Minister of Higher & Tertiary Education,Science & Technology Development, Hon Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri and HIT Vice Chancellor Eng. Q.C Kanhukamwe at the HIT Stand ZITF 2015 as Software Engineering Lecturer Mutandavari demonstrates the E-government Service Application Tracker - an innovation on government - citizen interaction.HIT Vice Chancellor Eng. Q.C Kanhukamwe has called for the nation to invest more funds and resources towards research and development activities so as to provide technological solutions and create employment.
Vice Chancellor Kanhukamwe said this while addressing the media during the presentations of HIT 400 - Capstone Design Projects by final year students from the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering as well as the Department of Chemical and Process Systems Engineering.
The Vice Chancellor said the HIT Mandate is about research; therefore the Institute places a lot of emphasis on research. " All our students graduate after coming up with actual commercialisable projects. Our Capstone Design projects are upscalable to industrial level that we can begin to produce products out of them", he said.
"The nation cannot move forward without investment in research because research is the backbone of new innovations and the response to national challenges. Therefore, our students' projects are responding to a variety of industry needs, with for example the conversion of waste plastics to fuel and the tobacco-grading project.
We therefore urge the nation to invest more resources towards research so that as a nation we can provide technological solutions, create employment and effectively respond to national policy directives such as ZIMASSET," said Vice Chancellor Kanhukamwe.
The HIT 400 - Capstone Design Projects are carried out in Part IV of each degree programme to demonstrate the student's ability to solve challenges and develop new products in industry. It involves conceptualisation, analysis, synthesis, design and development of products. The student works individually under the supervision of a senior member of the academic staff in the department. On completion of the project, the student is expected to produce a model and project design report.