TECHNOLOGY,ENGINEERING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT by ADEMOLA OYINLOLA

Protocols

• Prologue

To Allah be all the Glory for His blessings and for giving me the opportunity to deliver the first ever Public Lecture of not only of the Faculty of Engineering but for this citadel of learning, Osun State College of Technology, EsaOke. I also want to appreciate the Rector and Management of the College for consenting to the request of the Dean of the Faculty, EngrEladiya, for the Lecture to hold today, despite other programmes that had earlier been scheduled for today. When the Dean of Engineering gave me the letter of invitation for the lecture, I did not know the date would be the 25^thanniversary of the College, until much later. For record purposes today is the silver jubilee of establishing this College, as the edict that brought the College into existence was signed on 12^th of October 1992, twenty five years ago today, by the then Osun State Governor, AlhajIsiakaAdetunji (of blessed memory).Once again, to Allah be all the glory for my being part of this history.

Inaugural lectures give opportunities for newly-promoted or appointed Chairs and/or Professors to inform his/her colleagues in the University and the general public about their research career and update them on their current and future directions; whereas a public lecture is one of the methods by which the public can be educated specifically in the arts and sciences. Today’s lecture will be a similitude of an inaugural lecture principally because of the audience and the venue of its deliverance being an academic environment.

The tradition of deliveringinaugural lectures (or its semblance)dated back to 1623, at the University of Oxford, when Professor DigoryWhear delivered his oratioayspicalisin the ScholaGrammaticae.By 1708 during the time of Edward Thwaites (also of Oxford University), the inaugural lecture had become somewhat formalized and the lecture has since be perceived by scholars as an intellectual feast prepared by the lecturer according to his/her own recipe (Mojola, 1991). The title of today’s lecture is: Technology, Engineering and Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development.I choose this topic first, because of the significance of Technology and Engineering in the day-to-day advancement of our society, the relevance of Technology and Engineering to the provision employment for our teeming unemployed youths and thirdly the application of Technology and Engineering in the production of goods and services that can sustain the development that improves the welfare of the people; also the motto of this College is “Technology for Sustainable Development” hence what better ways to mark the College’s birthday today than to speak on its motto; and finally it encapsulates the thrust of my research and life in the last over thirty years or so.

Mr. Rector Sir, I am highly honoured and privileged to be called upon to deliver today’s lecture being the first of its kind in the Faculty of Engineering, and the College as a whole. This lecture is divided into three major parts: Technology for Sustainable Development, Engineering for Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development.

• Technology

Encyclopedia Britannica (1988) defines technology as “the application of science to the practical aims of human life”, and as it is sometimes phrased “to the change and manipulation of the human environment”. The word ‘Technology’ conjures up different

images in the minds of different people. In broad terms, Technology is any practical artwhich utilizes scientific knowledge. In the narrower industrial sense, technology may be regarded as the science of industrial arts and crafts. The word engineering is often used as a synonym for technology but engineering is only a subset of technology (Mojola, 1991, Faborode, 2005). There are many facets to technology; the term can either be applied generally or to specific areas: examples include: Engineering technology, medical technology, biotechnology, information technology, space technology, nano technology, or “state-of-the-art technology” etc.

Engineering technology can manifest differently if we choose to look at it through different prisms;for instance we recognize mechanical, electrical, civil, engineering technologies, etc, among others, all of which play different roles in our lives. Uujahman (2001) reported that technology is the essence of life, and that engineering technology is about planning, creating, executing, sustaining, and making changes. A common maxim in the engineering family is “doctors are concerned about your health, lawyers are concerned about your rights but engineers are concerned about the totality of your life, its development and sustainability”.

2.1 Definition and Usage

In general, technology is the relationship that society has with its tools and crafts, and to what extent society can control its environment. The New Webster’s dictionary of the English Languageoffers a definition of the term Technology as “the science of technical processes in a wide, though related field of knowledge”. Thus industrial technology embraces the chemical, mechanical and physical sciences as these are applied in industrial processes.

