Firm seeks ICT, petroleum industry participation in industrial games challenge

Total Automation Concepts Ltd, organizers of the industrial games challenge, presently seeks the participation of ICT companies as well as operators in the upstream, midstream and downstream sector of the oil and gas industry to support Nigerian students in their bid to get ready for the world of work and entrepreneurship after graduation.

Engr. Paul Ugoji, a representative of the company made this call at the third edition of the industrial games challenge finals which took place recently between the Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun (FUPRE) and Delta State University (DELSU), both within Delta State.

According to the company’s representative, the competition is part of a larger project which aims to provide students in tertiary institutions with the means of accessing industrially relevant practical applications that expose them to operations of major facilities, systems and processes using the concept of gamification and as such indirectly infuse some element of fun into what they study in school.

He said that due to the on-going global pandemic, this edition of the industrial games challenge had to be conducted online so as to give students something academically beneficial that would keep them constructively occupied while at home. The main applications utilized for the competition were sourced by the participating institutions from the course titled, “Practical Industrial Process Gamification” which was published by Total Automation Concepts Ltd on Udemy, an online Learning Management Systems (LMS) platform.

“The preliminary stages of the competition commenced from June, 2020 and ended July, 2020, with weekly Q&A sessions while the industrial games applications obtained from Udemy namely Alpha 1Loading Depot (A1LD-2),Alpha 1 Production Platform (A1PP-2) and Alpha 1 Petroleum Refinery Plant (A1PRP-2) were also incorporated at different intervals.

“The top three (3) students from each institution were selected to participate in the finals after making it through the weekly preliminary rounds. After a keenly contested final, students of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun namely, Rebecca Kiletei, James Oluwatosinand Theodore Bomi-Dore narrowly emerged winners of the competition with an average score of 79.3% (238 points)while the Delta State University students namely, Chijioke Joel Chinemelum, Ogheneyoma Victor Urhefe and OghaleziOluwaseun Israel took second position with 78.9% (235 points)” He stated.

The team from FUPRE took home the top prize while the team representing DELSU got the prize forsecond position and during the weekly Q&A sessions, airtime credits of different ranges had been regularly distributed to the top three(3) students from both institutions before the just concluded finals.

Participants thanked the organisers for still being able to set up such an online event irrespective of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic considering the impact it would have on their technical and soft skills even before graduation.

They equally wished that the competition can be sustained for more students to benefit from it just as they did.

The next edition of the competition will take place next year, 2021 and more institutions are expected to participate in the competition.