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.

Further information is available on the Fly Your Ideas Web site: www.airbus-fyi.com.