A team of students of the Federal University Technology, Akure, FUTA, has emerged one of the best in a global international space competition organized by the American Astronautically Society based in Virginia, United States of America.
The competition whose aim is to provide students across the Globe with an opportunity to gain practical experience working on a small-scale space project, saw the Can Size Satellite , CanSat FUTA team successfully emerging among the top five in the world and the first and only African University to partake in such competition.
Displaying the project at the University Sports Centre on Monday, October 7,2024, team lead, CanSat FUTA, Obafemi Daramola explains that “every year CanSat USA brings out mission for students all over the world to engage in. This year’s competition was to simulate a space probe that is entering the celestial body. According to the mission we received from USA the mission is that a rocket be used to launch a CanSat to the space to an altitude of 725meteres.”
He highlighted the stages of the preparation for the competition which include the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) with the involvement of a mentor and sponsor, Mr. Tayo Shonibare, based in Canada. At the PDR stage the group scored 98.96 percent which qualified it for the next stage of Critical Design Review (CDR). At the CDR stage, the group scored 97.17 percent qualifying it for the launch. The launch was supposed to be held in Virginia, USA but due to delay in logistics the team could not go, hence the need for a local launch.
He gives further explanation on the local launch without a rocket: “And because of constraint in Nigeria, we cannot assess a rocket and even if we do, we are not allowed to launch a rocket in a residential area legally. The mission has to do with a space probe entering into a kinetic atmosphere. All we just need to do was to simulate that scenario and that was why we resulted into using a drone.”
The advisor to the team and an expert in the field of space technology, Professor Folashade Dahunsi said The purpose of the CanSat program is to provide hands-on experience to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application and to inspire the next generation engineers and scientists.
Applauding the team, Professor Dahunsi said “to our incredible students, today is the day we celebrate your hard work and success. At the beginning you were stepping into uncharted territory building a CanSat from scratch is not a simple field, it required creativity, perseverance, and the courage to face and overcome setbacks, but each time you encountered a challenge you dug deeper, innovated further, and remained resolute in your goal. The launch we are witnessing today is not just the culmination of months of hard work, but also realizing the power of vision, collaboration, and commitment.”
In her remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji commended the ingenuity, doggedness, resilience and the ‘spirit of FUTARIAN’ exhibited by the team. According to her anyone who adds value to the FUTA project is a FUTARIAN. “What we have today is as a result of the resilience of the student, I want to specially thank them for what they have done, by making us proud today, they have written their names in gold, and I want to say if there is any way that anybody knows that we can further encourage our students please let us know. We are here to support the drive of the students and bring out the talent in them. “The FUTARIAN spirit is a spirit of I can do, I can make it, I can achieve it, and I want us to take that spirit to whatever we are doing because truly you can do it, you can make it, you can achieve it.”
Speaking about collaborations and its benefits, Prof Oladiji said “what I see today is the power of collaboration and am advising that in all we do, in schools and department let us know that until we collaborate we may not make good progress as I have searched and discovered that in sciences no Nobel prize winning team comes from the same discipline, usually they are from different disciplines telling us that if we go alone we are not likely to go far. I want to implore us that in all our research let us learn to make it multidisciplinary as we continue to collaborate with one another.”
The sponsor of the project and mentor, Mr. Tayo Shonibare of SPAAR group in Canada said “the reason why I did this, (and I believe this should be done), is to give the students an exposure and the University as well. I am really happy this is happening today. There are many challenges on the way but your students have proven to be very resilience to get to where they are today and am looking forward to giving the students more support and the university as well.”
Daramola thanked the team advisor, Professor Folashade Dahunsi and the sponsor, Mr. Tayo shonibare who saw the can-do spirit in the team. “This mission is not something we have done before, so taking up the courage to do it was something challenging at the onset. We thank God we delivered”.
The CanSat FUTA Team include:
Daramola Oluwafemi, Team Lead, 500 level Electrical and Electronics Department
Alfred Kareem 400 level,
Babalola Oluwatosin 500 level,
Sunday Oluwadamilola 500 level,
Lawal Ibraheem 500 Level,
Olowolayemo Timilehin 400 level,
Adetunji Abolade 500 level and
Oyeleke Elijah 500 level.