THE GUARDIAN, Saturday, June 29, 2013
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PEOPLE
Our Son, The Global Engineer Professionally, Attah has engineering and management experience in the aerospace, manufacturing, and construction industries. In 2007, he established MACVAL Associates LLC in Dallas, Texas. The firm specializes in the application of lean engineering and production techniques in the development, management and construction of roadways, airport facilities, water disLOYSIUS A. Attah, P.E., a licensed professional engineer tribution systems, waste water systems, storm drainage systrained in both civil and industrial engineering recently tems, and building systems. MACVAL has garnered a reputation became the president of the Construction Division of for managing and delivering projects within the budget, schedInstitute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Founded in 1948, IIE is ule, and quality demands of its clients. A case study on the firm’s the world’s largest international non-profit professional socie- successful application of lean engineering and production techty dedicated solely to the support of the industrial and sysniques to civil engineering and construction projects was docutems engineering profession. mented in a ground-breaking textbook titled, Modern The Construction Division, which Attah now leads, advances Construction - Lean Project Delivery and Integrated Practices. He has the adoption of industrial and systems engineering princialso published numerous articles that appeared in varied indusples in the construction industry through interdisciplinary try magazines and journals. research, collaboration and partnership with related profesBefore establishing MACVAL, Prof. Attah, who hails from Aku in sional organizations, suppliers, and research organizations. Igbo-Etiti Local Council of Enugu State, spent 17 years with the The Division promotes the application of industrial engineer- Boeing Company holding various engineering and manageing tools and techniques to streamline and optimize conment positions in support of 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777 airplane struction operations, value, safety, and stakeholder satisfacmodels. While at Boeing, he received numerous awards for outtion. It supports members through continuing education, standing performance and dedication to excellence. According conferences, seminars, publications, and networking activito Attah, one of his most memorable awards was for his role in ties, empowering them to influence positive changes in the leading a team of Boeing engineers and support personnel in industry. 2002 that designed, manufactured, and delivered innovative Engr. Attah’s ascent to the presidency took place during IIE’s Flight Deck Security System (FDSS) in 25% of similar system’s typAnnual Conference & Expo 2013 held in San Juan, Puerto Rico ical flow time. The FDSS, which prevents unauthorized personfrom May 18 – 22 this year. He was recognized for his expertise nel from gaining access to the cockpit of airplanes was in as a scholar-practitioner and his dedication to the Institute of response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Industrial Engineers. He joined IIE in 1988 and began his leadAttah has also been active as an educator. He is an adjunct proership services in 1993 when he became chairman of the stufessor of engineering as well as a member of the construction dent affairs and education committee in the Dallas Chapter. engineering technology industry advisory board at the He subsequently served as the president-elect, president, and University of North Texas (UNT). Prior to joining UNT, he taught past president of the Dallas Chapter from 1998 to 2001. During aerospace and systems engineering courses at Embry-Riddle this tenure, he won the “Gold award” for chapter leadership Aeronautical University for five years. He also taught operations and “Industrial Engineer of the year award” for his contribumanagement courses at DeVry University for 12 years. tions to the profession. Since then, he has continued his Prof. Attah is also very active in the Nigerian community. He involvement with the professional society. was the first constitutionally elected president of Enugu-USA,
Nigerian-born Professor Aloysius A. Attah elected president of a major division of an International Engineering Society
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HE AUST has been described as an instituT tion with a unique training module. Why basically was the institution established? The AUST is a regional initiative established by the Nelson Mandela Institution (NMI), conceived by Africans from the diaspora, incubated by the World Bank Institute and approved by the Nigerian Universities Commission in 2007 with students from 19 African countries. This institution has grown from what used to be a project. The whole idea of how the AUST was founded was basically when the World Bank Institute hosted the creation of this university in Nigeria and some other parts of Africa. In terms of the AUST Abuja, the official launch was in 2005, but earlier in 2004, the then President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn had a meeting with African Heads of States including Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and he asked these African leaders to state “what is the one thing that the World Bank should assist Africa
Aloysius Inc. He also served the association as Secretary to the Board of Directors. Prior to serving Enugu-USA, he was a three-term president of Enugu State Progressive Union (ESPU) in Dallas, Texas. He later served as the founding President of NsukkaUSA (NUSA), an association of old Nsukka province indigenes resident in the United States. Under his leadership, NUSA established a program called NSUKKA-USA VISION 2017Integrated Effort Towards Community Development. On December 18, 2012, Attah was the guest lecturer in the second Adada Lecture Series organized by the Association of Nsukka Professors (ANP). There he presented a paper titled: “Harnessing Indigenous Technologies for the Development of a People.” Prof. Engr. Attah resides in Dallas, Texas with his wife, Chinyere Attah (nee Edoga) and their three sons.
‘Our Aim Is To Train Africa’s Next Generation Of Leaders’ Jide Babatunde, a development administrator is the Campus Director and member of senate of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja. He spoke to LILLIAN CHUKWU on the institution’s dream of educating Africa’s next generation of scientists and engineers. with?” It was Mandela that suggested the establishment of Universities of Science and Technology in the continent. So from then the World Bank Institute built on the idea establishing centres of excellence around Africa with science and technology as focus. Before that happened the NMI was formed and hosted the creation of these universities named so simply because the idea was mulled by Nelson Mandela. The AUST institutions are also established in Arusha, Tanzania with another proposed site in Harare, Zimbabwe. What key approach is ASUT Abuja using in its bid to become a world-class institution? AUST was established with the dream of educating the next generation of scientists and engineers that can use their expertise to develop Africa. Professor Charles Chidume who is our Vice President, Academic will always say that out of the 158 universities in Nigeria, AUST Abuja was not designed to be the 158th because there are enough universities and we don’t need to bother. But the aim is to create a university that is special. In the five streams that we offer in this university including petroleum engineering, comput-
Babatunde
er science, materials science and engineering, theoretical physics, we looked around for all the universities in Nigeria for faculty who could teach these courses, only five were found to meet the criteria of AUST and this implies that all the other universities probably just have faculties that measure up to the standard of our students. This prompted the AUST governing board to bring in distinguished professors from overseas. Our initial aim was not to train the teachers but to train the students who will take over and become the critical mass of engineers and experts that will move Africa forward. It will not be meaningful to bring in Professors who we will pay high wages weekly or monthly to come and teach few students since our student population is not as large as that of universities of Ife or Ibadan. It will be a waste to bring in these experts to impact knowledge on just a few students whereas we can help the other universities around us (because we are not planning to be an island). So, we are training faculties especially their lecturers in Nigeria and other African countries to come and learn from the distinguished professors we are bringing in and they can go back to their universities and in turn train the students. Observers say that the AUST seems elitist. How do you react to this? I disagree with them. The statement is relative though but I don’t think AUST Abuja is an elitist school. No qualified scholar is denied access to education here because of inability to pay fees. Access to scholarship abounds here. Nelson Mandela once said that “education is a great engine of personal development” and that it’s only through education that the son of a miner can become the mine head and the daughter of a peasant can become a medical doctor and the son of a farmer can become a president of a country. What is the on-going collaboration between National University Commission and AUST about? The NUC funded us to train mathematics lecturers in universities nationwide so that they can tap from the knowledge of the professors we invited and this initiative was successful and we are all still looking at other collaborative areas.