Engineering expo puts young innovators on display
Published:Saturday | June 7, 2025 | 12:06 AMMickalia Kington/Gleaner Writer
As the annual expo of the Final Year Capstone Project was hosted on Thursday, the Faculty of Engineering at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, has once again allowed students the exposure of showcasing their innovations.
These inventions were built to tackle real-world problems, especially across the various industries in Jamaica.
Dr Lindon Falconer, deputy dean of quality assurance and coordinator for the project, shared that the expo was designed to highlight the students’ impact.
“The main reason for having this expo is to showcase what students are doing… to the society, to Jamaica,” he said. “We wanted to collaborate with corporate Jamaica to have them introducing problems that they’re having… so our students can work to solve these problems.”
The Capstone Project is a mandatory year-long course for final-year engineering students. These projects are either self-proposed, assigned through faculty research, or inspired by real challenges faced by companies. This year, some projects were based on problems presented by corporate Jamaica.
“The students are currently solving a lot of complex problems and a lot of Jamaica… is not aware, so this event is to expose our students,” said Falconer.
Twenty-one-year-old Tiffany Campbell caught the eye of many viewers as she showcased her project which was developed in partnership with Lydford Mining, which proposed the idea. It serves the purpose of tracking production and automating equipment. It includes five devices designed to interface with industrial equipment, collect data, and automate shut off procedures when the machinery fails.
OPERATIONAL ISSUES
“A lot of other mining companies have experienced issues with having accurate methods of tracking their production, as well as overall operational efficiency in front of their operations that carry a lot of money,” Campbell said.
She explained that belt scales placed under conveyor belts track weight and flow rate during production. These devices connect to a central system that collects data from all equipment and uploads it to a server, making the information available on a web-based dashboard.
The system is also designed to detect when the major machines fail and automatically shut down other equipment to prevent overload.
“Once all of this happens, it sends an email alert to the specific personnel and also updates it on the website,” she said.
Campbell has been serving as an intern at Lydford Mining for the past two summers and she hopes to implement the system within the company soon.
“I also know that the mining industry in Jamaica on a whole faces similar issues… so I would also like to have it implemented in other mining companies as well.”
These projects were evaluated based on functionality and execution. The students went through a detailed selection process that included an oral presentation, a demonstration of their prototypes as well as proof of concept.
For the students’ whose prototypes met their intended goal, they were asked to display them at the expo while the other students were invited to present their ideas in the form of posters.
Meanwhile, Audrey Marks, minister with responsibility for efficiency, innovation and digital transformation, praised the students’ work.
“We celebrate not just the work of our students and researchers… within the walls of this institution, ideas are not just imagined, they are engineered,” she said.
Marks emphasised the Government’s commitment to transforming Jamaica into a digitally driven society.
“This expo is part of the action and movement of the engineering institutions… . There are more standards than ever before to move from future to reality.”
She also encouraged students to view their work not just as getting a grade but as the foundation for future businesses.
“They are looking to do billions of dollars in investment in mining now. So, I tell you, we have to monetise these things,” she said to Campbell. “So, I really want you to see the potential of this.”
Falconer, who also believed this, stated that the expo has the potential to influence both curriculum development and industry collaboration.
“We expect to change our curriculum to some extent after this collaboration, or after this event,” he said. “We are hoping to get our students into various companies… to ensure that when the students graduate, they are work-ready.”