Contract for the construction of a cloud-based InfoTech data platform was approved by the Council of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering in February 2021. The Executive Secretary, in justifying the project on behalf of the Executive Committee told Council that there were three main justifications for this investment. The first is that it allows and enhances the fulfillment of the Academy’s objective of providing quality service to the engineering industry by efficiently providing services that are critical but are either not provided at all or are poorly rendered. The platform will place the Academy in its rightful position as thought-leaders in the profession. The second is that the services would be chargeable as soon as they can be efficiently provided. Being the custodians of research, design, and fabrication documents is a chargeable service for the depositors. It will also provide researchers with the database that they would be willing to pay for. This has the potential to make the Academy financially sustainable soon. Thirdly, there is the unquantifiable benefit from being known to provide quality intellectual engineering services nationally and internationally. It can indeed be the basis of new relationships.”
Messrs Kontemporary Konsulting Ltd is to complete the project in 8 weeks.
There are three distinguishable phases to the project, namely: Acquisition of necessary Cloud platform, Transforming NAEng Website to a Portal and Design and Development of integrated Web App. That is to say that embedded in the platform is the transformation of the Academy’s website to a Portal using a Content Management System for easy management by the Academy’s Webmaster.
The primary objectives of the platform are:
· To provide the platform for the Academy to be the custodian of project designs and documents for major projects in the country
· To be the platform for the receipt and analysis of innovations in a well-structured innovation competition
· To be the platform for the receipt and analysis of submissions for research, design, and fabrication competition in tertiary institutions.
Council Approves 3 New Core-Engineering Committees
3 new Committees will soon be empanelled to add to the existing 18-Committee structure of the Academy to deliver on its mandate in line with the Strategic Plan. These are Water and Wastewater Committee, Environment and Climate Change Committee, and Manufacturing Committee
Technical Secretary, Engr Adebayo Adeola explained that Council’s approval was sought on the subject because hitherto the Academy had run with ten core engineering committees and gaps have been observed in coverage of the core engineering disciplines. The 10 current core-engineering Committees are (Agriculture, Emerging Engineering, Engineering Business Promotion, Engineering Education, ICT, Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance, Oil & Gas, Power (including Energy), Quality/Standards, and Transportation).
Other committees include 6 system support Committees (editorial, finance, governance, membership, screening, and technical) and 3 special projects committees (technology village development, technical & vocational education, and the diaspora group). The Technical Secretary said the new Committees “will commence work as soon as we complete drawing up Terms of Reference for them now that Council has given approval for their establishment”.
Academy Annual Events 2020
Although a handover of baton of Presidency was made by Prof Fola Lasisi to Engr Alex Ogedegbe on June 29, 2020, the formal inauguration of the latter as the 11th President of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering took place on November 25th, 2020 along with the induction of 10 new Fellows and Life Achievement awards for three others. The annual lecture Titled "The Nigerian Infrastructure Conundrum: The Missing Links” was also delivered by Engr. Dr. Edet J. Amana, Past President of the Academy, and Chairman, Amana Consortium. The events took place at the Main Auditorium of the University of Lagos.
The honourees of the day were:
Engr. Alex O. Ogedegbe as the 11th President of the Academy,
Engr Dr. Oyenuga Eribake (Mechanical) Fellow 2019
Engr Prof. Steven Odi-Owei (Mechanical) Fellow 2006
Dr Amana
Fellows Inducted in 2020
Engr. Akinwumi Benson Odumakinde
Engr. Prof. A. B. O. Soboyejo
Engr. Sen. Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobir, MFR
Engr. Gilbert Temisan Grant
Engr. Prof. Abdu Salihi
Engr. Prof. Obanishola M. Sadiq
Engr. James Olabode K. Ajayi
Engr. Prof. Benjamin I. Imasogie
Engr. Prof. A. A. Adesina
Prof. Muhammad Hamisu Muhammad
Profile of a distinguished Fellow
“…. Augustine Esogbue: First in Class
Augustine Esogbue has been a trailblazer throughout his academic career. At the top of his grade at the private high school he attended in Nigeria, Esogbue was an early recipient of a highly competitive study grant from the African Scholarship Program of American Universities. This award enabled him to attend UCLA, where he received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (1964), and then go on to earn a master’s degree in industrial engineering (IE) and operations research (OR) from Columbia University (1965).
