Abstract:

The Directorate of Research and Graduate Training at Makerere University is aimed at producing high-performing graduates, capable of churning out innovations relevant to the changing needs of society and sustainable economic development. The Master of Science in Electrical Engineering is a two year graduate degree programme. In the first year the student is required to take a range of core and elective taught courses whereas the second year is for dissertation. A good graduate dissertation should innovatively address a real problem; leverage the expertise of global technology leaders and academicians in the associated research area as well as have adequate to funding.

This paper presents the benefits and challenges of an industry-based graduate dissertation at Makerere University from a student’s perspective. A case study is taken of a dissertation aimed at developing a real-time remote monitoring system for the Civil Aviation Authority air traffic control receiver equipment. This dissertation provided unique opportunities for the researcher to get technical insight from technology experts at National Instruments (USA), software engineers at ARMS Technologies Limited (Uganda) and research scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA); research supervision by Professors from Harvard University (USA) and Makerere University (Uganda); and problem domain expertise from the air traffic control system maintenance engineers at CAA (Uganda). The paper highlights the experience of the student at the different stages of the dissertation: identification of the research topic, application for dissertation placement in industry, industry and university approval of research proposal, and execution of the research.

Keywords:

Makerere University, Civil Aviation Authority, dissertation, benefits, challenges, industrial experts, academician.