Make KWASU software research-based institution ― VC

The Vice Chancellor, Kwara State University, (KWASU) Malete, Abdulrasheed Na’Allah has advised its Software Development and Innovation Team to make the university a software research-based institution.

Na’Allah gave the advice on Friday in Malete, Kwara, while inaugurating the university’s 22-member Software Development and Innovation Team.

He said the team should among other things conduct research and develop software in advanced technological areas possible.

“This should be in service to KWASU and the larger Kwara, Nigeria and the global community.

“We want people to be coming in and out of KWASU to get solution to their problems in terms of the software you will produce.

“So, you have the mandate to acquire grants in support of your activities and boost KWASU’s Internally Generated Revenue drive.

“Your mandate also includes collaboration with I.T. providers, such as Google, Oracle, SAP and Microsoft and also collaborate nationally and internationally with educational institutions,” Na’Allah said.

He said that the team should be able to impact on the immediate environment by creating original and patented softwares that would relate to people’s social way of life.

“I am charging the team to act local and think global, then think global and act local in the sense that, they should put our social way of life into consideration.

“This is because many things done in technology these days are copied in such a way that they are not reflected to the local reality, hence they are short-lived.

“So, it is important that when one is innovating anything, you look at the social way of life of the audience.

“Think out of the box to develop softwares that can help villagers, market women and other members of the community as a whole,” Na’Allah said.

Prof Bayo Lawal, the Coordinator to the VC on Research and Industry, also told the team to encourage students, especially the exceptional ones.

He advised the management to try and send some members of the team for training out of the country.

In her acceptance speech, the Chairperson of the team, Hajia Hassanah Bello, said that they would work together as a team to achieve the best for KWASU, Nigeria and the world at large.

“We promise that we will be an African ICT Hub where original softwares will be produced.

“We will be as interactive as possible with people within and outside this community to encourage interaction,” she said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that among the 22 member-team, five are Alumni of the institution, while four of them are students.