Esogbue’s research at this time focused on dynamic programming; he also spent a summer at UCLA delving into the nascent field of biotechnology by researching how prosthetic devices could be externally powered. This work attracted the attention of world-famous mathematician Richard Bellman, who offered Esogbue both a research appointment and mentorship at the University of Southern California. In 1968, Esogbue received his doctorate in IE/OR, making him not only Bellman’s first Ph.D. graduate at USC but also the world’s first Black Ph.D. in the field.
The firsts didn’t stop there. As a young professor, Esogbue spent a few years teaching and researching at Case Western Reserve University, where he made breakthroughs in dynamic programming, fuzzy sets, and novel OR applications to such areas as healthcare, water resources and pollution, and transportation and education. This work led to his 1972 election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
“When I arrived at Georgia Tech, I was unaware of its racial composition. I had always been a racial minority, both as a student and as a faculty member, and what mattered to me was the opportunity Tech offered to advance my academic career and to contribute to the development of knowledge,” Esogbue explained. “Most of my colleagues were welcoming and supportive, while others myopically saw me as the solution to Black problems both on and off campus. In Atlanta I was known as ‘the Black professor at Tech.’”
Esogbue’s presence at the Institute quickly caught the attention of the youthful Maynard Jackson, who had been elected the first Black mayor of Atlanta. Through Jackson, Esogbue met civil rights leaders like John Lewis, Julian Bond, and David Franklin, and these experiences opened his eyes to the deep racial disparities in the U.S. As national chairman of the Visiting Lecturers Program of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA, a precursor to INFORMS), he directed the attention of HBCU students to professional opportunities in the growing field of OR. This effort laid the foundation for a more inclusive ORSA – and later – INFORMS.
He vowed also to use his position at Tech to promote minority representation in STEM fields.
Increasing Diversity at Georgia Tech. At this time, Georgia Tech was on its way to becoming a nationally recognized research institution. Esogbue saw that underrepresented minorities were in danger of being left behind, with the few Black students who were admitted to Tech often dropping out before they could complete their degrees. The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) had been recently organized in 1975 at Purdue University to recruit and support Black engineering students, and Esogbue co-founded the Georgia Tech chapter (GTSBE) a few months later.
The Importance of Mentoring Black Students
Esogbue emphasized Institute-wide programs that developed Black students, so they are equipped with the skills to pursue advanced academic degrees or high-level industry positions. He mentored many students who have gone on to highly successful careers.
An Impactful Life
In retirement, Esogbue – who was designated a professor emeritus by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents in 2012 – has remained involved with initiatives to increase Black achievement and leadership, such as 100 Black Men of America. As Patron of the Association of Nigerian Engineers & Scientists in the Americas, he is guiding a group of mostly immigrant and first-generation STEM professionals by emphasizing excellence, integrity, service delivery, and mentorship….”
The above feature is an abridged text of “Augustine Esogbue: First in Class” which is available in full at:
NAEng partners IDRC to lift West African Engineering Ecosystem
The Nigerian Academy of Engineering, NAEng, in association with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada is partnering to produce New pilots for building capacity in research and advanced training in engineering in a three-year research project to rethink the West African Engineering ecosystem.
The goal of the NAEng/IDRC project is to identify the specific systemic causes of poor engineering training, evaluate them and create pilot projects that can address them. In this effort, led by a team of engineering academics, a modernization path for delivering engineering training in a way that emphasizes product creation out of the gate is being developed into a set of pilot training schemes to respond to the situation.
At present, engineering design courses are disembodied from their theoretical underpinnings and this makes theory appear as extra undertaking rather than being the essential focus and the culmination of tertiary engineering training. Employing industry grade state of the art software facilities of 3D Solid Modelling, Simulation and Symbolic Algebra, the project integrates theory and practicals as well as the simulation of elements of industrial exposure. The following deliverables are emerging from the present pilot phase:
1. The integration of the multi-physical theoretical underpinnings of modern design software in Continuum Mechanics for Modeling, Simulation and Design, bringing the fundamentals of design training common to all mechanical design into one whole base in a dual mode teaching package that, with hindsight, seemed to have pre-empted the COVID pandemic.
