THE REWARDS AND CHALLENGES OF COLLABORATIVE WORKS WITH A TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY IN AFRICA

The veracity and openness of the students to learning continues to intrigue me despite having worked on and off in Africa for several decades. The work is challenging and rewarding, and the subject matter is captivating. Several universities in West and South Africa were approached for collaboration in the winter of 2018. The programs of interest were in civil and petroleum engineering, geology and physics. This attempt resulted in the visit with a university in the spring of 2019.

One of the universities visited is ranked fourth best university in Africa and the best university in Nigeria as of 2018. The visit was facilitated by the dean of the College of Engineering in collaboration with the Office of International office, the chairs of the Civil and Petroleum Engineering departments, and the chair of the physics department. Faculty members provided topics to be covered which ranged from the application of remote sensing to hydrogeology, soil water interaction and earth structure. The visit culminated with a town-gown presentation.

Earth processes observed within the campus were incorporated in some lectures presented to the students. Both undergrads and graduate students were involved in discussions of ongoing research projects and plausible research topics. Plans on collaborating on some applied research projects were discussed with the resident professors as well. The availability of equipment is one of the major concerns in some of these universities, but despite this and a heavy teaching load, the faculty have high research productivity with several publications in top-tier international journals. Some of the faculty have several awards including an International Researcher award by the American Geophysical Union.

Are you interested in doing some research in Africa, and prepared to work with and learn from both students and faculty? Then look into international scholarships which are challenging and rewarding. Examples of collaborative teaching, research work and publications will be discussed.