Odebrecht Ghana engages KNUST students on engineering innovation

Odebrecht Engineering & Construction International, a Brazilian construction and engineering company, has engaged engineering students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) on new technologies, innovation, successes and challenges on the construction of the Eastern Corridor Road Project Lots Five and Six.

Cooperation agreement

As part of the agreement between Odebrecht Ghana and the KNUST, the “Odebrecht Industrial Presentation” aims to introduce students of the university to practical construction and engineering experience.

This year’s edition was on the theme, “The challenges of major road construction in Ghana: Experiences from the Eastern Corridor Road Project.” It was held at the KNUST’s Engineering Auditorium.

A Senior Lecturer in Transportation Engineering, Rev. Dr Charles Anum Adams, said: “We place much value on exposing our students to practical projects and, therefore, relish any opportunity such as we have with Odebrecht to understand the technologies, innovations and new approaches the company is using at its project site.”

Presentation on Eastern Corridor Road Project,

A presentation on the Eastern Corridor Road Project was jointly made by the Project Engineer, Mr Rafael Bohrer Gressler and a Young Partner at Odebrecht, Mr Lester Quarcoopome. The presentation centred on the technologies, innovation, experiences and challenges involved in the construction of the Eastern Corridor Road Project Lots Five and Six.

Mr Quarcoopome used the opportunity to share with the students what his experience had been since he joined Odebrecht last year as part of the first group of Odebrecht Young Partners in Ghana.

Rev. Dr Adams again made this remark: “We are grateful to Odebrecht for the valuable and timely information shared. I believe our students are now more abreast of the measures put in place to ensure the effective execution of the Eastern Corridor Road Project and how they could apply the theories they had learnt.”

“The students were also fascinated to see a young graduate of the school, now a Young Partner at Odebrecht, deliver a presentation with confidence after a short period with Odebrecht,” he said.

Odebrecht Engineering Award

Last year, the company instituted the Odebrecht Engineering Award aimed at encouraging excellence and rewarding students with the highest Cumulative Weighted Average (CWA) in the Civil Engineering Department.

The award focuses on recognising, encouraging and motivating university students from KNUST to learn and overcome challenges and to pursue careers in the engineering field, and is part of the agreement between the two entities, signed in 2014.