2. An interactive evaluation and testing system that removes the weak leg in our present delivery by allowing students to be constantly tested and their levels of skills measured in an interactive way that provides remediation directions.
3. Students are presently using advanced engineering design skills to create virtual engineering laboratories that open up the internal workings and optimization of engineering systems such in areas as vast as turbomachinery, energy subsystems and electronics designs with Design simulators and CFD systems, with various applications to enhance the product-making mindset in their training.
According to the project leader, Prof Omotayo Fakinlede, Engineering is the scientific approach to the creation of technology goods and services. Unfortunately, student overpopulation, poor teaching, and laboratory services as well as a weak industrial base combine to jeopardise our ability to deliver productive training in Engineering Design. As a result, PhD dissertations and published works are produced mainly in soft rather than hard engineering and so, as delivered at present, our engineering training does not seem to be equipped for global competitiveness, having failed to produce engineers that have the training and confidence to create technology products relevant to our environment.
These pilots by Prof Fakinlede’s Team which also includes Dr Tunde Adegbola and Dr Olayinka Adewumi. are being tested at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of Lagos Faculty of Engineering and revealing some upstream issues in engineering training that can be addressed to reposition our approach to the training aspects of skills implantation in our engineering ecosystem.
Research Results & SocietyTurning Waste to Wealth
Potato peels which are hitherto a waste and nuisance to the environment in many developing economies are now confirmed to be convertible to valuable chemicals and fuels. Elvis O. Ebikade, a fifth-year doctoral student and member of the Dion Vlachos research group at the Delaware Energy Institute, USA, recently showed promise to confront environmental challenges of such nuisances as potato peels.
Ebikade earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Lagos in Nigeria. An undergraduate mentor and fellow of the Delaware Environmental Institute, Ebikade is eager to use his catalysis research to help solve global environmental challenges. He is co-founder of Lignolix, a UD-developed start-up company focused on sustainably making materials from renewable biomass, such as lignin, a major component of trees and pulp and paper waste that is typically thrown away. The start-up recently earned funding to scale their work at Delaware Innovation Space, a public-private partnership between UD, DuPont, and the state of Delaware
At UD, Ebikade met Dion Vlachos, a leader in renewable energy research and catalysis, the acceleration of chemical reactions using catalysts. Vlachos, the Allan and Myra Ferguson Chair of Chemical Engineering and director of the Delaware Energy Institute, introduced Ebikade to the potential to turn food waste with zero value into valuable products. It was a conversation that hit home and sparked a fire in Ebikade, and since then no going back.
According to a testimony provided by Prof Babatunde Ogunnaike, William L. Friend Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, “Elvis is a graduate of UNILAG that we admitted to the University of Delaware in 2016/17. He has done extremely well here, and his success has made it possible for us to admit even more students from Nigeria into our chemical engineering program here”.
NAEng Public Forum 2021
Excerpt of REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, GCFR, DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE PUBLIC FORUM ORGANISED BY THE NIGERIAN ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING ON THE 12TH OF APRIL 2021
PROTOCOLS
I am honoured to have been asked to be the grand host of the academy’s public forum today with the specific theme, “the Strategic Role of Engineering in Containing COVID-19 Pandemic”.
The theme headlines the important developmental conversations and post-mortems that we must have in the aftermath of the pandemic. The pandemic is probably the single most consequential global occurrence in a century.
Its most enduring feature is how much it tested the resilience, and innovativeness of all aspects of our existence and in particular, medicine, science, and technology.
This was a ravaging disease that not only killed hundreds of thousands but also practically shut down the global economy. International travel including cargo movement was suspended; this means that supply chains were disrupted for goods and services, in-person meetings, no matter how crucial the subject, had to be suspended, even non-covid, even emergency medical treatment was canceled. The disease was spreading exponentially in many countries of the world.
For developing economies such as ours, we were faced with monumental challenges of providing enough laboratories for testing, ICUs, PPEs and at some point, ventilators. Then of course we had to buy or develop our own testing and possibly even vaccines.
