Starting from 2015, installation of solar panels to generate electricity has become one of the key projects carried out by the joint COMP-OSL (Department of Computing - Office of Service-Learning) teaching team. Variations of the project have been carried out by different teams of students under the supervision of the teaching team in Rwanda, Cambodia and Myanmar. The teaching team has carried out many other projects, such as setting up community learning centres, STEM teaching, STEM-themed playground, more advanced IT such as virtual reality, augmented reality, etc. The team’s discipline, IT, is rather broad and much of which can be pressed into service. But IT is founded on the availability of electricity, which enables so much else as well. And the need for electricity is so great in so many developing countries. It seems almost a crime to not to try to provide it while we know we can.
Gradually the projects attract the interest of the other engineering departments, particularly Electrical Engineering. The EE team, led by Dr. Alan Lau and Dr. Edward Lo, started developing their own SL subject, with assistance from the COMP-OSL team. In summer 2018, while the development of their own subject was still on-going, they sent a team to Cambodia to work alongside the COMP-OSL team, as part of the COMP-OSL subject. This way they can gain first-hand experience in teaching a SL subject, and also to test out their own ideas for projects. The two teams installed solar panels using different designs, at different sites in the same village. The COMP-OSL team guilt charging stations for clusters of houses. Each house is provided with a battery, which is brought to the charging station at the centre of the cluster to be charged when needed. The EE-OSL team focused on clusters of houses which are very close to each other, so close that they can simply swing a cable from the charging station to the houses in the cluster. The way the villagers do not have to take the battery to the charging station. In many aspects the EE solution is more professional and robust, while the COMP solution uses more common components and are easier to learn.
By the following summer the EE team’s subject proposal had been approved. Yet the EE and COMP teams continue to collaborate. In summer 2019, both teams return to the same village in Cambodia. The EE team concentrated on repairing the installed systems, and refining the design of the new solar panel systems. In the mean time, the COMP team concentrated on further developing a community earning centre and a STEM-themed playground. The two teams shared some of the teaching on the cultural background of the community, a lot of the work communicating with the NGO partner, site preparation, material procurement, local transportation, etc., and are very happy with the collaboration.
The COMP and EE disciplines have certain similarities, and the service projects overlap to some extent. In this case the shared interest resulted in fruitful collaboration. But we could not take the collaboration for granted. In some situations the similarities and overlaps between academic disciplines can and did lead to conflicts. In one unfortunate incident prior to this, an academic department H proposed a new SL subject. The proposal was approved by the vetting committee, which then forwarded the proposal for endorsement by the university’s senate - the final step before the subject can be offered to students. At this point, department A objected to the proposal on the ground that the proposed subject is in A’s domain. Eventually H was forced to withdraw the proposal. A lot of handwork in preparing an exciting subject went down the drain, and the students were deprived of an opportunity to participate in a potentially very meaningful project. All because of turf-fighting between academic departments. Subsequently department A did propose a subject that was superficially similar but fundamentally dissimilar, addressing very different issues with very different projects. This was particularly regrettable because it happened in service-learning, where the objective should be one of cooperation for mutual benefit, of co-creation. Sometimes the teachers themselves are not setting very good examples for the students.
Fortunately, COMP and EE approached this with a much more open and generous attitude. They realised that both have much to gain from collaboration. One was willing to share its experience to bring a new member into the SL community. The other did not mind that one was “encroaching” on its own domain, and received some help in getting started. Once things are on track, each have gained a friend and a partner. There is more than enough opportunities for both to serve, even if the services that they provide share some similarities. The world of disadvantaged communities is much much bigger than the capacity of both of them combined. Indeed, the two teams have been collaborating happily in many aspects, sharing experiences, contacts, expertise, laboratories, and more. This is the sort of leadership that is needed among the teachers, if only as an example for the students.
The two departments are continuing to collaborate, in other more innovative projects. More on that later. Socially Responsible Leadership is generous and inclusive. It is not inward-looking and exclusive. That applies to the students, and even more so, the teachers and administrators.
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