The VC of UNN, Professor Benjamin Ozumba and Dr Sven Thore Holme, the Founder, Ideon Science Park, Sweden.
The University of Nigeria, Nsukka(UNN) will soon be producing laptops and tractors at it new science and technology incubator called “Roar Nigeria Hub”.
The hub, which is embedded in the university, is the first of its kind in West Africa.
The launching was a dream come true for Professor Benjamin Ozumba, the Vice-Chancellor, who after visiting a science park in Sweden in 2016, vowed to establish same in the University of Nigeria.
“We want to turn Nigeria around with inventions and innovations” Ozumba said that “very soon; you will hear about students of UNN making laudable inventions in ICT and other fields of life”.
Ozumba took the first step of ensuring that students of the university are IT compliant in 2015 when he mandated that every student of the university must own a laptop computer in order to meet the demands of the 21 century tertiary education.
Although the policy attracted mixed reactions leading to the removal of the compulsory clause, Ozumba however believes that the university has the capacity to assemble its own laptop.
Laptops will not be the only products of the hub; the Vice-Chancellor said the university would soon start assembling tractors for agricultural use.
He challenged the Roar Nigeria Hub to come up with innovations that would curtail wastage of agricultural produce in the country.
Borne out of collaboration between the university and the Benefiting Our Community (BOG) Innovations, Roar Nigeria aims to produce new generation of innovators that will provide local technology-based solutions with global perspective.
The hub is built on the concept of triple helix, which is an interaction between the academia, the industry and the government to promote ideas, and marketable innovations among students and researchers.
The launching of Roar Nigeria Hub attracted foremost IT companies, including Google, Facebook, Huawei Technologies, Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), Computer Warehouse Group, and Exxon Mobil.
The hub started on a good note with three innovative groups presenting their proposals.
The first group called “AGROMESS” developed an app that will help farmers solve the problem of wastage of agricultural products. The app will help identify parts of the country that have surplus agro products and link them to areas where the products are scarce.
The second group called “Malicha” developed a mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to recommend hairstyle that will fit a particular facial make-up.
The third group called “Thrillers” developed an app that will notify people of events happening around them in their mobile phones. All the proposals were made by students of the University of Nigeria.
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