So, it was to Science, Technology and Engineering that the world turned for immediate solutions and answers. I am sure that as engineers, you will agree with me that one of the most poignant lessons of the response to the pandemic is the critical interdependence of Science and Engineering.
I think the pandemic has truly opened up the immense talents and creativity of Nigerian scientists and engineers and if the current momentum is supported, the next few years could be incredibly exciting.
First are the opportunities and adaptations now evident in MRNA technology. MRNA is the key ingredient in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The success of these MRNA vaccines against COVID-19, predicts a bright future for new vaccine therapies to meet new emerging threats.
Our genomic labs especially the ACeGD has already acquired an international reputation and they can in collaboration with scientists and technologists everywhere develop therapies for other diseases or disorders.
Second is the use of digital twin technology to plan, predict for control of epidemics, manufacturing of millions of generic drugs.
And third, the lockdowns have shown the huge potential for the creation of effective technologies for tele-work activities, including Telemedicine and Fintech.
I must say and this is not because I am the grand Patron of the academy that I say that we are proud of the Nigerian Academy of Engineers, your membership is made up of accomplished Nigerian engineers across all disciplines industry sectors of engineering in Nigeria and in the diaspora. This provides it with the depth and diversity of experience and competence to provide advice on virtually all areas of engineering in the country. This is an asset that the country must nurture and develop. The next few years belong to engineering, and the pandemic has shown us the immense potentials for innovation and collaboration.
Be sure that you have as partners, the Federal Government of Nigeria. This is why in February 2018, I issued Executive Order No. 5 (“EO5”) by which all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government were directed to engage indigenous professionals in the planning, design and execution of national security projects and maximize in-country capacity in all contracts and transactions with Science, Engineering and Technology components.
Executive Order No. 5 was inspired by the recognition of the vital role of Science, Technology and Engineering in national economic development, especially in promoting domestic goods and services. It is a statement of our strategic intent to harness domestic talents and develop indigenous capacities in Science, Technology and Engineering to promote national competitiveness and productivity across all sectors of the economy.
I urge you as the leading lights in engineering to do all you can to embrace this exciting new era.
• Development of Aerial Reconnaissance Integrated Epidemiological Network
• Premise:
– Informed policy and decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic benefits from accurate epidemiological models
• Main Goals
– Apply advances in population balance modelling to understand and predict the spread of COVID-19 at UD/Newark
– Integrate real-time data on local population density and movement on the scale of the university and its environs
– Develop parameters for epidemiological models of our University and local environment
– Develop educational tools to aid in COVID-19 mitigation on campus
· Drone Video Tracking
· Compliance; Pinch points?
Engineering Contributions II
Key Engineering Contributions
• Slowing the Spread
– Manufacturing PPEs
– Assistant Robots in Hospitals
• Testing and Diagnostics
– Rapid Tests (GeneExpert: Cepheid)
– Novel mask designs with test strips
• Arresting and Neutralizing Virus
– Ventilator Design and Manufacture
– Vaccine Development, Scale-Up and Manufacture
Some Highlights Around the World
• US Manufacturer 3M:
– Manufacturing innovations Significantly increased production capacity for personal protective equipment (N95 Masks, etc.,)
• University College London and Mercedes-AMG High-Performance Powertrains
– Rapid development of a breathing aid (to keep COVID-19 patients out of intensive care)
• China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec)
– Unprecedented massive scale-up of mask fabric production
· 3-D Printed Face Shields
· Novel Mask Designs
· Testing & Diagnostics
· Vaccine Development & Manufacture
· Design Space Optimization
· Vaccine Supply Chain Optimization
The “Obong” of Calabar, Prof. Labo Adekoya
in traditional Efik royal cap and tie.
From Thursday 25th to Sunday 29th February 2021, Engr. Prof. Labo Adekoya was in Calabar for the final funeral rites of his late father-in-law, Chief Samson Umo Beedie, who died at the ripe age of 88 years. The deceased was from the Etiyin Efanga Effiong Royal House, of Henshaw Town, Calabar, Cross River State. As part of the ceremonies, the sons (biological and in-laws) of the deceased wore the traditional Efik royal cap and the traditional Efik tie. The cap made Prof. Adekoya look regal, and motivated his friends to dub him “Obong” of Calabar, at least for the duration of the funeral rites.
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