015 - Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters - and adopted the five priorities for action by national governments and international humanitarian agencies. Practitioners and professionals in the Built Environment have traditionally operated at the cutting edge of S&T in their many and varied activities, and their contribution to DRM is pivotal to achieving the goals of Hyogo Framework of Action 2005-2015. Areas of key DRR needs have been identified for this sub-region and it is prudent to extend this approach to the wider Caribbean.

The University of Technology, Jamaica and other HEI’s in the Caribbean have an obligation to respond via education and training.

Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this view point were first presented at a Symposium to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, held 1st – 3rd December, 2014, at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort Grenada under the theme “Exploring Response and Recovery, Embracing Resilience.”

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A Perspective on Innovation and Development within a Developing Country Context Economic development through technological advancement is a phenomenon that for many decades brought economic prosperity, increased wealth, and (by extension) social change to countries, worldwide. However, economists and development specialists have consistently challenged the inequitable distribution of this wealth between the countries of the global north and those of the global south. This inequitable distribution of wealth has resulted in a perceived gap between the two regions - the North-South divide. Although some progress was made in closing this perceived gap through the pervasiveness and ubiquitous nature of innovative technologies, various research groups have challenged the prowess of innovative technologies as change agents in the global south.

Some researchers have observed and documented the correlation between economic growth and innovation. Economic development theorists have argued that it is the development of necessary primary factors to support an innovation agenda that can lead to a context-driven innovation policy for promoting social and economic development within a developing nation. The importance of knowledge stock accumulation, entrepreneurial development, human capital and social capital development, the transfer, and diffusion of innovative technologies are just few of the factors contributing to developing countries attaining sustainable economic growth, social change, and long-term prosperity.

Dr. Andrea Barrett Lecturer, Joan Duncan School of Entrepreneurship, Ethics & Leadership

It can be demonstrated that the development of adequate innovation capacity to engender and sustain an innovation-centric nation is effective only through systematic and deliberate actions by key stakeholders, who share a deep interest in nation-building within the developing nation context. Emerging economies such as Taiwan, Singapore, and Ireland have validated theories advocating the design of appropriate policies and systems - national systems of innovation (NSI) - to simulate innovation, to solve developing countriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; social and economic challenges.

The perspective presented here is that, within the context of developing countries, social and economic transformation of their economies to a modality of sustainable economic growth can be achieved through building a sustainable innovation capacity.

At the base of building an innovative capacity is the discipline of science and technology. Scientific knowledge facilitates the creation of new technologies. Therefore, the possibilities for innovation through science are endless. I am positing that, given that innovation has been demonstrated as a key enabling ingredient for economic growth, then any policy supporting innovation initiatives becomes important to the dialogue involving economic growth and national development.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The importance of knowledge stock accumulation, entrepreneurial development, human capital and social capital development, the transfer, and diffusion of innovative technologies are just few of the factors contributing to developing countries attaining sustainable economic growth, social change, and long-term prosperity.â&#x20AC;?

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The University as a Special Intellectual Asset-Producing Machine Education is the principal way a state passes on the norms, values and mores of a culture and builds social cohesion, which is critical to high-functioning societies.

However, beyond transmitting a society’s values, a good education unlocks innovation and creativity, thus advancing human development, economic growth, and prosperity (Virtue, 2014).

In a similar vein to Virtue (2014), Harris (2007) noted that Steven Rosenstein, with specific reference to America, observed that “well-educated citizens are more productive. They fuel economic growth. They do work that leads to breakthroughs in science and industry.

They create new knowledge, new products, new technologies, and new enterprises.

They are more likely to have stable jobs and remain in the labour force because they have the skills needed to compete in an information economy. They are better able to manage change and complexity. They are adept at acquiring new skills and new knowledge and managing the flow of new information. They drive innovation and invention.”

As part of the education enterprise, a university may be defined as a knowledgeDr. Paul W. Ivey, PhD generating and disseminating collegial community of scholars that leverages its Associate VP, Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship intellectual capital, making it an intellectual asset-producing machine. I have purposefully used the construct of a machine to refer to the university because a machine exists to “do something.” And in the case of the university, the intellectual assets it produces are graduates, patents, journal publications, case studies, books, engineering designs, compositions, works of art, software, and others that create value and advance social welfare.

But the university is no ordinary, run-of-the-mill machine. It is well for us to remember that the university is one of the world’s most ancient and durable institutions. “The first true university was founded at Bologna in the 11th century, those at Paris and Oxford in the 12th” (David, 2002). Besides, the university’s location at apex of the education pyramid makes the university-machine special. Indeed, a special feature of the university-machine is that its research output sets it apart from other post-secondary institutions (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - OECD, 2004). Also, research is central to the idea of the university as an autonomous entity, free to make its own rules (Lemann, 2014).

