It might be unthinkable, yet it did happen. The University of Lagos
community developed a racing car which beat many competitors at a
global automobile competition
It is a racing car! It is one that may not be too common in this part
of the world but was conceived, developed and put to test here and
abroad. Known as Autonov II, the racing car is a brainchild of staff
and students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and has competed for,
and gained fame on the global automobile stage.
Former Minister of Information, who is now Chairman, Governing Council
of UNILAG, Prof. Jerry Gana was on a visit to the institution
recently. And for the management, there could not have been a better
time to showcase the school's inherent potentials. In this regard,
Autonov II, UNILAG's latest exploit in science and technology came
handy.
Fuel-efficient and electronically-powered, the design, fabrication and
running of Autonov II had been funded solely by Shell Petroleum Plc.
The racing car had participated alongside automobile inventions from
other 203 tertiary institutions across the world at a car racing
competition in the Netherlands, emerging the third best overall.
Twenty students and lecturers of the school were said to have done the
bulk of the work on Autonov II. From the Department of Mechanical
Engineering to those of Creative Arts, Physics, Mass Communication,
Electrical/Electronic and Architecture, the students were assembled
and after a two-month intensive exercise, Autonov II was developed.
"We started by building the skill-set we needed. We built the designs,
the fraction, the china system and the body, among others and those
who could integrate all of these together did. Of course, this has to
be carried out by the students. When we finished, we selected the team
we wanted. What we did was to advertise and ask that students who
possess various skills we needed should indicate by applying. We
interviewed them and selected a team of 20 students which we later
pruned," Prof. Ikem Owete, leader of the team that manufactured
Autonov II narrated.
The team leaders thereafter asked the selected students to work
differently. The mechanical group worked on the frame. The material
team worked on the body. The Creative Art student is a sculptor who
constructed the body himself. Students from electrical engineering
worked on the electrical and electronic control. The team, Prof Owete
recalled, had some challenges with the control a day before the
competition. The car simply stopped working. But by some "miraculous
intervention," it later began to work.
"One thing I can tell you was that these students from Electrical
Engineering made their own PCVs (positive crankcase ventilation, an
automotive-emission control valve that recirculates gases through the
combustion chambers to permit more complete combustion) manually
without a machine. They got the chemical, the drawing on the computer,
the components and made the transfer to the PCVs all on their own.
Initially, we wanted to get an outsider for this but they came to me
and said, 'Sir, we can do it' and I said to them, 'Go ahead and do it.
If you don't try, you can't succeed.' And they did. I am very proud of
them. You really need to see their performance," Owete said.
UNILAG was not the only Nigerian tertiary institution that made it to
the racing competition. University of Benin (UNIBEN) also did. But
while the UNIBEN invention could not make it to the track, UNILAG's
Autonov II did. And out of the 203 schools that competed, UNILAG was
the only one from Africa, aside the two others that came from Morocco.
"Our utmost aim and objective right from the first day was how we
would pass the rigorous tests and get Autonov II on the track. We had
our major scare when we got to the competition and were about to
participate when one of our wheels buckled for the first time. This
happened a day to the time we were to have our first test. We had not
had any test prior to that time. But our team spirit and determination
prevailed; we took the car to the welding shop and the wheel and every
other thing were fixed. Thereafter, we went for the four-stage test
and we passed," Victoria Olakanmi, a 400-level Physics student who
played a role in fixing the car's electrical lightings and also acted
as the reserve driver said.
Olakanmi said being the only black Africans among the competitors,
they were really not given any chance by many of their rivals and
spectators, especially since they were observers at the competition
last year.
Dailytrust
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