• Ursula Franklin (1921-2016), in her 1989 “Real World of Technology” Inaugural lecture, gave another definition of the concept; as “the practice, the way we do things around here”.
• The term is often used to imply a specific field of technology, or to refer to high technology or just consumer electronics, rather than technology as a whole.
• Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, defines technology in two ways: as “the pursuit of life by means other than life”, and as “organized inorganic matter”.
• Technology can be most broadly defined as the entities, both material and immaterial, created by the application of mental and physical effort in order to achieve some value. In this usage, technology refers to tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems. It is a far-reaching term that may include simple tools, such as a crowbar or wooden spoon, or more complex machines, such as a space station or particle accelerator. Tools and machines need not be material; virtual technology, such as computer software and business methods, falls under this definition of technology.
• The word “technology” can also be used to refer to a collection of techniques. In this context, it is the current state of humanity’s knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs, or satisfies wants; it includes technical methods, skills, processes, techniques, tools and raw materials. When combined with another term, such as “medical technology” or “space technology”, it refers to the state of the respective field’s knowledge and tools. “State-of-the-art technology” refers to the high technology available to humanity in any field. Technology can be viewed as an activity that forms or changes culture (Oyinlola, 2009).
• Additionally, technology is the application of mathematics, science, and the arts for the benefit of life as it is known. A modern example is the rise of communication technology, which has lessened barriers to human interaction and, as a result, has helped spawn new subcultures; the rise of cyber culture has, at its basis, the development of the computer and the internet.
• Not all technology enhances culture in a creative way; technology can also help facilitate political oppression and war via tools such as guns and bombs. As a cultural activity, technology predates both science and engineering, each of which formalizes some aspects of technological endeavour.

Technology involves a combination of ingenuity and creativity and as a concept; it originally signified the study of or a discourse upon the arts, both fine and applied. By the late 20^th century it had come to mean the pursuit of results, especially the useful results of scientific research, and it had in fact becomes a global term connoting not only the tangible products of science but also the attitudes, process, artifacts and consequences associated with it. It suggests permanent change and improvement, once a new technique is discovered and adopted, society does not attempt to revert to the former technique. The automobile, for example displaced the horse, the electric light replaced kerosene lamps, sound movies replaced silent films and word processors are rapidly making manual typewriters obsolete.

Sustainable according to Webster’s New World dictionary (1994) means to keep in existence, maintain or prolong, while development is defined as advancement (or progress) in growth. Hence, Sustainable Development can be said to mean keeping or the continued maintenance of the advancement (or progress) in growth.

Brundtland Commission (a Commission of the UN on World Development) defined Sustainable Development as “The development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs”.

Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) are three related sides of the same coin which transforms a society from backwardness to modernity; from being a liability to becoming an asset, from being a non-industrialized nation to an industrialized nation; from a dependent economy to a self-reliant one. It further helps to categorize countries into First, Second and Third Worlds. In other words, SET are the cardinal factors in determining the quality of life of a people and the overall status of a nation, and therefore its sustainable development.

Technology, Science and Development

Without the advances of technology, the development of the humanities and the arts would have been slower. The relation between technology and science is more difficult to define and the two are often confused. Early technology was based on experience rather than on science. Science was the domain of the philosopher, while technology was in the hands of the craftsman. The two were not brought together until 16^th Century when Francis Bacon suggested that Scientist should study the methods of the craftsman should understand more science. Yet science lagged behind technology. The steam engine for instance was used widely for more than 70 years before its scientific basis was well understood. It was only in the middle of the 19^th Century that the advances of science began to lead engineering and technology, a situation taken for granted today.

The increasing pace of technological change in the 20^th Century makes it difficult to place recent development into perspective. New materials, ranging from synthetic rubber through plastic and artificial fabrics, have affected our ways of life and fashion. Following the establishment of the assembly line by Henry ford in 1913, the automobile became inexpensive enough for many to afford. Electronics was ushered in when CugliemoMarcon (1874-1937) sent the first transatlantic radio message in 1901. Radio and television changed communications and entertainment habit. Technology keeps advancing at a rapid rate. It can only be guessed what the information revolution of the late 21st Century will bring about.

The example of how India developed her agricultural institutes and trained her extension workers deserves attention here in Nigeria. The Prime Minister of India, Pindit Nehru, who was a natural science graduate of Cambridge University before going into politics, is widely regarded as the architect of modern India. His views on science and its possibilities for human progress dominated India’s development strategies during his premiership (1946-1964). In one of his quotable quotes, he said, “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people. Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid. The future belongs to science and those who make friends with it”.

We must therefore, not fail in our quest for technology because the strong correlation between technological advancement and economic well-being is now globally recognized. Despite all its shortcomings, no nation can be economically and socio-politically independent without scientific and technological self-reliance. Simply put, ‘there is no alternative to technology’. Indeed, to emphasize this inevitability of technology is the fact that GDP can be quantumly enhanced when value is added to items through hi-tech. For example, a given quantity of silicon purified in Brazil will fetch about $140m while the same quantity of silicon when superiorly purified in the US through hi-tech, will fetch three trillion US dollars. And so, this, in simple terms indicates how hi-tech can multiply wealth 7000 times!!! It also explains why Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) are always moving in tandem (Momoh,1999 ).

In short, technology spins wealth permanently as against our much talked-about petroleum which being an exhaustible wealth, does initially give an illusion of wealth but in real terms, it spins poverty. Technology is therefore, the inexhaustible oil wealth of the future. We therefore, have no choice than to imbibe technology and that too, Copy Technology. Today, our economy is down but not out, our agricultural output is poor, our industrial capacity utilization is critically low and the political terrain is slippery.

