An investiture ceremony was organised on Saturday, November 7, 2020 at the Pentecost University to induct the newly appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University, Pastor Prof. Kwabena Agyapong-Kodua, into office.
He takes over from Apostle Dr Daniel Walker who leaves for Tarkwa as Area Head and Chairman of the Western Regional Coordinating Committee of The Church of Pentecost after twenty years of meritorious service to the university.
Pastor Professor Kwabena Agyapong-Kodua was born on 17th July 1979 to Mr Tweneboa Kwame Kodua and Mrs Elizabeth Kodua, both of blessed memory. Since birth, he benefitted greatly from three major things which moulded his world view: (1) the intellectual drive of his father, who served as a teacher within the Ghana Education Service; (2) the spirituality of his mother, who was a devout Christian; and (3) the training, opportunities and support offered by The Church of Pentecost through its leadership.
He completed St. Peter’s Secondary School at Nkwatia-Kwahu in 1994, and his first degree in Mechanical Engineering at the then University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in 2000.
He was employed as a Design Engineer at the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Services (GRATIS) in Tema when he completed his national service with them.
At GRATIS, young Kodua was instrumental in a number of nationally acclaimed government and industrial engineering projects involving the design and prototyping of food-processing machines and many environmental management equipment.
After a very successful career at GRATIS, he joined Nestle (Gh) Ltd as a Mechanical Engineer in charge of preventive maintenance plans, technical stores and schedules for all production and auxiliary equipment in the factory.
Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua then attended the Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering of Loughborough University in the UK where he studied and obtained his Master of Science degree in Advanced Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management, and PhD for his research in the domain of complex systems modelling, systems integration and business process improvements.
Before he finished his PhD in 2009, he was appointed Assistant Lecturer at Loughborough University and supported the teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Also, he was co-opted into the HIEF3/DTI funded technology exploitation activities of the UK Centre of Excellence in Customised Assembly (CECA), where he worked closely with about 20 postdoctoral engineers alongside Ford, BAE Systems, Airbus and JCB Engineers involved in digital modelling and life cycle engineering of large scale assembly systems.
In addition to these appointments, he was a co-consultant on behalf of the University for Shenling AirConditioning Manufacturing Company, Guangdzou, China. Whilst at Loughborough, he was appointed a full-time Lecturer in the Engineering department of Leicester College, UK in 2009.
From Leicester College, Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua was appointed a Research Fellow and later promoted to Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham.
In these roles, he was responsible for extending research in the domain of factories-of-the future and to support-teach modules in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), Robotics and Automation. As Work Package Leader, he led a number of European FP7 large scale integration project on factories-of-the future and became known for his development of a unified modelling language (ontology) for describing and integrating products, processes and resources.
Within the Universities of Loughborough and Nottingham, he contributed to a number of successful EPSRC and FP7 grant applications and researches. Notable among them were: (1) Unified Modelling of Complex Systems; (2) Cloud Manufacturing; (3) Evolvable Assembly Systems; (4) Plug and Produce Intelligent Multi Agent Environment based on Standard Technology.
These achievements led to his appointment as a member of the European scientific and technical board for the committee on Nature Inspired Cooperation Strategies for Optimisation (NICSO) in 2011, a field which later became predominant in Artificial Intelligent systems. Also, his research work and academic exploits led to the development of one UK spinout company, Manufacturing Systems Integration Ltd, in 2011.
From this strong academic, research and consultancy background, he received a prestigious offer of a full academic on professorial track at one of UK’s most respected Universities, the University of Warwick in 2013, where he served initially as an Assistant Professor until the completion of his probation as an Associate Professor.
Whilst at Warwick, Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua’s research and academic initiatives led to the development of new modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; becoming an external examiner to some institutions in Europe and directly supervising and examining PhD and EngD students. He extended his horizon to include leading research activities and teaching in collaborative fields such as healthcare systems engineering, mechanical systems modelling, data mining and analytics, economics and policy formulation.
For instance, in collaboration with Tech4i2 Consult, he gave strategic input into the UK Government and European policies on SME adoption of digital technologies; as a demonstration of his strong ambition as an academic for research advances in digital manufacturing systems’ sciences. Also, through his works, he pioneered institutional research and teaching collaborations with some leading Universities in his field.
This included the University of Windsor, Canada; Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary; University of Naples Federico II, Italy; Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, University of Stuggart, Germany; and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), University of Sheffield, UK.
Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua is also a Chartered Engineer from the Royal Institute of Engineering and Technology, UK, and a Member of the Engineering Professors Council, UK. In addition to his science and engineering qualifications, he holds a Master of Arts degree in Practical Theology obtained from Mattersey College, UK; Prince 2 qualification in Project Management and professional certificates in Teaching and Learning.
Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua’s activities stream across Science and Engineering, Business and Management, Theology and Education. He has authored seven books (three on Engineering Systems & Management; three on the interface between Science and Theology; and one on Tertiary Education); contributed to four book chapters, and published over 40 papers in leading international journals and conference proceedings.
In Christian ministry, Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua was ordained an Elder on 16th February 2003 at the Safo Memorial Temple, Tema by the late Apostle Robert Akwaah. In the UK, he was a National Executive Member and Trustee of the church (2013-2015) until his call into the full-time ministry in 2015.
Currently, he serves as a council member of two colleges: Birmingham Christian College and Regents Theological College, both in the UK.
For his family life, Reverend Professor Agyapong-Kodua is married to Vida, who is an Educationist with specialties in Early Years and Special Needs Education.
They are both blessed with three children: Nana Darkoa (16 years), Mirabel (13 years) and Oheneba- Kobby Jnr (10 years).
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