A’Ibom Varsity Student Wins N100,000 For Designing Automated Fish Feed

An Agricultural Engineering student of the Akwa Ibom State University, Blessing Obot, has won N100,000 after emerging as the winner of the department’s maiden automated design competition.

Obot, whose research focused on ‘designing and developing an automated fish feed dispenser’ scored 95.33% to beat his closest rival, Courage Ekanem, who had 93.78% to finish second. Godwin Akpan clinched third with 92.22%.

The automated fish feed dispenser designed is capable of dispensing 1kg of 3mm pellet in 20 seconds while dispensing a similar-weight of 9mm pellet in 25 seconds.

The study achieved a consumption efficiency of 90%, while a reliability of 87.5% was achieved, the school saidd

Obot said her motivation for the research was anchored on reducing labour costs incurred in manual feeding of the product, limiting wastages and pollution from excess feeding, uneven growth due to inconsistency in feeding rate, and optimization of resources.

Vice-chancellor of the University, Prof. Nse Essien, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Otoabasi Akpan, lauded the department for the initiative and promised to facilitate the scope of the competition to accommodate all departments and faculties by the next edition.

Earlier, the Chairperson, Prof. Edna Edna Augustine Akpan, said the poster competition is timely as some of the research outputs are currently issues of concern in the Industry.

She charged the supervisors and students to publish findings from the respective research and pursue collaboration with the Industry and Policymakers, to ensure the three helix work together for the growth of society.

Delivering his goodwill message, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Prof. Esio Oboho, said the Faculty is committed to advancing research that would proffer solutions to local challenges for the development of Akwa Ibom and Nigeria by extension.

The Head of the Department, Dr. Promise Etim, while setting the tone for the event, lauded Engr. Kingsley Umani and partners from Washington State University, USA, for collaborating with the department to organize the poster competition. He thanked students who participated in the competition, urging them to be result driven.

The first, second and third prize winners received cash prizes of N100,000, N70,000 and N50,000 respectively. Sixteen students took part in the competition.

A’Ibom Varsity Student Wins N100,000 For Designing Automated Fish Feed is first published on The Whistler Newspaper