Hence, Technology for Sustainable Development in the context of this paper will mean improvement of our strategy(ies) for purposeful advancement of the larger society (be it in arts, industrial, environmental or management, etc).

The human race’s use of technology began with the conversion of natural resources into simple tools. The pre-historical discovery of the ability to control fire increased the available sources of food, and the invention of the wheel helped humans in travelling in and controlling their environment. Recent technological developments, including the printing press, the telephone, and the Internet, have lessened physical barriers to communication and allowed humans to interact freely on a global scale. However, not all technology has been used for peaceful purposes; the development of weapons of ever-increasing destructive power has progressed throughout history, from clubs to nuclear weapons.

Technology has affected society and its surroundings in a number of ways. In many societies, technology has helped develop more advanced economies (including today’s global economy) and has allowed the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce unwanted by-products, known as pollution, and deplete natural resources, to the detriment of the earth and its environment. Various implementations of technology influence the values of a society and new technology often raises new ethical questions. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, a term originally applied only to machines, and the challenge of traditional norms.

Development without sustainability is purposeless, sterile and ephemeral. Any developmental effort that is not based on a strategy that ensures the need and aspirations of the present are met while those for future generations are not jeopardized is surely not worth taking.

2.1.1 What Engineering is

The survival of the human race requires food, water and shelter from the elements (that is sun, rain, wind etc) and from danger. The engineer is concerned with the provision of these primary needs for mankind and the provision of secondary and tertiary needs to make living worthwhile.

Engineering may be defined as the Science and art of designing, planning, constructing and managing with economy and elegance, machinery, buildings, roads, waterways, power and processing plants, electrical systems and other physical structures so that they can safely resist the forces to which they may be subjected. Because engineering is a study of the application of some scientific issues, it is based on the principles of observation, hypothesis, mathematical inferences and deductions, and confirmatory experimentations. It is also said to be an art, since art, ab initio means skill and ability acquired through patient practice and directed towards a predetermined end. This end may be aesthetic, ethical or functional. Engineering would have been dull if it were to be restricted to only these, but is also includes logical reasoning otherwise known as common sense), personal sentiment, aptitude and the satisfaction one enjoys by creating or opening new horizons can only be achieved through a good imaginative process. Imagination and ingenuity (from where the word ‘’engineer’ originated) are the trade mark of the engineer. Albert Einstein once said that ‘’Imagination is more important that knowledge, for knowledge is limited whereas imagination embraces the entire world thereby stimulating progress and giving birth to evolution’’. It is this ability to imagine, analyses and synthesis that makes the engineer unique as a professional (and first among equals), (Oyinlola, 1998)

Historically, man started to practice engineering through the art of killing, for food and to defend himself, thus military engineering was born and perfected. The provision of shelter and to live together gave birth to what we now know as Civil Engineering. Up till the middle of the 19^th century, professional engineers were divided into only these two classes i.e military and civil. The world first professional engineering body, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) of Britain was founded in 1818, but received its Royal Charter in 1828. It was not until January 27,1847 that the monopoly of the Institution of Civil Engineers was broken to give birth to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (whose first president was George Stephenson, the railway pioneer) which subsequently gave birth to Electrical Engineering in 1871, Structural Engineering in 1908 (incorporated in 1934), Chemical Engineering in 1922 and Agricultural Engineering in 1938, as reported by Oyinlola (1998).

This process of splintering has continued unabated through the years, and today we have at least sixty clearly defined engineering specialties in the engineering family. This extensive fragmentation should not be seen to mean that engineering is a rag-bag collection of disjoined bits and pieces. It is not because a few common threads of thought run right through the entire gamut of the family giving it intellectual cohesion and making it worthy of study in higher education institutions and a synonym to what we know as civilization (Oyinlola 1998).

2.1.2 Research

It is the systematic investigation into the why and how things happen.

Engineering Research discovers or establishes principles or widens the horizon in physical development. It is the primary duty of the Engineer to extend the frontiers of knowledge, whether locally or globally, to improve on what is presently in use, that is to upgrade the living standard of the people; to improve the efficiency of machines, plants and systems; to develop new materials and processes; and to open new horizons in all human endeavours. For instance, in man’s bid to conquer time, a natural phenomenon, vis-à-vis his activities e.g motion, the wheel was invented around 3500 B.C. which led to the development of the velocipede(old version of the bicycle) by Frenchman Pierre Michalaux and his son, Ernest, in the 1850s. Today, there are about 105 million bicycles globally (2004, estimate), and 103,426,578 has been produced globally in 2017 according to Worldometers (2017), each capable of propelling an easy rider up to 19km/h which is about four times man’s normal walking speed of 5km/h.