Additionally, universities, research organizations, and industry are key actors in the creation, dissemination and use of new knowledge. In this august triumvirate, universities have assumed huge significance in creating value, because higher education is a key enabler of the knowledge economy (Hazelkorn, 2012). It follows from this that universities must be crucibles of innovative and commercializable research results. And universities must be the link between ideas and the market, producing in the end tangible benefits to society.

This is a far cry from the early conception of the university as a place “dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake,” to “discover the causes of things,” and “the high protecting power of all knowledge and science, of fact and principle, of inquiry and discovery, of experiment and speculation” (David, 2002; Arnold, 2012).

Today, the landscape of education, knowledge and understanding has changed dramatically and, instead of trumpeting their other-worldliness, universities now proudly celebrate their accomplishments as producers of useful knowledge. This metamorphosis, if you will, is all for the better, in my opinion, especially when a given university is publicly funded, as is the case of the University of Technology, Jamaica.

It is in relation to the production of useful knowledge that addresses the needs of proximate stakeholders that universities in many developing countries are coming up woefully short.

What we see is that, instead of addressing the problems of their proximate stakeholders, many of these institutions have become enamored of the rankings bandwagon and are seeking to appear in global league tables and rankings such as Times Higher Education/Thomson Reuters World University Rankings

(Weidman & Delgado, 2009; Hazelkorn, 2012; Mohamedbhai, 2012; Gnolek, Falciano & Kuncl, 2014).

Proximate stakeholders are defined as those whom a university purports to serve as stated in its mission statement (Ivey, Henry & Oliver, 2014). My attraction to the mission statement of an organization as a meaningful reference point is that such a statement is the most common articulation of why an organization exists. Ellis and & Miller (2014) note that a mission statement embodies the organization’s purpose and in some situations its identity. Furthermore, Pearce (1982) states that a mission statement is a “broadly defined but enduring statement of purpose that distinguishes the organization from others of its type and identifies the scope of its operations.”

Let me add quickly that I am not advocating for universities in developing countries to be insular and entirely parochial in their activities, outlook, and influence. Rather, the simple point I am making is that these institutions must not lose sight of addressing the concerns of proximate stakeholders and being faithful to their missions. A legitimate question now arises: who then are UTech’s proximate stakeholders? Answer: clearly, the people of Jamaica are, because the university is publicly funded as a national university (Ivey, Henry & Oliver, 2014).

The University of Technology, Jamaica is commonly referred to as “The People’s University.” Therefore, it is one of the “machines” that must contribute to the realization of Vision 2030 Jamaica, which is aimed at the achievement of developed country status by the year 2030. The plan is based on a comprehensive vision: “Jamaica, the place of choice to live, work, raise families, and do business” (Planning Institute of Jamaica, 2009). It is for this reason that UTech’s research focus areas reflect the capabilities of the university matched with national needs requiring innovative solutions.

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Regarding what constitutes “innovative solutions,” UTech’s research management staff and researchers are guided by the World Bank (2010), which defines innovation as: finding new or better ways to do things; creating new products or services; applying new technologies to solve existing problems; and using existing products and technologies to meet new needs. That is to say, UTech’s researchers will continue to find novel or improved ways to do things; will continue to create new products or services; will continue to apply new technologies to solve existing problems; and will continue using existing products and technologies to meet new needs.

By so doing, UTech’s researchers are continuing, in a deliberate and focussed way, what humans have been doing since millennia, which is making life better through innovation. Of all the species of living organisms, we humans are not the fastest, strongest, or even the prettiest, but we are the only one that writes books and builds skyscrapers and computers. In other words, what we humans do have is the boundless capacity to imagine and create new possibilities.

It is an accepted truth that new thinking is always an essential requirement for social and economic development. A World Bank report on the taxonomy of success factors required to propel economies further validates this by identifying innovation as a key variable (World Bank, 2010).

In crafting innovative solutions, UTech’s researchers embrace Boyer’s (1960) typology of four domains of scholarship: discovery, integration, application, and teaching. Of course, these domains are not mutually-exclusive or linear; rather, they are mutually-reinforcing & are inseparable intellectual functions.

But how does a university know if its research output has been impactful? One way is for its research management office to ensure that the research output is effectively captured, processed, and disseminated. The benefits are then quantified and made explicit or the efficacy of the research work demonstrated. This requires a clear understanding of “pathways to research impacts” on the part of research managers, as well the ability to conduct summative evaluations.

