ESPTAEE 2008 NATIONAL CONFERENCE 25 – 27 JUNE 2008, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

ESPTAEE 2008 NATIONAL CONFERENCE

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

Wednesday 25 June 2008

 

8:00 – 09:00                REGISTRATION

 

09:00 – 1:30                OPENING AND PLENARY SESSION – Niger Hall CEC

 

09:00 - 09:05              Opening Prayer

                                    Ven. Rev. Engr. Dr. T.C. Madueme

 

09:05 – 09:15              Welcome address

                                    Engr. Dr. Ogbonnaya I. Okoro

 

09:15 – 09:30              Keynote address

                                    The Vice – Chancellor, University of Nigeria

 

09:30 – 10:00              Plenary session One

Prof. Alex O. Animalu, Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

 

10:00 – 10:30              Plenary session Two

Engr. Prof. Ogbonna U. Oparaku. Director, National Centre for Energy Research and Development, Universiy of Nigeria, Nsukka.

 

10:30 – 11:00              Plenary session Three

Prof. Val. O. Ekechukwu. Director, Research and Development, National Universities Commission(NUC), Abuja.

 

11:00 – 12:00              Discussions and Questions

 

12:00 – 1:30                Break/ Refreshments

 

 

 1:30 – 4:30         Technical Session One. Venue: Niger Hall CEC

 

Time	Communications, Electronics, Renewable Energy, Computer Science & Structure                                                          Chair:  Engr. Dr. M. U. Agu
1:30	GSM SS7 Signaling Traffic Quantification Engr. K.U. Ugwuanyi, University of Nigeria
2:00	Enhancing Broadband wireless access in Mobile networks using SMART antenna option as part of the millennium development goal(MDG) Engr. C. Ihekweaba, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. P.
2:30	Renewable Resources in dispersed generation: Solution to Nigeria’s Electrc Energy crisis. Engr. C. A. Nwosu, University of Nigeria. P.
3:00	Financial Fraud watch: A Neural network automatic fraud detection system. Dr. F.S. Bakpo, University of Nigeria P.
3:30	Digital Electronics Primer with Practical Application. Engr. E.J. Jiagbogu, Projects Development Institute(PRODA), Enugu
4:00	Using Neural Networks for Banking frauds detection: A feasibility study. Dr. F.S. Bakpo, University of Nigeria P.
4:30	Dynamic analysis of one bay industrial building subjected to two degrees of freedom. Engr. J.N. Ugwuanyi, University of Nigeria P.
6:00	Cock Tail Party at CEC quadrangle (Please be punctual)

 

 

 Thursday, 26 June 2008

Technical Session Two. Venue: NCERD Conference Hall

 

Time	Electrical machines, Computer simulation and Control systems                                                  Chair:   Engr. Dr. O.I.Okoro
9:00	MATLAB Simulation of Totally enclosed fan cooled(TEFC) Induction machine. Engr. F.C. Okonkwo, Projects Development Institute(PRODA), Enugu P.
9:30	Applicability of Micro-controllers in process monitoring and control of manufacturing Engineering. Engr. C.B. Mbachu, Anambra state University, Uli P.
10:00	Simulation of D.C. machines Transient Behaviours: Teaching and Research. Engr. C.U. Ogbuka, University of Nigeria, Nsukka P.
10:30	Simulating Asynchronous Machine with Saturation effect. Engr. E.J. Akpama, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar P.
11:00	Model-free predictive control of systems using self organizing polynomial neural networks. Engr. O.M. Anubi, University of Lagos P.
11:30	A review of the application of the lumped parameter and finite-element methods in the Thermal analysis of electrical machines. Engr. E.O.Nwangwu, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana P.
12:00	Techniques for Improving the efficiency of Telecommunication Networks using MATLAB as a simulation Tool; Case Study: Fuzzy logic controlled Asynchronous Transfer Mode Transmission network. Engr. C. Ihekweaba, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike P.
12:30- 1:30	Tea Break

 

 Thursday, 26 June 2008

Technical Session Three. Venue: NCERD Conference Hall

 

Time	Electrical Machines, Power Systems and Renewable Energy                                            Chair:   Engr. Prof. S.T. Wara
1:30	Impact and Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic systems in Kpassa community, Ghana. Engr. S.O. Nwaogaidu, University of Oldenburg, Germany P.
2:00	Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution. Engr. Dr. Ralph C. Ezeoma, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Lagos P.
2:30	Data-Based Analysis of Power System crisis in Nigeria. Engr. Dr. T.O. Akinbulire, University of Lagos P.
3:00	Power Electronic control of Universal motor. Engr. F.C. Okonkwo, Projects Development Institute(PRODA), Enugu P.
3:30	Dynamic Analysis and Computer Simulation of Induction Machine with Stator Transients Neglected. Engr. E.J.Akpama, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar P.
4:00	Deregulation of Electric Power Sector in a Third World econonmy. Engr. P.O. Oluseyi, University of Lagos P.
4:30-5:00	Tea Break
5:00	Speed Control of Induction Machine using MATLAB/SIMULINK. Engr. M.N.A. Humphrey, RWTH Aachen, Germany P.

