Some government universities have received state modern construction and testing equipment to enhance the quality of teaching of civil engineering and related fields and address issues of building collapse.
At the presentation of the equipment called Wizard Auto Compact line Compression Machine to six universities in Abuja, the Director General of the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute NBRRI, Prof Duna Samson said the initiative was borne out of the concern to address the recurring decay in civil engineering laboratories in most universities.
Prof Duna Samson said the presentation of the Wizard Auto Compact Line Compression, a machine that measures the strength of an item like concrete and steel was to curb the challenge of incessant building collapse.
Prof Samson explained that the institute had intervened in most of the critical sectors of the economy as part of its mandate to carry out integrated research and Development in roads, buildings and engineering sectors.
He listed the universities who had benefited from the first tranche of the institute’s donation and training of staffs and students on the usage to include Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, University of Jos, University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,University of Uyo.
The Director General explained that the second phase distributed to the six universities from the geo political zones would help to strengthen and build the capacity of engineering students in the selected universities.
These universities are: Federal University of Technology, Akure, University of Abuja, University of Calabar, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.
“ The equipment will measure a standard property of concrete which is compressing strength and with that compressing strength, you can guide against building collapse.We want our building to have high resistance concrete”, he said.
Giving an overview of the project, A former Director General, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Prof Matawal Slim said the idea was conceived after concerns by stakeholders on how to address building collapse and the challenge of dilapidated laboratories equipment in tertiary institutions.
Prof Mataiwal however stressed the need to set up monitoring team to follow up the project and suggested that polytechnic be included in the scheme.
Speaking On behalf of the beneficiaries, the Vice Chancellor Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto, Prof Lawal Bilbis thanked the institute for the gesture and maintained that commercialisation of research outputs had been a challenge and believes the academia would change the narrative.
