Three students of the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the Kwara State University, Malete, have fabricated prototype equipment, which if developed, could be used to wage war against Boko Haram insurgents.
The prototype equipment are rocket, quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle and fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle, fabricated by Abdulwasiu Ahmed, Abdulkadir Habeebellah and Abdulrauf Sarafadeen..
Ahmed, in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the university’s 5thundergraduate research day on Wednesday, said the rocket and the fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle could be used for bombing and other military operations.
He stated that the quadcopter UAV could be used for aerial photography, surveillance, event recordings and examination.
He added that it could be used as security device to support security guards in banks, companies, government and organisation’s buildings as well as in residential houses.
Ahmed appealed to the Federal Government, corporate organisations, donor agencies and other stakeholders to support them and other young researchers in their efforts to innovate technologies that could transform Nigeria.
The Vice Chancellor of KWASU, Prof. AbdulRasheed Na’Allah, and Director, Centre for Undergraduate Research, Dr. Grace Abolaji, emphasised the importance of research for national advancement.
Na’Allah, who was represented by his coordinator on Research and Industry, Prof. Adebayo Oladimeji, urged tertiary institutions to engage in researches that would solve societal problems.
He stated that the quality of a university was measured by its research output, adding that research was generally more highly regarded than teaching, according to him, perhaps because it is easier to measure.
“Research is generally better rewarded, for example by promotion, because its results are usually more tangible.
“It is our duty as academics to be innovative and to generate new knowledge. It is our mandate as academics to develop methods of making new and old knowledge beneficial to the present and future generations,” Na’Allah said.
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