FUPRE inaugurates team on Made-in-Nigeria cars

VC boosts library with donated books

DETERMINED to lead the institution to global acclaim through inventions and innovations that will reposition the nation academically and economically, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun (FUPRE), Prof. Akii Ibhadode, has called on stakeholders, especially students and lecturers of the institution, to undertake ground breaking researches and inventions.

Ibhadode, who assumed leadership of the institution less than two weeks ago, has also donated books and scholarly journals worth over N500,000 to the FUPRE library to demonstrate his resolve at making the university a centre of excellence in ground-breaking researches.

Ibhadode, while inaugurating the FUPRE-Shell Eco-Marathon Team on Wednesday, said it was a unique window of opportunity that would give expression to the specialised skills being acquired by FUPRE students and to help the school attain the height as Africa’s first.

The team, according to Ibhadode, will comprise technically oriented students and professional staff drawn from Mechanical Engineering and Electrical/ Electronic Departments of the College of Technology, alongside some corps members now serving in the university, who were part of previous works at the University of Benin, to lend technical support to the project.

It was charged to “produce a prototype vehicle/go cart for the 2015 South Africa Shell ECO-Marathon scheduled for October 2015, and produce Shell ECO-Marathon and/or Formula vehicles/go-carts for national and international competitions.”

Members the students team include Otuazohor Precious, Otaigho Oghenero Favour, Okolosio Oghenekaro Elvis, Essien Aniekan Akpan, Udonsek Lawson, Aboribo Gmira Onome, and Ewhrudjakpo Efemena, who is the team manager.

Boye E. Thankgod of Mechanical Engineering Department is the project supervisor, while Igbinoba Kevwe Charles of Elect/Elect Department is his assistant.

Both are engineers. The corps technical support team comprises Adekola Adeyemi, Abdulmalik Taj’Laid, Ejiro Okwoka (all of Production/Mechanical Engineering Department), Osas Omijie (Elect/Elect), Oseikhuemen Ibhadode (Computer Science), as well as Frank Onwobulu (Industrial Design/ Stylist and Osehoemomen Ibhadode (Manufacturing Engineering Department).

Already, the FUPRE TETFund Desk Officer, Prof. Mary Edema, has commended the initiative, stating that the university could tap from the TETFund research funds to replicate such effort. As a specialised university in the oil and gas sector, she noted, the need should also look at building the first modular refinery that the nation could adapt.

The donation, made recently during the 30th meeting of FUPRE’s Governing Council, included 50 copies of his book, Introduction to Manufacturing Technology, four copies each of Volumes 1 and 2, and six copies each of Volumes 3, 4, 5 and 6 of the International Journal of Engineering Research in Africa (JERA), which he is the founder and editor-in-chief.

These materials are published in Switzerland and very suitable for research purposes. Others were six copies each of Advanced Materials Research (AMR) on Advances in Materials and Systems Technologies, Volumes II, III and IV; all papers in the volumes are peer-reviewed papers from the International Conference on Engineering Research and Development, which Ibhadode established as Dean of Engineering, the University Of Benin.

The Chairman of Governing Council and FUPRE Pro-Chancellor, Senator Nimi Barigha- Amange, commended Ibhadode for the gesture, noting that the council has been vindicated that it made the right choice by appointing him as vice-chancellor because of the dynamism and focus he has brought to the university.