A special graduation ceremony was held earlier this month at the private residence of a graduand who successfully completed his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. While he was a University student, Miguel Borg was diagnosed with a terminal illness. During a short but moving ceremony, the University Rector, Academic Registrar, and a number of academics called at Mr Borg’s residence to award him the scroll, along with a printed copy of his dissertation.
Since the beginning of his journey as a student Mr Borg had always dreamed of completing his degree, finalising his dissertation, and graduating. One of his most memorable University moments was when he was given the opportunity to go to the Formula SAE Competition (FSAE) in Silverstone as part of the UM racing team back in 2019.
Dr Ing. Paul Refalo and Dr Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza, who worked very closely with Miguel whilst supervising his dissertation (‘A Pneumatic Data Monitoring System for Fault Detection’), both described him as a very determined, perseverant, resilient, and courageous student. “He taught us in ways that we could never teach him”, said Dr Ing. Refalo. “It was his ambition to work on a sustainable engineering project for his final year dissertation, as he aspired to contribute towards a better environment and quality of life”. Miguel’s dissertation is a research piece used in the AIR SAVE project, which aims to develop, produce, and test a system which improves the sustainability of compressed air systems, and hence the competitiveness of manufacturing firms.