 

 Friday, 27 June 2008

Technical Session  Four. Venue: NCERD Conference Hall

Time	Computer Simulation, Engineering Education, Communications &Computer Science.                                                   Chair: Engr. Dr. Ralph C. Ezeoma
9:00	System Modelling and Computer Simulation: A Necessary Tool for Engineering Education. Engr. Dr. O.I.Okoro, University of Nigeria P.
9:30	Performance Analysis and Modeling of Click-based systems using Petri nets. Dr. F.S. Bakpo, University of Nigeria P.
10:00	GPS Resource allocation Technique: Comparison of PGPS and CDGPS. Engr. Joseph M. Mom, University of Nigeria P.
10:30	User support : Issues and Intervention strategies for People with special needs. Dr. F.S. Bakpo, University of Nigeria, Nsukka P.
11:00	Role of Engineering Infrastructure in the economic and Technological Development of Nigeria: The missing link. Engr. C.B. Mbachu, Anambra State University, Uli P.
11:30	Solving Electrical circuits Transient problems with MATLAB® and SIMPLORER®. Engr. C.U. Ogbuka, University of Nigeria P.
12:00	What best predicts computer proficiency? Implications for developing internationally acceptable software. Dr. F.S. Bakpo, University of Nigeria P.
12:30-1:30	Conference Lunch
1:30	Communiqué Engr. Dr. O.I.Okoro
2:00	Vote of Thanks Engr. Dr. M.U.Agu
2:30	Closing prayer Ven. Engr. Dr. T. C. Madueme

 

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

 

ESPTAEE 2008  NATIONAL CONFERENCE

ESPTAEE Conference: 25 – 27 June 2008

 

 LETTER OF INVITATION TO ESPTAEE 2008 CONFERENCE

 

I am very pleased to invite you to participate in our ESPTAEE conference to be held at the Conference hall of the department of Electrical Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

 

The 3-day National Conference promises to bring experts together from academia and industries with the aim of brainstorming and proffering enduring solution to the problem of Energy sector and the future of Engineering Education.

 

The arrangements for the conference are progressing well.  We have received well-prepared papers from experts in many Universities and Industries.  I trust that the conference will be of interest to you and that you will be able to make valuable contacts.

 

We hope you will be able to make necessary travel arrangements to enable you participate in both the plenary and technical sessions.

 

Please let us know by return of mail (email), whether you will make it to the conference to enable us make adequate preparation for your accommodation.

 

 

I look forward to seeing you at the conference.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Engr. Dr. O.I. Okoro      

Conference Chairman   

(+234-8037751492 or +264-855656593)

 

Tags: ESPTAEE, University+of+Nigeria+Nsukka

The Nigerian Engineering Series - COREN

The Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN, is a body set-up by the Decrees 55/70 and 27/92 (now Acts 110). The Decrees empowered the Council to regulate and control the training and practice of engineering in Nigeria and to ensure and enforce the registration of all engineering personnel (i.e. Engineers, Engineering Technologists, Engineering Technicians, and Engineering Craftsmen) and consulting firms wishing to practice or engage in the practice of practice of engineering.

To visit the COREN, click here

Their home page cries: do you know it is illegal?

1) For any tertiary institution to run engineering programmes at the University degree and Higher National Diploma levels without accreditation by COREN.

2) Do you know it is illegal for firms or persons to engage in engineering practice unless they are fully registered with COREN?

3) For any person, government or company to engage a Non-registered engineering person or consulting firm to execute or participate in doing engineering work in an engineering project, except engineering personnel still undergoing practical training.

4) Use a non-engineering personnel to perform engineering functions.

5) Assign non-engineering functions to engineers below managerial levels, particularly where the engineering functions are available.

6) Engage expatriate engineering personnel to do engineering work when qualified Nigerian engineering personnel are unemployed and available.

#1) There are a whole lot of mushroom institutions of ‘higher learning’ springing up as fast as Churches, and claiming to have links to Universities in America, Europe and Asia - all of which have an office in Nigeria. I saw one certificate earlier by an Indian institution with an office in Lagos state, claiming to offer Computer Science and Internet Engineering programs - all from a 2-room office located in Ikeja, Lagos state.

#2) In the Nigeria of today, everyone is an engineer. I have not heard any news/information where the COREN has enforced its stand on this illegality. Looking around Lagos State for example, there are some buildings which upon seeing them, a sane minded person can’t but wonder who the architect/civil engineer/s is/are? With some looking as if they are about to collapse, and a lot of others actually collapsing and killing innocent people, we can only wonder what the COREN is really doing. No wonder such usually have a signboard somewhere saying: “God is in Control’”.

