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COVID-19 has caused major disruptions in the way engineering education is conducted all over the world. The impact has been greater in developing countries that still lack the necessary tools for pandemic-based training. In this work, we carry out a survey on three public universities based in Zambia. The survey investigates the impact of COVID-19 on engineering education in the study country. Visible in our findings are the challenges developing countries are experiencing towards effectively training engineers in these volatile times. Furthermore, we analyse the critical lessons learnt and provide useful insights for the engineering education stakeholders to consider. Information uncovered in this work puts us face to face with the stark reality that there is a need for adequate preparedness in times of global pandemics for engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a robust and reliable communication network for monitoring the mining environment in a timely manner to take care of people, the planet Earth and profits is key, the mining environment is very challenging in terms of achieving reliable wireless transmission. This survey therefore investigates the reliability of LoRaWAN communication in the mining environment, identifying the challenges and design requirements. Bearing in mind that LoRaWAN is an IoT communication technology that has not yet been fully deployed in mining, the survey incorporates an investigation of LoRaWAN and other mining IoT communication technologies to determine their records of reliability, strengths and weaknesses and applications in mining. This aspect of the survey gives insight into the requirements of future mining IoT communication technologies and where LoRaWAN can be deployed in both underground and surface mining. Specific questions that the survey addresses are: (1) What is the record of reliability of LoRaWAN in mining environments? (2) What contributions have been made with regard to LoRa/LoRaWAN communication in general towards improving reliability? (3) What are the challenges and design requirements of LoRaWAN reliability in mining environments? (4) What research opportunities exist for achieving LoRaWAN communication in mining environments? In addition to recommending open research opportunities, the lessons learnt from the survey are also outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]