The Director for Takoradi Technology University’s International Programmes and External Linkages Office, IPELO, Prof. Efua Nkrumah, has intimated the need for the university to re-strategize its focus on technology consumption to technology production to positively impact society and gain societal relevance.
Speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop on Machine Learning for staff, Prof. Nkrumah said TTU’s vision to become a world-class institution of higher education is being hampered by the lack of research and innovation hence there is the need for TTU to position itself to be part of the global drive towards Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research.
“The university plays a leading role in equipping students with employable skills using competency-based training in the Applied Arts, Science, Engineering, and other technology-based disciplines with special emphasis on the University’s niche area of Oil & Gas. However, it is challenged with low output in research and innovation despite the enormous potential it possesses to positively impact societal development…The general lack of research and innovation output currently is negatively affecting the university’s strategic goal of becoming a world-class institution of higher education“, she said.
While emphasising the need for TTU to shift its current technology strategy, Prof. Nkrumah expressed the hope that the three-day workshop on machine learning by the University would be a turning point.
“this workshop is to make progress in the strategic theme of research and infrastructural development through interdisciplinary applied research using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for applications. Given the ubiquitous applications of (AI) and (ML) tools in the global economy, there is a blurring of the lines between physical, digital, and biological spheres of life. The fourth industrial revolution is in full swing but unlike the first three revolutions, there is ample opportunity for participation by all. As an institution of higher education, there is a need for a strategic shift from a position of technology consumption to technology production that will advance national and global societies through cutting edge research and innovation outputs as required by the education 5.0“, she pointed out.
To drive home TTU’s aspirations of becoming a true world-class centre with societal relevance, Prof. Nkrumah, further highlighted some specific bold steps the University management is seeking to implement.
“the vision is to set up a research department in Jubilee Technical Training Centre, JTTC, for the application of AI and ML in the Oil and Gas industry. A research department or unit will enable the centre to become not only a training provider to the Oil and Gas industry but also a technology provider of choice for the Oil and Gas industry. This will align the university’s participation in advancing the fourth industrial revolution with its strategic need for research and innovation outputs while maintaining focus on the niche area of Oil and Gas.“, she added
The three-day machine learning workshop also had various presentations on introduction to machine learning and its importance, supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning, Python programming, installation and environment as well as Data pre-processing.
Other presentations also focused on Support vector machine, Artificial Neural Network, Decision Tree Classifier Random and Forest Classifier among others.
