Call for more funds for research and development

The Faculty of Engineering was providing industry with a cake ready for the eating but it was the faculty that chased industry to take up this offer instead of industry doing the running, the dean, Maurice Grech, said.

He expressed the hope that things would change and that statistics indicating Malta was behind in research would eventually change, particularly if the government made more funds available for this purpose.

While the EU requested that funds for research should amount to three per cent of the gross domestic product, only 0.1 per cent was currently spent in Malta.

Prof. Grech said that projects and research facilities in Malta were second to none. The faculty was working on 15 projects with the EU and there was an EU grant of €1.5 million this year alone.

The dean was speaking during an exhibition of projects by final year students at the Faculty of Engineering at the university, in Tal-Qroqq.

Prof. Grech said the departments falling under the faculty were power and control, computers and communications, micro electronics, mechanical engineering, manufacturing and metallurgy and materials.

One of the projects aimed at developing slick coatings to avoid the use of oils, another, by a postgraduate and an undergraduate student, was to develop coatings to protect items such as weaponry from the erosive effect of the elements.

Yet another uses laser beams to strengthen materials such as gears.

One of the projects focused on building a smaller electric car charger and another, sponsored by Enemalta, aims to create a harmonic presence on the power grid.

A wind turbine generating electricity and solar panels generating electricity from the sun were also on display.

Lecturer Joe Cilia said industry was a bit limited with the cost of production constantly going up. Therefore, there was even more scope for innovative projects.

Design of a Mach 2 supersonic test rig by Alastair Attard. Picture: Matthew Mirabelli