Engineering at UniCV

On Friday, Paulo set up a meeting with the engineering faculty at Uni-CV main campus, so that we could also make progress on the second goal -- laying the groundwork for joint projects for WeLab courses. Mackenzie and I had already headed into Praia for a meeting with the former "Ministry of Rural Development" (now Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) and ElectraSul - the water and electricity plant as well as desalinization plant. Unfortunately, there was some miscommunication for both meetings; on the bright side, we met with a statistician at the ministry and had more free time since we couldn't go to ElectraSul.

Because we had some extra time to stroll around Praia, Mackenzie called a contact at the US embassy who she met on the plane ride over and we all decided to have lunch together. Lo and behold, we just so happened to go to the US ambassador's favorite lunch spot, and he sat with us over a meal. I am really glad all things happened like they did: I can now say I met the US ambassador to Cape Verde! He also suggested contacting the PR head for a publication covering Americans in Cabo Verde - and we absolutely will. After lunch, we grabbed the #10 Bus to Palmarejo in order to arrive at UniCV on time.

The meeting went very well, and I was so happy to see that all the engineering professors were women. More so, all of the professors seemed to be very engaged in the meeting, offering their own ideas on a partnership with Wellesley. And I learned a lot about the education situation in Cape Verde: they passionately expressed a lack of practical applications and projects and a lack of access to quality laboratory spaces. Many of their students only practice the math or theory at the end of their courses and enter the workforce without know-how and experience with equipment. The professors, who came from backgrounds ranging from Civil and Electrical to Chemistry and Biology, really want to develop research projects for their students and offered project ideas:
  • Developing a list of projects for students to work on (alone or with Wellesley)
  • Collecting data and sending it to Wellesley to analyze 
    • I have no idea if this is possible, especially for chemistry or biology but one of the professors seemed to know about SeedKit programs.
  • Working on serious concerns at home, e.g. dam and soil erosion, garbage treatment
    • One of the professors pursuing a PhD in Environmental Engineering is already looking into garbage and water treatment - and wants to try to bring in more students than she has already done.
    • I think these would be great to investigate and develop a write-up on. 
Also, all UniCV students have an end-of-the-year internship and there's potential for Wellesley to join in for final projects. I was surprised, however, to discover that "independent study" (for credit) is not necessarily an option. ECCA faculty also made sure to highlight that most students don't have research experience before their final year - or sometimes at all. Regardless, I think this is the start of a great friendship.

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