Department Of Textile Engineering 

1.      Backgroun

1.1.  Brief about Textile Education in Ethiopia

Textile engineering has had a rather interesting history as compared to other engineering fields in Ethiopia. It has its roots going back to the year 1963 when the former Bahir Dar Polytechnic Institute was founded to provide diploma level education in textile technology by affiliation with the other field of studies.

The degree courses in Bahir Dar University were instituted in 1997. The first M.Sc. course in textile technology started in January 2010. Recently, by the emphasis of Ethiopian Government to the textile sector the following textile departments are incorporated: Textile department of Aksum University, Textile department of Kombolcha University, Textile department of Dire Dawa University and Garment, Fashion and textile department of Wolkite University.

1.2. School of technology for Garment, Fashion and Textile (GAFTEX)

In Ethiopia, Wolkite University is an educational institution offering Textile Engineering; Garment Engineering and Fashion Design. The Textile industry has advanced rapidly in terms of the technology involved, materials produced and applications. Keeping these in mind, a B.Sc. program in Textile Engineering was introduced since 2008.

Mission

• To create an atmosphere of learning in which students acquire knowledge and learn to apply it properly with due consideration for ethical, ecological and economic issues
• To pursue research and disseminate research findings
• To provide knowledge based technological services to satisfy the needs of society and industry
• To help in building national capabilities in science, technology, Design, humanities, management, education and research.

Vision

• To become one of the best ten textile quality educators in Africa in 2025

 GOALS

1. Curricula is framed to establish and understanding of fundamental engineering & technology concepts. It will provide an opportunity for students to obtain a sufficient depth of fundamental knowledge to support lifelong learning in the field of study.
2. Providing our graduates with a strong competitive advantage with their unique background of Engineering fundamentals combined with practical knowledge and experience.
3. Provide quality under-graduate education in Textile Technology and retaining the accreditation from international bodies.
4. Special Lectures from well-known industrialist per year are to be organized to promote entrepreneurship drive among students.
5. Develop research programme that enable the competence Centre to achieve and maintain national prominence in areas that support its educational mission and in areas that are important to the economy of the country.

1.3.         Objectives and Demand of the Program

The main objectives of the textile-engineering program are to provide broad-based education and training in textile engineering; to enable graduates to be creative, adaptable, problem solver in the challenges of the engineering professions in rapidly changing environment that exists in the globe. These changes require the ability to apply existing knowledge in new ways thereby creating new systems and opportunities as well as adapting existing technology to local production conditions. Moreover, it aims to initiate, develop and sustain research activities that are critical for the conditioning of advancement of the Ethiopian textile industries.

1.4.         Situation of Textile Engineering in Ethiopia

Textiles are considered as one of the basic commodities in all parts of the world. The textile and garment manufacturing sector represents one of the major industries in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government aims to foster rapid export growth through production of high value industrial products and increased support to export oriented manufacturing sectors. Poverty reduction is the core objective of the Ethiopian Government. Therefore, the effort made to strengthen the agriculture sector; the industry development strategy has been designed as agriculture led industrialization. The industry development strategy emphasizes the need for sustained capacity building measures in terms of systems, institutions and individual targeted towards accelerating labor intensive, agriculture led and export oriented industrial development of the nation. Textile and garment sectors have a large number of employees and can be considered as a main strategic focus for the economic development of the country.

Ethiopia has good climate condition and 2,575,810-hectare potential land is available for cultivation of cotton. Adding value to cotton products and other textile materials is the way in which the textile manufacturing industries contribute to state and national economies. While 98 percent of agricultural production in developed countries undergoes industrial processing, nearly 30 present is processed in developing countries. There is an alarming gap between least developed and industrialized countries concerning the percentage of value addition through industrial processes.

Textile and garment sub-sector of Ethiopian industry is at the forefront of agriculture-led industrialization and export-oriented strategies of the Government of Ethiopia, which appears to be a better way of entering the value chain system. As a consequence to the change of industrialization the textile technology system demands a developing professional profile, which has to satisfy the need for modern industrialization. The link between traditional handcraft manufacturing and engineering capability and professional fields has to be built up.

1.5. Engineering Capacity Building concerning Textile Engineering

Engineering is problem solving through design and science. By combining situational analysis and scientific principles, engineers strive to create something new, or modify something that already exists, in order to improve the quality of life. In their search for solutions, engineers must always consider safety, health, environmental impact, society's attitudes, time constraints, political opinions, and economic issues. Engineers learn about specifics of the world around them and strive to solve the physical problems that exist there. The training of engineers in Textile Engineering insisting on both quality and adaptability for various situations and skills which will be required of them is quite crucial for a country whose economy is agro-based and endowed with unexploited indigenous technology diversity waiting for research and development and upgrading to industrial scale.

In general there are three major weak points, which the Textile Engineers has to strengthen:

1. The weakness of problem solving capacity in textile industries
2. .The weakness of practical activity in industry
3. .The weakness of conducting the basic sciences research and product development in industries or as an entrepreneur.

Therefore, the role of textile engineering in bridging the gap between technical, knowledge and managerial, problems existing currently in textile industries will undoubtedly lead to fundamental changes which are desired for the nation’s development.

1.6.  Educational Objectives and Competency Profile

1.6.1.  Educational objectives of the degree programme

The main objectives of the textile-engineering program are to provide broad-based education and training in textile engineering; to enable graduates to be creative, adaptable, problem solver in the challenges of the engineering professions in rapidly changing environment that exists in the globe. These changes require the ability to apply existing knowledge in new ways thereby creating new systems and opportunities as well as adapting existing technology to local production conditions. Moreover, it aims to initiate, develop and sustain research activities that are critical for the conditioning of advancement of the Ethiopian textile industries.