Research Councils UK (2007) defines research impact as “the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy; research impact embraces all the diverse ways that research-related skills benefit individuals, organizations and nations.” In addition, Research Councils UK cites the following areas where evidence of the translation of research into impacts is usually manifested: human capital, business and commercial, policy, and quality of life. These “pathways to research impacts” are useful guides for research managers.

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Already, UTech is producing impactful results in several of the research focus areas it has identified. How do we know this? Some of these “research stories” have been catalogued in a delightful publication, “Structured Research Management Supporting Impactful Research,” prepared by the University’s Research Management Office – the School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship (SGSRE) - to coincide with UTech’s 2014 Research, and Technology Day (RTD). In like manner, this very publication prepared to go alongside Research, Technology and Innovation Day (RTID) 2015 continues the practice of cataloguing and reporting on UTech’s impactful intellectual output.

This kind of intellectual capital reporting is a key function of a University’s Research Management Office. This is especially so because it is no longer sufficient or effective to communicate what universities “discover and understand” solely through peer-reviewed academic journal and conferences (Arnold, 2012).

But this is not to say that peer-reviewed academic journal and conferences have lost their lustre. In fact, UTech’s researchers have published their research results in more than 300 journal papers, books/book chapters, exhibits, and conference presentations, cumulatively. These publications and presentations have resulted in UTech’s research being disseminated into the wider global scientific community.

Additionally, insofar as knowledge workers are concerned, in 2014 more than 2000 graduates from the UTech’s three colleges and five faculties were eligible for graduation. The graduating class included the first Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Career and Technical Education, as well as first cohorts of several courses of study, namely: the Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Education; Bachelor of Science in Sport Sciences; Bachelor of Science in Occupational Health and Safety; Bachelor of Science in Dental Laboratory Technology; Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurship; and the Bachelor of Science Post Registered Nurse Completion course through franchise arrangements with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College (SVGCC).

Universities need a national environment supportive of their efforts. And as one of the “machines” that must contribute to the achievement of Vision 2030 while “stimulating positive change in Caribbean society through the provision of high quality learning and research opportunities and service to our communities,” the University of Technology, Jamaica – Jamaica’s National University – needs, now more so than ever, the full support of the Government and people of Jamaica.

“In crafting innovative solutions, UTech’s researchers embrace Boyer’s (1960) typology of four domains of scholarship: discovery, integration, application, and teaching. Of course, these domains are not mutually-exclusive or linear; rather, they are mutually-reinforcing & are inseparable intellectual functions.” ...................................................................................

“UTech is one of the “machines” that must contribute to the realization of Vision 2030.”

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About UTech The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) dates its beginning from 1958, originally as the Jamaica Institute of Technology. In 1959, the name of the institution was changed to the College of Arts, Science and Technology and it became incorporated in the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST) Scheme of 1959. This was validated by an Act of Parliament in 1964. In 1986, the CAST Scheme was revised in order to make the College a degree-granting institution, and the College became legally empowered to conduct its affairs under a governing Council and Academic Board.

The institution was formally accorded University status on September 1, 1995 as the University of Technology, Jamaica.

The University of Technology, Jamaica Act 27 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1999, which makes permanent provisions for the establishment of the University of Technology, Jamaica, was approved by Parliament on June 8, 1999 and signed into law by the Governor General on June 29, 1999.

The history of the institution is intimately connected with the social and economic development of Jamaica. From just over 50 students and four programmes in 1958, UTech has grown to become a major national institution with a student population of more than 12,000. It now offers more than 70 programmes at certificate, diploma and degree levels through its three colleges and five faculties.

The University had further expanded access to its programme offerings to meet the demands of business and industry by establishing campuses and satellite locations across Jamaica.

In addition, several programmes are franchised through links with community colleges, and most programmes are linked to national and international professional organizations.

Syllabuses are modelled on the English polytechnic system, with emphasis on flexibility of approach, work-based learning, and professional linkages afforded through co-operative workbased programmes.

Flexibility in the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academic programmes is reflected in the various modes of course delivery, which include the establishment of a semesterised mode of delivery introduced in academic year 1999/2000 and further adjusted and piloted in 2009-2010. Under the semesterised system, the academic year was restructured into three academic sessions and all courses of study modularized. Several credit and non-credit courses are offered during the Summer Session from mid-May to August.

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University of Technology, Jamaica School of Graduate Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship

Copyright Š 2008, University of Technology, Jamaica 237 Old Hope Road, Kingston 6, Jamaica W.I. Tel: (876) 927-1680-8 | Fax: (876) 977-4388 ISBN 978-976-8027-40-5