Pioneering Past and Bright of Impactful Research and Scholarly Achievements

“EXCELLENCE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE” P A G E 113 of space that was allocated. What we found was that in these places you have two and three students in one room with limited amount of space and a lot of stuff to fit into this space,” he said. He further explained that their research also revealed that a lot of students were forced to study lying on their bed as there was not enough space to accommodate a desk or table in the room. This, according to their findings, often resulted in students falling asleep without getting much studies done. Reid said the idea does have some similarity to that of a Murphy bed or folding beds as they are commonly called. But outside of the ability to fold away when not in use, Reid said that is as far as the similarity goes. Student Starate Cameron, in demonstrating how the bed works, said like a lot of other students he found himself living with three people in a room when he left his Westmoreland home to pursue studies in Kingston. “There is no space there for tables, and the limited amount of time we have sitting on the bed to study we fall asleep. So we came up with this idea, where we can have the same three beds in the room, but with space to study and do other things,” he said. Cameron explained that the bed is built into a housing which is pulled out at nights and put away when not in use. A table, which can seat up to three people, is concealed in another part of the housing and this folds out when the bed is not in use. The top of the housing can be used as a television stand or a bookshelf, while clothes can be hung on the sides of the housing. According to Reid, their checks have revealed that the multi-purpose bed would cost students at least 30 per cent less than what they would spend acquiring the items individually. “We looked at what it would cost for the persons who are renting to have beds and tables and what our one project could bring to that confined space and the cost at which we could bring in our project,” he said, adding, landlords could make the rent a bit cheaper because it would not so expensive to furnish the room. Currently, Reid said, they are still toying with the idea of the type of material that might be best suited and think they might be settling on aluminium. “We are thinking that other material types (other than wood) could be used in order to make the project lightweight so that females would not have any problems lifting it in place, and we are also looking at the durability of the material to ensure longevity,” he explained. In creating the prototype, Reid said they also ensured that the structure will be very safe. He said it is a research project that is continuing and so they are always looking to see how else it can be improved. He explained that they are currently in the process of creating an animation for unveiling at the university’s Research and Technology Day.