The Nigerian flag systematically went up to the rooftop of the Birchwood Hotel and Conference centre in Boksburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, last week, when some Nigerian secondary school students drawn from Rivers, Benue and Akwa Ibom held their own and won four awards at the Eskom Expo for Young scientists.

The projects that won the awards for the Nigerian students,competed against over 600 projects by students from South Africa and other African countries.

The students were sponsored by renowned technology company, Intel, as part of its efforts to improve interest in science education and technology.

Calvary Arrows Secondary School, Gboko won a special award for innovation and novelty in Engineering. This school located in a rural community developed a multi-powered lawn mower that can be powered by electricity, batteries or solar energy. They smiled home with two thousand Rand prize money. This is aside another silver medal in the mechanical, aeronautic and Industrial Engineering category.

Niger Delta Science College Port Harcourt won a bronze medal for their investigation on an automatic multi-phase selector with a generating plant while Community Secondary School Aka Ufot in Akwa Ibom state won another bronze medal for their work in producing plastic materials from simple cassava extracts.

Corporate Affairs manager of Intel, Osagie Ogunbor reacting to the feats, said that the performances of the students validate the relentless nature of the Nigerian spirit in the face of daunting infrastructural challenges especially in the Educational sector.

He said that besides flying Nigeria’s flag high in foreign land, the students had also done Intel Nigeria proud for its investment not only in sponsoring them to the fair but also organizing the annual National science fair for all secondary school students in partnership with Shell Petroleum Development Company.

The Eskom Expo for young scientists is over 30 years old and about the biggest science fair for secondary schools in South Africa. Intel International also  has a Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), which holds annually in the United States.