Engineers have been urged to be technologically sharp and innovative, to enable them to combine knowledge through the application of science and smart systems, to improve the livelihoods of the citizenry.
Mr Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), who made the call, said the world was constantly evolving and engineers should be able to evolve with it by grabbing the opportunity to bring about the needed change in society.
He stated that a modern engineer was expected to have leadership and good communication skills, high emotional intelligence and to understand modern trends in performance and human resource management.
Mr Essienyi was addressing graduands of the College of Engineering at the 57th congregation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.
He stressed that Ghana and the world would achieve little without engineers therefore, professionals who shut their eyes to the realities of the world would become like “dinosaurs of our age.”
He said Ghana, like many other countries in the world, was amid transformative transformation, and striving for sustainable and reliable engineering solutions to meet the needs of the growing population and a booming economy.
Mr Essienyi pointed out that, digitisation of the economy going forward, was a must, and that was where engineers’ expertise came into play to unlock new and sustainable emerging solutions, improving infrastructure and innovating ways that could uplift communities.
He expressed concern about the reasons why the country still faced challenges like unreliable electricity supply, water shortages, flooding, unmaintained roads, and faulty traffic lights, with the high educational levels of Ghanaians and their connectedness to the world.
He said it was time engineers lived up to their duties to solve such problems.
Mr Essienyi suggested that in making transformational efforts, the youth must be empowered, and educational systems strengthened, to embrace home-grown solutions for Ghanaians.
The College of Engineering presented a total of 1,655 graduands for the 2023 graduation ceremony, out of which 1,294 were males with 361 females.
Professor Kwabena Biritwum Nyarko, Provost of KNUST College of Engineering, said the College had maintained a reputation for being at the forefront of preparing manpower to support technological and engineering advancement of the country and beyond.
He said the college established three programmes in the Gambia Technical University which is now being transformed to the University of Applied Science Engineering and Technology with funding from the World Bank and the first cohort were in their third year.
Prof. Biritwum said to support for early career academics, the College with funding from the KNUST Engineering Education Project, had assisted six early career academics to spend time with some collaborative universities in the United States and India, to deepen their research skills and explore collaborative research opportunities.
GNA