#3 and #4) A quick look around engineering companies or organizations today will reveal that a lot of ‘engineers’ are not really engineers. These are ‘engineers‘ who became ‘engineers’ by ‘watching-experience’, who never had any formal/informal training in the job they are doing, and who are doing the job meant for engineering graduates. They were ‘just put through’ and since then have been performing their job, not because they understand what they are doing, but because they are employed to do it. In fact, they cannot even explain what they are doing.

How can engineering practice progress in Nigeria if engineers are not doing the jobs they are supposed to do? Many engineering graduates are working in banks(for example), in non-related engineering functions, not out of the dislike for the engineering profession for which they spent University time, but mainly because banks pay a higher salary, and such is more attractive. All that relatives and friends want to see is your new car, house and tushed up life. They don’t ask whether one is practicing his/her original profession. Who doesn’t like money? In so doing, they(engineers in non-engineering professions) displace University graduates who spent their time in Business Administration, accounting, statistics, banking and finance related courses. The same applies otherwise. There are a lot of non-engineering graduates who have taken up the job of engineers through ‘watching experience’. Among these sets are those who got their jobs as a result of ‘who they knew’ rather than ‘what they know’. Such cannot contribute to their position/take a better initiative to be more productive at what they are doing.These would not/never leave their job-positions because they know they aren’t useful in the engineering job-market for which they have acquired years of experience. I would say this is a round-robin problem and a careful approach has to be taken by the COREN to make thing right ‘in the long run’.

#5) For me, this is not clearly applicable in the Nigerian environ, especially because the engineer(below managerial level) thinks more about keeping his/her job, rather than refusing to do something just because it is a non-engineering duty.

#6) As Nigeria is more and more becoming a dumping ground for old/used computers/electronics, Nigeria is becoming a dumping ground for non-engineering expatriates doing engineering work.

First, the COREN says it is illegal to Engage expatriate engineering personnel to do engineering work when qualified Nigerian engineering personnel are unemployed and available. As more and more qualified and over-qualified Nigerians walk the streets for lack of work, more and more engineering expatriates come into the country on a daily basis to take up jobs meant for the ordinary fresh graduate, all in the name of investment. Its kinda painful, but like a friend said: ‘what can we do?”

I believe that there should be a reciprocity of applicable laws between Nigeria and all her diplomatic allies. Every privilege enjoyable/applicable to a citizen of country A living in country B must be enjoyed/applicable to a citizen of country B living in country A, regardless of whether one country is more economically advantaged than the other.

In a situation where reciprocity of applicable-laws between countries is not applicable, the Nigerian government and the COREN should join their hands together to ensure/enforce that Nigerians are given first and foremost consideration for local jobs, where talent is available before expatriates are considered. In situations where organizations flout such an instruction, they must be made to face applicable consequences. I am of the opinion that expatriates should be allowed to work in areas for which there is little or no local talent available, not in areas where University graduates become computer village CD-ROM sales-boys and sales-girls because they are unemployed.

This sad situation is not peculiar to the engineering profession. It cuts across far and wide. I once conversed with an accountant in a foreign owned/operated company who had a new boss(accounts manager) who could not use Microsoft Excel(MS Excel). She actually informed me that she had to put him through the most basic things about MS.Excel, understanding charts, graphs, performing simple operations etc. She complained: ‘and yet this guy has an official car, driver, a house and doesn’t know his job’. Another of my friends in a new job informed me of his surprise when he was informed that his ‘Oga’ was a 2-year engineering diploma holder who finished in 2005 from India. In fact, his job in Nigeria was his first, and as he(expat) was described, ‘he doesn’t know anything’. My informant finished his B.Sc in year 2000, and joined the company with 4-years related experience.

The I.T field as an example, a lot of imports actually don’t have the prerequisite education and technical skill needed for the job they are here to perform, yet they collect expatriate-salaries and are Lord’s over more qualified local talent. As bosses and managers, a lot of trial and error goes into their ‘technicalities’, they use the opportunity to learn and upgrade themselves rather than ‘transferring knowledge’ to the third world. Yes, the truth remains: you cannot give what you don’t have.

Who looses in the long run? we.

The Nigerian Engineering Series - Nairaland: Nigerian engineers are not competent

I was just reading on a post on www.nairaland.com entitled: Nigerian engineers are not competent. The title strikes me to the bone, maybe because I am a Nigerian and an engineer, but I beg your pardon: I am competent.

