Ebara Corporation, a water pumps manufacturing company conducted a simulation and training exercise at TU-K aimed at imparting new technological knowledge. Students and staff from the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the School of Civil and Resource Engineering benefited from the one-day training on the ‘Basics of Fundamentals of Bump Technology’ with experts from Japan and the corporations’ East Africa Office in Nairobi taking them through field’s theoretical and practical aspects.

The experts who included; Mr. Takao Oka, Mr. Daisuke Noritomi and Mr. Samuel Kibet were led by Mr. Shinichi Yazaki.

Dr Fredrick Mutua, the Ag. Director, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and Prof. Alex Muumbo helped in facilitating the training.

The trainers emphasised on the need of sharing technical and practical simulations particularly from the manufacturers’ point-of-view, this to fill the gap between classwork training that is largely theoretical and field work skill-set to effectively handle installation and maintenance of pump equipment.

“With our quest to offer water to 600 million people globally, the Corporation is now focusing on training students in universities for the purpose of knowledge transfer and filling gap between classwork and field practice,” Kibet noted.

This is the second time the corporation is visiting the university. They have also trained students at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

Prof. Cleophas Maende the Director, School of Chemical and Biological Systems Engineering expressed his excitement noting that the industry play critical role in shaping training at learning institutions.

“Such trainings and new technology simulations are useful for us, bring practical and field aspects close to reality,” he said.

Ebara deals with selling and maintenance of solar powered drip irrigation systems, borehole pumps and motors, Surface pumps, Submersible drainage pumps, Pressure booster among others.

Prof Maende who represented, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE) during workshop opening ceremony asked Ebara Corporation to donate pump equipment for the purpose of training and further challenged the organization to take in students for industrial attachments as well employ them.