JPS Foundation upgrades JPS Power Lab at UTech

Electrical engineering students at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), stand to benefit from the upgrade of the JPS Power Lab on the university’s campus. The JPS Foundation contributed $4.5 million to upgrade the facility’s computer hardware and enhance its learning environment.

JPS President and Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant said that the latest investment represents a continuation of building a meaningful pipeline between the university’s curriculum and the workplaces the students will inevitably join.

Speaking at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 22 for the rebranded JPS Power Lab at UTech’s School of Engineering, Grant hailed the newly branded facility “as a celebration of partnership, shared vision and our collective commitment to preparing the next generation of professionals and innovators.”

A graduate of the former College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST), now UTech, Grant reflected on the lasting impact of his formative education at the institution.

“I walked these very halls and was in these labs and classrooms. The teachings at UTech afforded me the opportunities I have had, and were the foundation of my professional journey,” he recalled, addressing an audience of engineering and computing students, academic staff and JPS senior executives.

“I have a tremendous level of gratitude towards UTech. It’s an organisation that gives you a high level of learning that puts you up against the best of the best to deliver, while making useful contributions to engineering and mankind,” the CEO noted.

The ceremony was also addressed by UTech’s president, Dr Kevin Brown, who, like Grant, returned to Jamaica to contribute to his homeland after holding a senior position overseas. Dr Brown noted that the ongoing partnership between the university and JPS bodes well for the current cohort of engineering students and beyond, while noting that private-sector support was warmly welcomed at UTech.

“What the JPS Power Lab has created is opportunity,” the university president said.

“I want to see the lab energised with research and projects as UTech is on a transformational path towards becoming more research-intensive,” he added, outlining his vision for expanding the research focus.

Dr Brown also expressed interest in reviving a guest lecturer programme in the faculty’s School of Engineering, a programme that was operated in the 1980s, where JPS senior staff were seconded to the university to teach.

“We must now look at how your technical staff can come back and teach our students as it’s now well-practised globally, where major companies work alongside universities to undertake academic research,” the president noted.

Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Professor Sean Thorpe, highlighted the significance of the JPS Power Lab in the context of emerging smart-grid technologies and developments in artificial intelligence.

The lab, he explained, is being positioned as “a sandbox” to replicate aspects of the JPS Centre of Operations, which supports the national power grid and the delivery of electricity. Demonstrating this vision, during the rebranding ceremony, second-year computer science student Amar Campbell presented a prototype AI-powered software system designed to assess the state of the power grid.

“It is being structured to determine where there are particular faults that JPS is not able to detect with the existing underlying grid technology,” Professor Thorpe explained. He hopes to see this intelligent software put into production by early next year.

Head of the JPS Foundation Sophia Lewis said that the project was dear to both the Foundation and the Engineering Services Department. “Many of our staff members are actually UTech alumni,” she shared, adding that “the upgrade of the power alb was more than simply outreach. It was about facilitating our younger brothers and sisters to reach where we are today.”

Second-year electrical engineering student Daniel McFarlane is pleased with the refresh of the JPS Power Lab, which also doubles as his classroom space.

“I use the lab for my electrical networks class. What I enjoy most about the lab is how comfortable a learning environment it is, and I will now be using it a lot more now that it’s been renovated,” he enthused.

A graduate of Manning’s School in Westmoreland, McFarlane, who was also awarded a $500,000 scholarship grant from the JPS Foundation to cover tuition costs for the year, said he chose to read for an electrical engineering degree as he “found the concepts of the field fascinating and from there, it was through small academic achievements that I decided that is what I wanted to pursue”.

Now in his second year at UTech, McFarlane described his studies as “academically demanding, but I am resilient and willing to put in the work required to succeed”.

JPS has supported the lab since 2009, when an initial investment of $9 million was made to renovate both the power system simulation laboratory and virtual laboratory at the university.

The School of Engineering currently has 1,400 registered students.