The Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT) reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to dri­ving na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and fos­ter­ing in­no­va­tion dur­ing the open­ing of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Pro­fes­sion­al En­gi­neers of Trinidad and To­ba­go (APETT) Tech­ni­cal Con­fer­ence 2026.

De­liv­er­ing re­marks on be­half of the Uni­ver­si­ty, Act­ing Pres­i­dent Pro­fes­sor Re­an Ma­haraj com­mend­ed APETT for its lead­er­ship in ad­vanc­ing the en­gi­neer­ing pro­fes­sion and en­cour­ag­ing crit­i­cal di­a­logue on sus­tain­abil­i­ty, re­silience, and tech­no­log­i­cal trans­for­ma­tion. Ma­haraj un­der­scored the im­por­tance of en­gi­neer­ing in tack­ling press­ing chal­lenges such as cli­mate vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, in­fra­struc­ture de­mands, and the rapid pace of tech­no­log­i­cal change.

The con­fer­ence theme, “En­gi­neer­ing Our Fu­ture: Sus­tain­able, Smart, Re­silient”, pro­vid­ed the back­drop for Ma­haraj’s ad­dress. He high­light­ed UTT’s grow­ing em­pha­sis on ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion, ap­plied re­search, and in­dus­try-dri­ven pro­grammes. These ini­tia­tives, he not­ed, are de­signed to equip grad­u­ates with the skills and knowl­edge need­ed to con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to both na­tion­al and re­gion­al de­vel­op­ment.

Ma­haraj stressed that en­gi­neer­ing is cen­tral to shap­ing a fu­ture that is both sus­tain­able and re­silient, par­tic­u­lar­ly for small is­land states like Trinidad and To­ba­go that face unique cli­mate and in­fra­struc­ture chal­lenges. He en­cour­aged par­tic­i­pants to en­gage in mean­ing­ful di­a­logue, share knowl­edge, and fo­cus on prac­ti­cal so­lu­tions that can strength­en the coun­try’s ca­pac­i­ty to adapt and thrive.

UTT ex­tend­ed best wish­es for a suc­cess­ful con­fer­ence, re­in­forc­ing its role as a part­ner in ad­vanc­ing in­no­va­tion and in­dus­try col­lab­o­ra­tion. The Uni­ver­si­ty’s mes­sage re­flect­ed its broad­er mis­sion of prepar­ing grad­u­ates to meet the evolv­ing de­mands of so­ci­ety while sup­port­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s long-term de­vel­op­ment goals.