The IEEE Nigeria Section maker event 2017 themed “Inspiring innovator of tomorrow“ was held at the Prestigious Baze University in the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja on 1st of June, 2017.

The event witnessed the attendance of student from different secondary across the FCT, teachers, undergraduates, graduate students, young professionals and senior IEEE members. The event started at 10am with the national pledge by the attendee after which invited dignitaries including the Nigeria exco team were introduced.

Among the attendees include and not limited the deputy vice chancellor Academy of Baze University Prof. Peter Umoh, Dean of the faculty of engineering Dr. Labaran Tanko, Dean of computer and applied sciences represented by Dr. Buchi Okpala, President of RAN Mrs. Irene Mbanefo to mention a few.

The guest speaker at the maker event was Gabriel Egbe Ph.D that talked about “Effective reading skills for innovation”. The speaker talked about reading processes, reading level, understanding and using of literacy wheel, handling reading comprehension, critical reading and innovation.

The maker event workshops commenced after the tea break.

The two workshops were the Teacher In-Service Program (TISP) and Robotics Contest. The TISP was divided into two sub-sessions for students and teachers of secondary schools that were in attendance. While the students were introduced to STEM through the use of aiding tools, the teachers were taught the basics of electronics and computer programming.

The 2017 IEEE Nigeria Robotics Contest started with an opening remark by the President of the Robotics and Automation Society, Nigeria Chapter, who is also the Chair of the IEEE Nigeria Section, Engr. Raph Onoshakpor. Introduction to the Tryengineering.org platform was done by Reginald Ogu.  A brief introduction to Robot Arms was then presented by David Okereafor, who afterwards read out the rules of the contest and divided the contestants into teams. Four teams were formed by students of Baze University, Bells University, University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, LAUTECH, Covenant University and Nasarawa State University. The contestants were asked to assemble and program electronic robot arms within the time limit of an hour. At the end of the contest, all the contestants completed the task to certain degrees and the first position was given to the team made up by the University of Ibadan and Bells University.

The Administrative and Technical Meeting of the IEEE Nigeria Section commenced at the end of the workshops. Chapters and Societies presented reports of their activities and chairs of upcoming conferences and congresses made presentations about preparations made towards the attainment of goals for the events.

The event ended at 4.15pm.