₦airaland Forum

The Bellina College, Akoka, Lagos, has constructed a prototype car with locally sourced materials.

The proprietress of the college, Mrs Nadia Bashir-Bello spoke in Lagos on Tuesday that the car was constructed by senior students of the college in less than one year.

Bashir-Bello, who is also the principal of the college, said that the prototype car would be launched on July 12 in Lagos.

She said, “We have done the first prototype car and got some engineers to look at it.

“They passed their comments; we dismantled it and built this one which cost us quite some amount, but we cannot quantify the experience.”

She said that the college’s next project would be to manufacture an amphibian vehicle which could move on both land and water.

“Our next project is amphibian vehicle that can go on land and sea because of the Lagos peculiar terrain,’’ the principal told NAN.

She said that education was no longer limited to the classroom in this technology era.

The principal said, “Education today is no longer about passing mathematics and English Language or just what one is able to acquire while sitting in the confines of a classroom.

“There is more to education now than that because research has shown that a lot of graduates who studied professional courses do not have what it takes.”

Bashir-Bello urged practical teaching and learning in schools, to enable students to bring out their hidden talents and develop their skills.

She said that such teaching and learning were necessary in view of Nigeria’s desire to rank among the top 20 economies by 2020.

She also said, “We must encourage students in the area of technical and vocational studies by ensuring that the necessary facilities are on ground.

“We must begin to remove the veils from the masquerades by telling the students that these things are not impossible and that people who do these things started somewhere and, today, they are professionals.”

Bashir-Bello said that students must be made to understand that they all had special talents, which should be discovered and developed.

The principal condemned the attitude of parents who forced their children and wards to study courses against the children’s wishes.

She said, “There is nothing wrong in allowing our children to go into technical and vocational studies because we all cannot be doctors and lawyers.

“Parents must adopt the right attitude to education and government, too, must strive to ensure that its educational policies are fully implemented in line with its developmental agenda.”

She said that effective implementation of government policies had remained a major challenge in accomplishing its goals for the education sector.

She also urged development of curricula that would discourage studying of too many subjects daily.

Bashir-Bello appealed to the government to look into alleged discrimination of higher national diploma holders by employers.

She said that the alleged discrimination was discouraging many students from showing interest in technical education.

For the latest Engineering job vacancies and news, pls follow @daengineernet on twitter. they follow back too.

The most anticipated discovery in the history of physics – the Higgs boson sometimes known as the ‘god particle’ – has been announced by scientists at Cern, the European nuclear physics centre near Geneva.
Two Cern scientific teams have detected a subatomic particle that matches the predicted characteristics of the Higgs, after analysing the debris of trillions of collisions at the $8bn Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful atom smasher in history.
“I think we have it,” Rolf Heuer, Cern director-general, said to enthusiastic applause at a seminar where the scientific results were announced. “We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature but it is only a beginning.
“The observation of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson opens the way to more detailed studies, requiring larger statistics, which will pin down the new particle’s properties, and is likely to shed light on other mysteries of our universe,” Professor Heuer added.

The Higgs is the last piece in the so-called Standard Model of particle physics that was predicted by theorists but not observed by experiments until now. The theory requires such a particle to confer mass on all other particles.

Cern is taking the cautious view traditionally associated with the discovery of fundamental particles by talking about “a particle consistent with the Higgs boson”.

“There appears to be less than one chance in a million that this is fake, which is roughly the same probability as flipping a coin heads-up 21 times in a row,” said Themis Bowcock, head of particle physics at Liverpool University.

“Very few physicists would privately argue that this is not a Higgs particle,” Professor Bowcock added. “Half a century after it was first proposed, and after a monumental effort by generations of physicists around the world, the discovery of the Higgs represents a major breakthrough in our fundamental understanding of nature. For physicists, this is the equivalent of Columbus discovering America.”
The particle is named after Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University, who predicted its existence in the 1960s and received a warm round of applause when he took his seat at Cern’s scientific seminar.

“I am astounded at the amazing speed with which these results have emerged,” said Prof Higgs. “I never expected this to happen in my lifetime and shall be asking my family to put some champagne in the fridge.”

However, there are some characteristics of the data announced on Wednesday hinting that the story may be more complex than just a single Higgs particle, physicists suggested. For example, there may be a group or family of such particles.

“More data are required to reveal whether [the particle] has all the properties of the standard model Higgs boson or whether some do not match, implying new physics beyond the standard model,” said Tejinder Virdee of Imperial College London. “I believe this observation opens the door to a new vista of physics that will take many more years to explore.”

For the more Engineering news and job vacancies, please follow @DaEngineerNet on twitter. Thank you

im a mechy too... and also a memeber of www.engineer-ng.net. its a site that provides you with all the latest engineering news, job vacancies, project discussions etc u get to discuss about your completed projects and share ideas with other professionals in every field of engineering. sign up is free, you won't be disappointed.

A new blast defence mechanism could double vehicle protection against mine explosions without additional armour, according to its inventor.