1.6.2.  Program outcomes

The graduates of the Textile Engineering study programme shall acquire the following capabilities and skills:

1. Strong mathematical and analytical competencies to use the engineering sciences,
2. Basic knowledge of chemistry science leading to an understanding and modifying / optimizing of chemical processes.
3. Knowledge of scientific principles
4. Skills to manage production and control processes
5. An understanding of the effects of raw material on products
6. Ability to computer application for data logging and analysis as well as utilization of software Communication skills and team spirit which enables to work with various Professionals including business men.
7. Ability in “scientific writing” for technical reports in management, projects and research
8. Skills in organizing and carrying out systematic activities e.g. flow charts
9. Skills in simulating industrial practice.

2. Staff Profile and their duties

To run the program properly, the following number of staffs with the given level is required to the minimum.

Table 1: staff profile

Figure 1: Heads and Staff image

3. Resources and Facilities required

3.1.         Teaching and Learning Facilities

The program requires the following main laboratories, which are described as follows:

• Textile fibers laboratory
• Yarn properties testing laboratory
• Fabric properties testing laboratory
• Fabric structure and design laboratory
• Knitting fabrics testing laboratory
• Wet processing laboratory
• Spinning workshop
• Weaving workshop
• Knitting workshop

The actual work to be carried out in these laboratories can be summed up as follows:

• Analysis of textile fibres and testing of fibre properties
• Analysis of textile yarns and testing of yarn properties
• Analysis of woven and knitted fabrics and testing of fabric properties
• Analysis of wet-processed material

Figure 2 : fibers and Yarn properties testing laboratory

• Figure 3. Spinning and Knitting workshop

NB: Machine and Apparatus are not filled as required

3.1.                     Library and Literature

 In Wolkite Textile Engineering there are several books are available in library listed below:-

• Textile Fibers related books
• Yarn related books
• Fabric related books
• Knitting related books
• Books about technical textiles and non-wovens
• Books about the machinery of spinning
• Books about the machinery of weaving
• Books about CAD/CAM applications in textile mills
• Books about the machinery of textile finishing and wet processing, etc..
• Specific, field-related journals and online subscriptions to journals
• Digital library

Figure 4: Library

3.2.Computer Laboratory

In wolkite Textile Engineering program needs computer laboratory for:

• E- library
• CAD/CAM applications
• Communication and color measurement

Figure 5 : computer laboratory

1.Range of core services and activities

The tasks, which professional textile engineers undertake, are too many to list them all. Some of the typical engineering tasks the professionals are expected to deal with are:

• Yarn Manufacturing
• Fabric Manufacturing
• Textile Wet Processing
• Product Development, Manufacturing and Finishing
• Plant Design, Equipment Selection, Plant Erection, Commissioning Operation and Maintenance
• Textile Factory and Technical Service Management in Capacity of General Manager, Technical Manager Operation Manager, Maintenance Manager, Sales Manager
• Test textile products to ensure accuracy and integrity of meeting customer requirements.
• Lead Quality Programs
• Support continuous improvement
• Review, and analyse written (or otherwise) data and customer comments, then identify causes and actionable items
• Identify problems and offer workable solutions in the short and long term.
• Train cross-functional teams for quality improvement and train others in design for quality
• Implement applied research work to solve problems in manufacturing, process development and improvement of existing product. Have close contact to research organizations Implement Quality Control, along with Material Testing, within the workplace in accordance with National and International Standards
• Textile Sales and Marketing.
• Offer Technical Services, Input and Knowledge for the financing of textile project;
• Offer Technical Service, Input and Knowledge for the higher policy making bodies of the nation, region for the development of Textile Industry
• Work with Engineers, Technologists and Experts from other disciplines (including those from Management Disciplines) for the development of textile.

2.Areas of specialization

Students that graduate with Bachelor of Science Degree in Textile Engineering can pursue postgraduate studies in specialization areas such as

• Textile Engineering
• Textile Technology
• Fibre Science and Technology
• Garment Engineering
• Garment Technology
• Fashion Engineering
• Fashion Technology
• Industrial Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Project Management, etc

3.Duration of Study

 It is a five-year study program covering 300 ECTS credit points with 26 modules. Generally listed below:-

• General Course Category = 60 ECTS = 20%
• Core Course Category = 193 ECTS = 64.33%
• Supportive Course Category = 47 ECTS = 15.66%
• Total credit hours = 180
• Total ECTS = 300

4.Quality Assurance

The Textile Engineering program has set various objectives and learning outcomes whose attainment should be checked regularly by its constituencies. The constituencies of the program may include staff, students, alumni, employers, and eminent professionals.

Staffs and students of the program are responsible for making regular internal assessment of the program. Evaluation of the performance of instructors is being conducted regularly for all the academic staff members. The Institutes plan to make impact assessment of the program through systematic survey of their graduates and their employers every five years.

The relevance of the program in solving real textile engineering problems of our country as well as in keeping pace with advancements in science and technology should also be checked on a regular basis. The Institutes plan to implement this through qualified evaluators and prominent professionals.

4.Student profile and their dormitory

In wolkite textile engineering  there are 52 students are available. From this  :

Total female: 6

Total male : 46

Figure 6: total number of student

Figure 7: student dormitory and class

5.Address/ Contact as 

Phone number:-+251927175665

Email:- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

P.O. Box:-07

Fax number:-011-322-0019