UNAAB Students emerge one of only three African teams shortlisted in aerospace global competition
   
    By 
naijapose.com on February 9, 2013   
 
A student team from the Federal University of Agriculture 
Abeokuta have been selected as one of only three African teams to 
proceed to the next stage in a global competition. The other two teams 
are from Wits University, South Africa and A.B.E University of Nairobi, 
Kenya. They are among 100 student teams worldwide to go through to the 
second round of the Biennial global Fly Your Ideas Competition, where 
entrants are invited to propose new ideas that will help the aerospace 
and air transport industry to become sustainable and eco-efficient. The 
teams were selected from over 600 teams who had submitted entries into 
the third edition of the Unesco-backed competition. The competition had 
earlier been published on 
234direct.
The winning team stands to win a first prize of €30 000.
The team from Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta are 
proposing a revolutionary Future Aircraft using Geo-Atomic Vehicular 
Levitation Analogy (GALEV). The team members are Tolulope Ademolu, Tosin
 Aina, Damilola Oderinde and Damilola Ogundipe.
The University of Nairobi’s A.B.E. team entry involves the use of 
engineering a bamboo, sandwiched honeycomb structure and embedded 
thermal-acoustic foam as a replacement for non-recyclable composite 
materials used in the manufacture of aircraft cabin items. The student 
team from Wits University are proposing a revolutionary aircraft control
 system, which would replace fly-by-wire technology with a hybrid 
visible light communication system.
Of the student teams selected, only 3% are from Africa, another 3% 
from the Middle East, 8% from America, 37% from Europe, and 49% are from
 the Asia-Pacific.
Another elimination round still awaits the 100 teams before the final
 five teams to present their ideas to a panel of Airbus and industry 
experts at Airbus, in Hamburg, Germany, on 12 June 2013, are announced. 
The awards ceremony will take place in Paris, on 13 June 2013, at the 
Unesco headquarters.
The teams now have until 12 April 2013 to explore, test and develop 
their concepts. While the idea remains in the hands of the students, an 
Airbus mentor and expert have been assigned to each team to support, 
inspire and challenge the competitors.