ENGINEERING, My Kind of NEIGHBOUR

Reading from renowned journals on development taught me that development has little to do with democracy, rather, Engineering sells development-#myopinion. 

Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah set the pace as far as Engineering and Development is concerned. Starting from manufacturing to transportation, technical and vocational institutes and to Technical Universities. Indeed, he understood the value of Engineering and its relevance in the future.The victory of a nation and its people is built on financial stability, Good jobs and regular income, quality health care and education. These were the beginnings for Ghana. Every developed country identified their strength and built many prospects for its people. They evaluated the prospects available and laid a solid foundation through technology and Engineering, complemented by massive infrastructural developments. Ghana has over 50% of its citizens involved in agriculture and its allied activities. That is our Gold. However, the mechanisation and technology application in this sector is a flaw in my opinion. This is just one of the many sectors that can upgrade our economic status THROUGH relevant investment in technological applications in agriculture. China identified manufacturing as a strength and utilised it to their advantage and gradually augmented the income status of its citizens and built a sustainability roadmap for it. Technology has over the years transformed so many things. It has remodelled various sectors of the economy and is promoting growth. 

Transportation, security, manufacturing and a lot more yield engineering opportunities every day. However,  the momentum to fully expand has obviously been missing. Where is industrialisation? Is it too expensive for Ghana? Imagine a food processing plant for every locally produced food. How about other processing plants that will truncate our importation of goods from other countries and promote local manufacturing. Of course, we have heard from many experts on all this  yet.......

HERE comes #TOOLBOX, An engineering show that seeks to find answers, to complement the existing technology trends in Ghana, to create and hype other investment opportunities, to advance growth and development through engineering. The programme seeks to highlight key sectors of the economy and identify the future of Engineering in Ghana and the world. I see this as the phase of a new era from Ghana.

www.westprimeafrica.com

When Transport Beats Time ...........( PART I )

                               

Walking on the railway right behind Accra Brewery Limited, en route to Agbogbloshie market, made me wonder if my village was too close.Is this railway actually in accra? This railway is partially buried in the sand with foreign materials all around it. However, the rail way behind Unilever Ghana tells me the future is bright. This railway looks so clean, with a very good train stop that is capable of attracting every Tom,Dick and Harry,in fact irrespective of the person's status which can significantly draw more people in patronising it. Imagine such structures at different locations, wouldn't that promote the transportation sector by adding value, minimising air pollution and intense traffic,how about productivity? Is this dream ever possible? Many a times there are agitations with regards to roads, either there are no road networks or deteriorating roads. Do we consider the rail system as an option in solving this road problems? Or we only serve them with temporarily solutions as we get caught in traffic jams in the future, where we spend so many hours just to leap an inch. That sucks right! Ide3 pain rof’

, especially when the sun is so hot and the car accumulates so much heat, imagine a ‘trotro’ with no AC stucked in traffic for hours. The worst happens if the car right in front of you emits so much smoke from its exhaust and you get to inhale all these toxic gases into your body.

Recently I attended a conference organized by Bicycle for all friends (BFAF), on how students can patronize the use of bicycle riding on campus, nice initiative, I wish them well though. However, I prefer to graduate to something a bit higher and more efficient.  Imagine a more advanced, efficient, safer means of transport of goods and services, a train system that can transport us from one destination to the other. Not just any train system, but a system that reduces vehicular stress.Imagine, a train taking 5 minutes maximum to get you to work. Wouldn't that be so sweet. Huh!?so fast...woooooh!.

Wow! My appointments would definitely be secured on time, that interview you were late for just because you were stuck in traffic, is solved. How about that habit of getting home late and waking up very early. Hmmm…. Small rest pee3! Yet more is expected from you at work. Everyone assumes you are very fine yet your strength wears off gradually. Can this translate into high productivity? ‘SMH’, unfortunately kids have become victims, since mum and dad want to avoid traffic, they wake these innocent kids up, as early as 3am. Won’t these kids dose in class after all? What would they even learn in school? This challenge has even denied some kids from seeing dad and mum during the weekdays. Mum and Dad are only available during the weekend. Very Funny. I am looking forward to everyone owning a car someday in Ghana, what a wonderful city it would be. Traffic from the entrance of your gate right to work, it will be soo much fun. Crawling, crawling, and crawling just like a chameleon. A day when the city will be choked with cars.

AM WAITING FOR A DAY WHEN THE COMPETITION WILL BE BASED on WHICH TRAIN IS MORE RELIABLE, FAST AND COMFORTABLE. When all our ‘Big’ men who cannot do without their cars would prefer to use the train , when a life won’t be lost cos the specialist could not beat traffic to save a life, when workers will sleep well and no more excuses for lateness, lol!!. Am waiting for that day WHEN entrepreneurs will invest in the train business. I am waiting FOR THAT DAY, when road accidents will be significantly minimized….#JUST THAT DAY……

THE FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE

Whenever I get hungry, I think of how valuable food process engineering is. It is not just a course but an experience of entrepreneurship. As far as man eats and drinks, there will always be an opportunity for a process engineer. What interests me the most is the attitude to redevelop an existing concept. Building on an old idea,product into a new concept to meet a demand. Food process engineering represents the art of innovation. An innovation that answers the questions? The questions that have to do with convenience, satisfaction and unending love for a particular product. Engineers solve problems, they make things work, as such the discipline of food process engineering harbours an inch of every other engineering discipline,economics,law, IT management, entrepreneurship, and a lot more. Travelling across Ghana, I have realised the importance of this discipline to consumers. Virtually every community has a processing site. In some areas, palm oil processing is the dominant activity, interestingly the indigenes focus on how to fully utilise their raw material by processing the kernels into oil, shells as a source of heat and the fibre as door mat. Some areas produce salt on a small scale,package it nicely and distribute. Akpeteshie producers are no different and couple of products like the famous 'sobolo' and 'burkina' are all produced on a small scale, using the same principle of food processing. The question that boggles most people is;What can the food process Engineer do differently from the local processing methods? The food process engineer first and foremost study the current processing mechanism and designs a better plant to process the same material;from the raw material to a packaged product. He identifies the challenges with the old system and solve those challenges,He designs the system such that efficiency is optimum. All these measures are adopted to ensure that optimization is KEY,low cost but highly efficient. The engineer sees beyond the immediate product, he moves further to refine one product from the other, this is applicable because he is thought to understand the physical and chemical property of every material. The food process engineer applies his knowledge in microbiology to ensure that the food is highly safe,free from any micro-organism;by sterilizing the equipment at the appropriate temperatures and pasteurizing the food to kill all micro-organisms,especially disease causing organisms. Thus sanitation is very important to a food process engineer.Safety is not compromised at all, as a food process engineer, safety is a major factor that is unavoidable, safety of the entire plant and every unit is of prime interest. In some cases, he designs his own equipment when the need arises using the right material. What else about the plant? Is it Quality Assurance or Stastical analysis?Just ask the food process engineer. Above all these qualities, a food process engineer exhibits other positive mental attitude such as punctuality,diligence,hard work,good leadership skills that translate in every other activity. What fascinates most people the more is the versatility of a food process engineer. He is competent enough to work in any other discipline and excels at it. Be it a pharmaceutical industry, Bank, Petroleum industry,just mention it. Indeed FOOD PROCESS ENGINEERING IS AN EXPERIENCE to live.