The active belly plate system developed by Advanced Blast & Ballistic Systems (ABBS) exerts a force against the floor of the vehicle to reduce floor deformation and help stop the vehicle from being thrown into the air.

The technology, which has been taken to proof-of-concept stage, works by exploiting the short delay between a mine going off and the explosion hitting the underside of the vehicle, using this time to counteract the force of the mine.

The system detects the shockwaves of a blast, which travel at the speed of sound and arrive around 20 milliseconds before the mass of the explosion, providing enough time for the belly plate to react.

ABBS received £116,000 from the Ministry of Defence’s Centre for Defence Enterprise to develop the technology and is now seeking funding to build a commercial prototype of the device.

Sloman said it could be further developed to provide specific forces to match each explosion. ‘Either you can set everything off or you can analyse the strength of the shockwave and get an estimate of the size of the mine and where it is and therefore you can tune the response.’


The concept by Roger Sloman, managing director of ABBS and inventor of the system

'Originally I was dealing with the global acceleration, which is the vehicle jumping in the air, and that on its own can kill you,’

‘And then I thought that if you put the force down a column in the vehicle onto the belly plate, you can keep the floor down as well, which is even more important. So it’s a very simple concept of actively opposing the force of the mine.’

Because it deals with global acceleration, the technology should protect lighter cars as well as armoured vehicles. ‘You don’t carry around huge amounts of mass to counteract the blast,’ said Sloman. ‘You can double the mine blast capability of a system, at least.

For the latest engineering news, sign up free at www.engineer-ng.net.

thank you ''Long One''... i wish the govt and private companies would see things this way. but instead they seem determined to relegate the industry and chase other areas.

Growing up, I’d always been fascinated with the idea of being an Engineer. Back then engineers seemed like intellectual ‘gods’ with the ability to procure solutions to whatever problem society throws their way. I couldn’t wait to gain admission into the university and further this dream of becoming an Engineer. I was fascinated by motor cars and heavy machinery and so Mechanical Engineering seemed like the best form of engineering for me. I had it all figured out, I’d graduate with the title ‘Engr’ in front of my name, people would look at me with respect and tell their kids how important people like me are to the society. This dream was all the motivation I needed so I worked hard and gained admission into the university, I was almost there, 5 years and I’d be the person I’d always dreamed to be.
Nothing prepared me for the bitter truth. The lectures were based strictly on imagination and ‘theories’. I couldn’t believe it, we were taught about engines and combustion and we never got to see any engine. We were expected to learn from the lecturer’s vivid explanation and pictures from textbooks as old as the bible. I’d never seen a 4-stroke combustion engine before yet I was expected to describe the combustion process with diagrams to explain my descriptions. I graduated with fair grades but a changed heart, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be an engineer anymore. With my graduation came the realization that the only evidence that I studied Mechanical Engineering was my certificate. Did I make a wrong career choice? Or was I chasing after a false dream I could never realize?
Every year, thousands of young engineers that have a similar experience like I did graduate from Nigerian universities. Somewhere along their years in the university, their dream of being a future problem solver is assassinated and replaced with the desire to secure a plum job. These youths are supposed to lead the nations engineering industry tomorrow but may we ask what they are made up of today?
Most laboratories in Nigerian universities are actually antique shops/museums equipped with Stone Age machinery that most of the developed engineering world have abandoned or forgotten. It’s shameful to see that most engineering graduates have never seen or handled tools of their profession. In my case I didn’t get to see a ‘Lathe machine’ throughout my university years. If there was a body responsible for auditing engineering equipment in Nigerian universities, many emerging engineers would have their certificates recalled.
Reports from the international community on the Nigerian engineer shows we are regarded as half-baked graduates and most first class graduates are subjected to tests in order to ascertain the quality of their degree. The course curriculum needs to be revisited if we must break this stereotype. The government shouldn’t lay still and watch as the nation’s engineering future dwindles and fades out. Nobody would help improve our engineering industry for us we need to do it ourselves. Private sectors should partner with institutions in both infrastructure availability and human resource development. The truth is that your manpower comes from these institutions, equip them today and have a capable workforce tomorrow.
We must realize that the present educational system is certificate driven, which should not be. We need to build our lives and careers around being proficient because that is the only way we can stand up to be counted. The task of building a new Nigeria is a general responsibility but I know that it is not a question of whether Nigeria will be great again, it’s only a question of when and who. I believe that the future of the Engineering discipline in Nigeria can only be assured if tomorrow’s key players are equipped today. What tomorrow will look like is a reflection of what we paint on the canvas of today.

i am a member of an online engineering website, www.engineer-ng.net that brings to you d latest engineering news and job vacancies. you can join for free and read/ write or participate in engineering discussions and topics,upload pictures n videos of your projects for all to see etc.thank you.

Truth be told the current crop of Nigerian engineers have a limited amount of technical knowledge. most of them end up in other industries because they feel Nigeria has nothing to offer engineers. everybody wants to work in one of the big oil companies... nobody wants to be an entrepreneur.