A 100-level student of Electrical Electronics of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Augustine Udo-Olisa, has emerged winner of the maiden edition of Professor Ogundipe Innovation Challenge (POIC).
POIC is an initiative of the vice chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, as part of his humanitarian activities to promote national growth and development, and it is open to all Nigerian university students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Udo-Olisa defeated 10 others from other universities across the country who made it to the finals, and was given N1 million to further develop his business idea into profitable venture that will benefit mankind.
He won the star prize with his technological device named ‘Daltech 4 All Security’, at the grand finale of the competition held at the Jelili Omotola Multipurpose Hall of UNILAG recently.
Explaining the functions of the technology device, Udo-Olisa said ‘Daltech 4 All Security’ is designed to safeguard valuables and assist security agencies to authenticate distress calls.
He said the idea came the day he witnessed a road accident and no help immediately came for the victims.
Udo-Olisa explained: “I felt too bad about the incident, especially as no help came the way of the victims. That was how I started to think on what could save people in similar situations in the future.
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“I then created a device that when you open a car door, it will call the person; and when the person calls back, it will shut down the ignition system. And if the car has an accident, it will call the rescue agencies such as the Fire Service and police.
“If the device is installed in a house or office and there is a fire incident, it will automatically make a distress call to the fire service or police or the owner.”
Expressing excitement about his accomplishment, Udo-Olisa said he had failed many times before he finally came up with the device.
However, he expressed sadness that two teammates could not join him for the competition because of a registration error on his part.
He said he registered as the only member of ‘Team Solution’ in error and could not correct it when he tried to do so. That was why the others could not come to the grand finale.
The first runner-up in the competition was ‘Team Veta’ which developed a digital platform where students can learn technical and vocational skills, and after training, find jobs on the same platform.
The second runner-up was ‘Team Brickify’ which designed rubber bricks for constructing movable structures.
Each of them also got N1 million to further develop their ideas.
In his remarks at the event, the initiator of the competition, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said he was particularly impressed by the performance of the winning teams.
He said he introduced the competition to encourage and support scientific creativity among university students which can help solve the country’s problems in agriculture, oil and gas, information and communication technology, computer and other related fields.
Professor Ogundipe urged students to take advantage of the competition to develop themselves to become entrepreneurs right from school and become globally competitive in their chosen fields.
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