Education
THE Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has charged students of the institution to compete with time in the area of technology.
He urged them to go beyond merely competing among themselves.
Ogundipe gave the charge on Tuesday, when he took delivery of two robotic kits from Coderina Education and Technology Foundation in Lagos.
Coderina, an independent non profit organisation Ed-tech, promotes ICT development, youth innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa.
According to Ogundipe, today’s undergraduates must seek means of racing with time, in the area of technology, in a bid to remain relevant to themselves and the nation at large.
”You see, students must go beyond competing among themselves in this part of the world right now and rather, start competing with time. The world is moving very fast with technology.
”Our desire in this university, therefore, is to expose our students more in the area of technology, especially Artificial Intelligence and Entrepreneurship, which they have been doing very well.
”Before now, they have actually developed so many robotic items that can be used in various competitions.
”And now, we are here taking delivery of other robotic kits, with which we will now see how to develop a robot for our own use, in the health centre and other areas.
‘”We want our students to be actively involved in this area of artificial intelligence and robotic.
“Let them go to the entrepreneurship centre, our robotic laboratory and interact with the directors there. By this, they will be able to develop the skills and develop their talents,” he said.
Mr Femi Niyi, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Coderina, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that one of the organisation’s objectives was to make impact on the younger generation.
He said: “It is a passion for us to ensure that the future of the Nigerian child, indeed the African child, is not left behind, viz a viz what is going on globally.
”If you look around today, you will see that in Europe and the western world, Asia and China, we have technology of various types, innovations coming up everyday, while in Africa, we are dealing with so many challenges.
”We cannot continue like that, so what we are passionate about is to bring those opportunities that the African child does not have to express himself like the European, Asian or American child.
”That means if the African child is given just an opening, or an opportunity, they will take it to the next level, despite all the challenges around them and excel.
”The idea for us, therefore, is to assist these undergraduates to ignite the passion, ignite the creativity, the responsibility of inventing and innovation in them and to keep them excited about what they are learning.”
According to Niyi, the robotic kits are not just to enhance the study of Engineering or Computer Science but also for the Law profession, Law education, Biology education Theatre Arts and others.
He noted that the task of educating the Nigerian child and bringing them up to global standard could not be achieved by government alone, but remained a collaborative effort that would require partners in all areas.
Also, Dr Chika Yinka-Banjo, of Department of Computer Science of the institution, said that exposure of their students in the area of artificial intelligence had come to stay.
He said: ”We have just taken delivery of two hefty robots. We are indeed excited as this will once again, spark up competition among students in the university.
”The kits are going to help them understand how robots are actually programmed to achieve any particular function.
“So, it will be at their disposal and we challenge them to think of what to do.
“They are to task themselves, bring out their creative mind and find out areas they can come up with something that will impact positively on the society.
”We are about to call the students for them to know that there is a challenge on ground, and as soon as this is done, I see our students having fun in their designing and building whatever is in their creative minds.”
According to him, records available have shown that there are a lot of passionate students willing to exhibit skills during the challenge like it happened in 2018.
”We are tentatively looking at all what we could assemble between now and July to start the challenge,” Yinka-Banjo, who is in charge of the institution’s artificial and robotic laboratory said.
NAN
– June 08, 2021 @ 18:22 GMT
Tags: Technology: Unilag VC urges undergraduates to compete with time
