Newsday ( Trinidad and Tobago )
28 March 2023 ( Page 20 )
Retired UWI principal appointed NESC chairman
EMS New NESC Technical Institute chairman Emeritus Prof Brian Copeland. FRESH off it being certified as a technical institute, comes news that the National Energy Skills Centre (NESC) has a new chairman in the person of retired UWI St Augustine campus principal Emeritus Prof Brian Copeland. This was confirmed in an NESC press release on Monday. It said Copeland was installed by the NESC Technical Institute's board of governors during a board meeting on March 16. A career academic and innovator, Professor Copeland brings decades of experience in education to the NESC. He served as Pro ViceChancellor and campus principal from 2016 to 2022. Prior to that, Professor Copeland held positions as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research specialties include Digital Electronics, Microprocessor Systems Design, and Control Systems. Professor Copeland also coordinated UWI's Steelpan Initiatives Project, which resulted in the development and patenting of the GPan, a reengineered version of the traditional steelpan, and the Percussive Harmonic instrument (PHI), an electronic form of the traditional steelpan. He is convener of the Steelpan Research Centre at UWI, a former member of the board at CARIRI and former chairman of the National Training Agency (NTA). Professor Copeland is a recipient of TT's highest award, the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (ORTT) in 2008, as well as a joint recipient of the Chaconia Medal Gold for his work on the development of the GPan.