The Federal University of Technology, Akure emerged second in a competition organized by UNITES CISCO recently held Lagos.
Out of the seven higher Institutions that participated, Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria became first while FUTA was second. Others were; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, University of Jos, University of Lagos, University of Port Harcourt and Covenant University.
Alayende Abdulwaheed, Emmanuel Afolabi, Clement Dike and Adegbola Adegoke all undergraduates’ students in the Department of Electrical Electronics Engineering (EEE) were the team that represented FUTA in the Cisco competition. They addressed the problem of Road Traffic Accidents in their project presentation that eventually clinched the second position.
After identifying factors responsible as human, mechanical and environmental they focused on human factor which from statistics from the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) is the single most dominant cause of road traffic accidents.
To win silver medal Team FUTA developed Hermes project which is a cloud-based crowd sourced solution where end users (commuters) may rate the performance of a driver on a scale of 1 to 100.
The project further stated that highly rated drivers attract reward and a poorly rated one is suspended from operation by the National Union of Road Transports Workers (NURTW) and will face Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) fine.
The report of the findings further says that the current rating of a vehicle displayed on a Hermes box (H-Box) screen whereby a prospective commuter consults it and uses it to make a decision whether or not to take a ride on a particular vehicle.
A mobile application and websites are the end-user interface for rating and checking the rating of a vehicle. In a chat with Team Manager, Babatunde Ige he said, prizes attached to the performance is 100% discount voucher to write Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Rating and Switching composite examination currently valued at $325, and also offers to engage participants on summer employment in 2017 and 2018.
The Head of Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) Dr. Akinlolu Ponnle expressed his delight with the feat of the students, saying it is a further demonstration of the quality of students of the University.
He and Cisco FUTA Team Manager, Babatunde Ige said the competition brings career prospect, exposure, friendship and collaboration to participants. They said the competition in a fall out of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in September, 2016 between FUTA and Cisco.
Also, FUTA Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Fuwape wrote in a congratulatory message that “the University is indeed proud of this laudable achievement which has not only brought glory to the University at large and your Department in particular, but has further confirmed the status of our University as a Centre of Excellence”.
Adegbola Adegoke one of the participants, expressed his delight in the quality of teaching as FUTA and remarked that the University is a training ground for the willing.
According to Adegoke, the benefit of being Cisco Certified in CCNA is to make participants more talented and give them edge over their peers in the labour market.
He said “this competition has exposed us to the outside world better. It is worth having. I therefore appeal to my co students to partake in it”.
Labels: Campus News
