November 30, 2016
Dr. Tawfiq Musah had always sought out opportunities to teach others. So when he had the opportunity to take a sabbatical from his work at Intel, he immediately contacted Ashesi’s Engineering department, seeking an opportunity to impart knowledge. “I am an educator at heart,” he explained. “Every opportunity I have, I try to teach or learn something,” reflects Dr. Musah.
At Intel, Dr. Musah’s research work is based on integrated circuits for communication, dealing mainly with the design of circuits in microprocessors that drive data to peripherals or devices within the same environment. Teaching Ashesi’s Electromagnetism class this semester, Dr. Musah has helped students draw connections between what they learn in the classroom and how to apply those lessons in the working world.
“Ashesi’s philosophy works well in encouraging both teaching and learning, so for me, it was a good place to spend some time. When you also have a diverse student body that is open to learning, and who not only have a Ghanaian worldview, but an international one, you’re not only impacting Ghana. These students are going to go all over Africa, so their impact can be far-reaching.”
As a youth in Ghana, Dr. Musah experienced first-hand the gaps in Ghana’s educational system. Now he is seeking ways to help address these gaps in engineering.
“What I have found is that there is a lack of resources to give students a practical feel of engineering, so they do not get to play with things with their hands and be more creative to get past the technology barrier that most of us have coming from our basic education to tertiary education,” he said. “I want to figure out a way to facilitate practical engineering education so we can push development on the continent, where we are not just a branch of a bigger multinational organization, but where we are actually driving research and producing technologies that cater to our needs.”
Share this story