Research Student Wins Prestigious Award

CEIS research student Popoola Wasiu O., has been awarded the Xcel Best Engineering and Technology Student Award of the year 2009 by Xcel magazine which recognises the achievements of outstanding university students from all backgrounds across the UK.

Popoola (left) receives his award

To win this award, Popoola beat other nominees in this category from other UK colleges and universities. Popoola was nominated for this award by his PhD supervisor Prof. Fary Ghassemlooy. The Xcel award is designed to raise aspirations and acknowledge students who have excelled both academically and personally.
Popoola completed his BSc degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering with First Class Honours and then gained an MSc degree in Optoelectronic and Communication Systems with distinction. As the best student of the year, he was awarded Northumbria University PhD studentship to work on Free-Space Optical Communication Systems. Popoola completed his PhD research in record time and successfully defended his thesis titled "Subcarrier Intensity Modulated Free-Space Optical Communication Systems" with no corrections. In addition to this Popoola published numerous articles in high impact journals and one book chapter.
For his personal qualities, Popoola was unanimously voted as the Research Students' Representative from 2007 to 2009. He represented his colleagues exceptionally well by making their voice heard and protecting the collective interest of his colleagues. Prof. Fary Ghassemlooy had this to say about Popoola: "Since joining this school and my research group over four years ago, Popoola has defined his minority background and alongside academic skills displayed outstanding personal qualities in the areas of stewardship, team building and leadership".
This prize is a wonderful recognition of Popoola's achievement and a great recognition for the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences.


Date posted: February 8, 2010

http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/ceis/about/ceisnews/1542465

Notice how the article doe snot mention that he is a Nigerian who finished from OAU, Ile-Ife ( we finshed together), but if it were a negative story, every line would mention he is Nigerian!

http://www.tribune.com.ng/sat/index.php/youth-achiever/183-nigeria-has-failed-the-youth-wasiu-popoola-xcels-2009-best-engineering-a-technology-student.html

true that, nothing about his Nigerian background, I am beginning to develop a bit of distrust for western media

nice one

^^^^^^^
The name says it all.

The nearest oyibo name is pope and na only one man get am - for Rome

Nigerians and Education - we like to study sha - hope the guy get any real work environment experience,

@Blacksta,

See the guy's CV here http://sites.google.com/site/wasiupopoola/my-cv

blacksta= mechanic

sjeezy8:

blacksta= mechanic

LOL, I hate that thing about Nigerians, when they have a problem against people who study a lot. A PhD is useful, blacksta, go and get one

Nice work by the guy. Congrats to him.
Seems like a late bloomer as he got an ND first before his BSc. Also, with his profile, would have expected him to be able to pursue his PhD in a more reputable school ( MIT, Stanford, Imperial, etc). He might still be 'under performing' and be capable of much more in the right environment.

Not surprising about the media's neglect of him being Nigerian, thats simply par for the course.

biina:

Nice work by the guy. Congrats to him.
Seems like a late bloomer as he got an ND first before his BSc. Also, with his profile, would have expected him to be able to pursue his PhD in a more reputable school ( MIT, Stanford, Imperial, etc). He might still be 'under performing' and be capable of much more in the right environment.

Not surprising about the media's neglect of him being Nigerian, thats simply par for the course.

I had a similar train of thought- that he should be in a better school however, we got issues of money, and stuff like that. Imperial College rarely funds non-EU overseas students for anything. However, there are still several excellent schools for engineering in the UK. Seems though that this guy was constrained by costs- regardless the guy tried- things are not easy for poor man pikin.

The guy actually got admitted to top schools in the US but did not even have funds for the first semester. He was actually settling for an MSC in Nigeria before he got a scholarship from the Ogun State govt and that was restricted to only a few schools in the UK.

Oooohhh, Wasiu Popoola, I'm proud of you.
Loma, I remember when Wasiu used to take MSSN tutorials at the back of Awo upper reading room in 2001/2002 session. I was in part 1 then. Very easy going.
I vividly recall when you too used to read at Central Mosque then. You were also teh editor of An-Nur MSSN magazine. Me I be jambito then.

How time flies!!!

Well Done Guy

@Jarus; but you have now become a big man! I sent you an email about a program some weeks ago.

loma:

@Jarus; but you have now become a big man! I sent you an email about a program some weeks ago.

Egbon, big man ke? With just 2 years experience in an O&G firm trying to make its marks in Naija. Anyways, we hope to be like you multi-million dollar big men, with cross-continental exposure at the highest level of the industry

Saw your email and trying to investigate some things. Thanks.

He can not fit into Nigeria environment. He should stay back in UK.

loma:

@Jarus; but you have now become a big man! I sent you an email about a program some weeks ago.

I hv always suspected u to be an O&G person in TX== no wonder gbogbo bigx men

Egbon Wese, I'm happy to see you doing this. Thanks for those physics, Maths and further maths lectures at Yewa college. I'm proud of you brother!

Keep it up bro.
your certificate is a confirmed one !

Great news (even though it's old).

we whr mates @ egbado college(now yewa college)ilaro,he was a maths guru way back,so simple and and from a humble background,i remember his dad was a teacher in a local school.am proud of u bruv, up school

Attending an Oxford talk this afternoon by fellow Nigerian and former OAU-Ife classmate, Dr Wasiu Popoola (a.k.a Popular), talking about "Visible Light Communication"-transmitting data via normal light bulbs. More on his research at http://visiblelightcomm.com/d-light-project-hits-target/
He is also coauthor of this book http://amzn.to/nGG2qs

Being your jambite when you guys were in final year in Ife some years ago, I knew one day you guys will make us proud.

I remember like yesterday when 'popular' used to take tutorials on top of Faj and how you also used to go read in central mosque.