The post starter begins his talk with:

Please fellow Nairalanders, Why do we have more Foreigners expert in the Niger-Delta than their Nigerian counterparts? Also, Why should our Engineers be sent abroad for further acquisition of knowledge on Engineering? Are Nigerian engineers not competent? If yes what are the reasons?

read on here

Looking around myself, especially in the engineering field, and even besides the Niger-Delta issues, the truth is there are a lot of bona-fide Nigerian engineers walking the streets (jobless) while ‘Foreign experts’(lets give them the benefit of the ‘expert’ doubt) are doing the jobs that, in the real sense belong to Nigerian engineering graduates.

Questions:

KNOWLEDGE BASE

1. Should we say there is a serious dearth of knowledge in the Nigerian engineering circle: a dearth of knowledge in the engineering-challenges beholding us and a total lack of knowledgeable Nigerians to face such challenges?
2. considering how far we have come, and the general enlightenment level, can the ‘Nigerian engineer’ (big picture) rightly say that he does not know what to do / where to source information from independently?
3. are Nigerian engineers-in-general ingenious in Nature? are they smart or are they outrightly stupid? are they merely theoretical results of an epileptic University system where they graduated from just by the grace of God? to the point that all hope is lost as far as getting-them-in-shape is concerned and therefore their 5-engineering certificate is merely equal to an American/European Engineering student semester / summer course?
4. how can ‘ingenuity’, ‘originality’, ‘invention’ and ’self-sustenance’ be promoted and enforced in the long run of engineering profession, considering that Nigeria is becoming more a dumping ground of every kind of product manufactured anywhere in the world.

NIGERIAN ENGINEERING GRADUATES

1. does the typical 1st or 2nd-class upper certificate translate to an intelligent University graduate in the place of work? a competent engineer/employee in the line of duty and responsibility?
2. is the problem that the typical / fresh-engineering graduate does not ‘truly know anything’ upon graduation or that he needs an EXTRA AND LITTLE TRAINING to put him/her in shape?
3. how much, how long(time) and what are the financial implications of this ‘EXTRA LITTLE TRAINING’? should employers / will employers be willing to invest in the Nigerian engineer?
4. can the typical Nigerian engineering graduate ‘perform’ if given the opportunity?
5. is the Nigerian engineering graduate willing to learn? is he willing to work? is he trust-worthy enough to take on responsibility. Is he or she curious enough to learn by self without being guided in the A-Z? how long after an initial training can the Nigerian engineer be depended upon and labeled ‘competent’.
6. when will the chapter of discrimination between HND and BSc graduates be concluded on a National level.

THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION

1. are there enough jobs available where the frieshie-graduate can avail of immediate experience to keep going.
2. base-level: Is it right to employ a non-engineering-graduate to do the job of an engineering graduate? and vice-versa? can the ‘find a job by all means’ mentality be erased from the Nigerian mentality?
3. is there a motivation upon graduation that drives the engineering graduate to really seek to practice his/her profession? or just to find a job, just to be engaged doing something.
4. Nigerian engineering women - where are they? are they technical enough? are they allowed to strut their stuff as far as know-how is concerned, or is the ’she is just a woman’ Nigerian cultural bias allowed to take root even in the place of work? what of the salary-scale of male and female engineers? are males not given a preference?
5. From inflated government contracts to collapsing buildings, don’t we need regulatory bodies in every area of engineering endeavor to monitor the activity/professional capacity of our engineers?

EXPARTIATE / EXPERTRIATE QUOTA

1. base-level: is it right to employ an expatriate to do the job that should be made compulsorily available to the Nigerian engineering graduate?
2. talking of expatriates, is the ‘necessity for a superior technical-expertise not available locally promoted and enforced by the Nigerian Engineering stakeholders,  Nigerian embassies, etc., abroad who issue working visas to these expats?
3. why do we have a lot of expatriates who are fresh graduates from their countries taking up a first employment in Nigeria/Africa? Isn’t it insultive on our mental capacity as a nation?
4. where is the definition of RECIPROCITY BETWEEN NATIONS as far as expatriate employment is concerned? are Nigerians given employment consideration in the same technical capacity/commensurate salary scale in foreign countries for which a lot of expatriates are availing themselves on a monthly basis as they arrive in droves at our international airports? is there any regulatory body in the Nation making sure there is no abuse of local talent?
5. when will Nigeria begin to export technical talent.

 

I have put the above questions on the fly, and I believe, I have stimulated a nerve somewhere up there. At least we are now on the same frequency.  I will try to do justice to some of the above in my subsequent posts on this issue commonly I’ve titled: the Nigerian Engineering Series …..

 

LETS PUT OUR HEADS TOGETHER:

p.s do you want to contribute? put some thoughts together, answer(full/partially) one of the above / related questions as a regular post.

Kindly mail your entries to africantux at gmail dot com. It will be nice to see the other side of the coin from another persons man’s looking glass.

 

 

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