Two Senior Secondary 3 (SS3) students of Laureates College, Lagos, Masters Chibuikem Mark Emenyonu and Bright Chiamaka Egbubine, did Nigeria proud in far away USA at the 2013 summer camp programme held at the Howard University, Washington DC and were subsequently offered scholarships. The annual science programme is organised by the National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent U.S. Government agency responsible for promoting science and engineering through research programmes and education projects. In this chat with Vanguard Learning, the duo who worked on two different projects in their teams, speak on their projects and the benefits to Nigerians. Excerpts:

PERPETUAL Electromechanical Energy Converter:

Speaking on his project, Chibuikem Mark Emenyonu said: “Usually, this is a science programme organised annually for students who are about to enter the university. During the last summer camp at Howard University in the US, we were shared into various groups and my group was asked to create a perpetual electromechanical energy converter (PEEC). Our project is one of the two projects that won.”

Principle: “The perpetual electromechanical energy converter makes use of electromagnetic field. A portion of heavy duty magnets are placed on poles and as you know, like poles repel and when that happens, the force which they use to repel moves the poles further apart, creating energy as it moves faster and faster,” said Emenyonu who hopes to study electrical engineering at Howard.

Benefits:“We will benefit in terms of conservation of fuel which destroys the ozone layer.

Poisonous gases

We make use of fossil fuel in almost everything and the combustion of fossil fuel releases poisonous gases which cause acid rain and many health challenges. But creating electricity and other forms of energy using perpetual electromechanical energy converter does not involve burning of fuels. You just have magnets; that is the basic thing. It saves energy, time and also saves lives. It will reduce the rate at which we  use fossil fuel and the attendant consequences on health and environment,” said Emenyonu.

According to Mr. Uwem Ankak, a member of the Board of Directors, Laureates College, “Howard University, Washington DC, the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s alma mater, has this yearly research programme organised for students across the world. From every continent, they take two students. When the application came for the qualifying exams, we were able to apply and sent two of our students.

The two excelled in the exam. They also excelled in a national exam that was conducted. This student invitation programme was sponsored by Howard University, Laureates had no hand whatsoever in sponsoring the students. The students were there for one month, going through all sorts of research projects. The programme has been on for a number of years, it’s just that we have not been taking advantage of it; people are not keying into these things. Fortunately, we were able to key in. While at the camp, the two excelled and they were subsequently offered scholarship. The whole thing is basically for science and engineering. Of cour

se, there were other students from other Africa countries.”

Ankak gave kudos to Professor James Momoh, a Nigerian professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering, Architecture, & Computer Science. “He has been in that school for a while. He is the one extending the programme to African countries,” he said.

On his part, Bright Chiamaka Egbubine and his team developed a Smart Box which regulates energy transfer mode.

He said: “Our project was the largest project so we decided to name it the smart box which is used to regulate energy transfer mode. Professor James Momoh had to join two groups together to work on the project. We had to study binary circuit. The project was quite tough but the aim was to detect the mode of energy you need to use at a particular period of time. For example, if you are using a generator and the circuit for the house is too much for the generator, the smart box will indicate to you that the load is too much for the generator so you go to another energy source like wind or solar. In this project, we used inverter, battery and two solar panels.”

He noted that although his team did not win the competition, but they learnt a lot and the result of the project will surely benefit mankind.

“When the provost of Howard University came to witness our presentations, he found out that we were over 11 students in the group and Prof. Momoh explained to him that the project was in two parts: My group was working on source to consumer, while the second group was working from consumer’s choice so the project was the largest project and it took us time to explain.”

Benefits:

He said the number one benefit is safety. “In a situation where you are using a generator and the appliances in the house are too many for the generator to handle, it can explode but if you have a smart box, it will beep red and you will switch off the generator. May be the best energy source at that point is wind, inverter or solar, or battery, so this will save lives especially when people are sleeping in the night.”

Asked if the smart box will automatically turn off the generator, he said: “No, it will just beep red and you will go and turn it off yourself and put on the source the smart box indicates at that particular time. This will also save fuel, money and lives.

“Ours was actually the first prototype in Washington,” said Egbubine who hopes to study electrical engineering at Howard University.

As the Chinese say, a journey of 1,000km begins with a step, these young men believe they have done their bit and the National Science Foundation will take them to the next level to benefit mankind, after all, scientific research is all about finding ways of making life easier and more enjoyable.

They noted that although the projects were done on a small scale, they are now being assessed by the National Science Foundation.