Three students from the Department of Computer Engineering have emerged winners at the Opolo Global Innovation Idea Pitch Competition in honour of Prof Dupe S. Ademola-Popoola just before she delivered the 235th Inuagural Lecture of the University. The students, Temidire Adesiji, Olaniran Roqeeb and Oguntade Abass, were unanimously declared the winner, first and second runners-up respectively at a keenly contested idea pitch event sponsored by Opolo.
The programme, which held at the University main auditorium, saw students from the College of Health Sciences, Faculties of Engineering and Communication & Information Sciences compete against each other. In his opening remarks, the representative of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Peter Adeoye commended Opolo Global for organising such a programme for the students of the institution. He therefore admonished the students to make use of the opportunity to showcase their research ideas and problem solving skills. He further charged the students not to despair if their ideas were not considered good enough to win a prize. He advised them to see such as an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and bring out more innovative ideas.
In his own address, the representative of Opolo Global Innovation, Dr. Oluwafemi Oyedeji, said Opolo Global was glad to organise the idea pitch competition to celebrate the contribution of the Inaugural Lecturer, Prof. S Ademola-Popoola for her unrelenting efforts at fostering a community of innovators at the University of Ilorin. He further said that programmes of this nature and more would the university community have access to by the time Opolo innovation hub comes on board on Unilorin campus. He noted that the company is fulfilling its mission of serving as a platform to nurture and develop global solution providers and talents. He said when Opolo finally arrives the campus, opportunities would be available for both researchers and students not only to incubate their ideas but also to commercialise their research outputs.
Ideas pitched at the event included solutions for accessing and saving for personal and professional development; a smart water management system, fire-fighting robotic and hospital environment monitoring system among others.
The event, attended by both students and researchers of the university, had Prof. Oluwakemi Abikoye, Engr. Femi Adebayo and Dr. Amos Bajeh as the panel of judges. Gifts were presented to the winners by the representative of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Peter Adeoye while Mr. Michael Oyalana, Opolo Programmes Manager, handed over Opolo’s gift to the inaugural lecturer.
PHOTO GALLERY:
R-L:Programs Manager, Mr. Michael Oyalana presenting gift from Opolo Global to the Inaugural Lecturer, Prof. Dupe Ademola-Popoola.
Adesiji Temidire from Computer engineering department pitching his idea on IoT enabled water management system.
L-R :VC representative , Prof. Adeoye presenting award to the winner of the idea pitch competition ,Temidire Adesiji.
L-R: Dr. Bajeh, Prof. Adeoye and Oguntade Abass during award presentation.
L-R:Adesiji Temidire (Winner), Olaniran Roqeeb (First runner up), Oguntade Abass (Second runner up), Olamilekan Salawu (Health Science), Prof. Y. Adesiji (Veterinary Medicine), Prof. G.B. Adesiji (Agricultural Extension), Prof. Adeoye (VC representative), Prof. Oluwakemi Abidoye (Computer Science), Eng. Femi Adebayo (Computer Engineering), Dr. Amos Bajeh (Computer Science), Bello Hussein (Health Science), Mr. Michael Oyalana (Opolo representative), Toyyib Abdulganeey( Health Science), and Olayemi Moses (Computer Science).