Also in 1769, Nicholas Joseph Cugnot, a French army artillery officer, built the first self-propelled motor vehicle, which carried four people and ran for 20 minutes at a speed of 3.6 km/h. The most original contribution to the solution of the motion-time problem was the development of the modern motor vehicle with a petrol or diesel engine which came from Carl Benz, and Gothlich Daimler both of Germany who independently tested their vehicles in 1885 and 1886 respectively.Other illustrious pioneer contributors to the modern motor vehicle include Louis Renault, Andrew Citroen, and Armand Peugeot, all Frenchmen; Henry Ford and Walter Chrisler of the United States; William Morris and Herbert Austin of Britain. Emily Jellinek, an associate of Gottlieb Daimler, had a daughter called ‘’Mercedes,’’ and when in 1926 Daimler teamed up with Carl Benz to form a joint company, the world famous Mercedez Benz came into being. Henry Royce and Charles Rolls had in 1906 combined forces to produce what is now the exquisitely elegant Rolls Royce for the extremely WEALTHY. Ferdinand Porsche in Germany designed the Volks–wagen Beetle and Giovanni Angellis gave the world FabbricaItalianaAutomobil Torino, otherwise known as F.I.A.T, according to Mojola (1991).

JelaniAliyu the famous Chevrolet Volt Designer, a brand car from the stable of General Motors of U S,is from Sokoto State has recently taken over from EngrAminu Jalal as the Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council is heading the team that is expected to give Nigeria her dream Made in – Nigeria motor-vehicle.Today about 655 million vehicles are in use throughout the world with about 76.5 per cent or 50.1 million vehicles being cars and 23.5 per cent or 153.9 million being trucks and buses. Of these North American (i.e. U.S. and Canada) has the least person per car ratio of 1:8; Western Europe, 2.6; eastern Europe, 15.8; Pacific, 2.8; Far east 73.0; Carribbean, 10.6; Middle East, 31.0; Africa 89.2 and South America has 16.7 persons per car.

The first country with the highest number of motor vehicles for every one thousand inhabitants is San Marino, one of the world’s oldest republics. The country is a mountainous microstate surrounded by North Central Italy; it has 1263 motor vehicles for every one thousand of its inhabitants. Table 2 below shows some of the countries and their rankings.

The motor vehicle is a microcosm of motion. A medium-size car, with four-stroke cycle engine, is assembled from more than 13,000 different parts, made from about 60 different materials. In the engine alone there are at least 120 moving parts that have to be continuously lubricated. For the comfort of passengers, especially on rough roads, suspension systems of coil and leaf springs, torsion bars, and shock absorbers are designed to move forward and away from the ground at up to 1,200 times per minute.

A good car with an engine capacity of between 1.5 and 1.8 litres, can move from rest to 160 km/h, in less than 10 seconds and with good brakes and good tyres, it should be possible to bring the car back to rest in less than 6 seconds, during which time sufficient heat would have been generated to boil more than one litre of water, (Omojola, 1991).

Table 1: List of Countries by number of Motor Vehicles per 1000 inhabitants

Source: https//en.m.wikipedia.org

The history of the ship can be traced to ancient times, and the sail (or wind) was the major means of propulsion until the 19^th century when the steam engine came into use, followed later by the steam turbine and eventually the modern diesel engine. The size, weight and cruising speed of ships have increased considerably over the years, and it is not uncommon these days for a huge tanker (335m by 53m) to carry 300,000 metric tonnes of crude oil at a cruising speed of 35 km/h from one end of the earth to the other. The main difficulty with this mechanical monstrosity is its very large inertia. In compliance with Newton’s first law, once the tanker starts cruising, it would take more than one hour and 13 kilometers of continuous braking to reduce its speed to a slow pace of 8 km/h.

Extensive research conducted with gliders by aviation pioneers like George Cayley Otto Lihenthal, Octave Chanute, Samuel Langley and the Wright Brothers (Wilbur and Orville Wright) led to the first successful heavier-than-air flight performed by the Wrights on December 17 1903, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the United State of America. With Orville Wrights as the pilot, the aircraft took off at 10.35 a.m. flew for 12 seconds against a wind of more than 32 km/h and landed safely, having covered a distance of about 37 metres. Today, subject to the availability of standard facilities, there is no place on the earth which cannot be reached from any other place within 48 hours, if use is made of supersonic slender-wind aircraft like the Concorde, which flies at more than twice the speed of sound or a wide-body jet like Boeing 747 (that is capable of carrying a pay load of 75,000 kg over a distance of 11,000 km non-stop!).

These are all for solving the motion-time problem. The computer, as we know it today, does not come by a fiat or by magic but by strenuous hours, days and years of research with the sole aim of bettering our best. The world’s fastest computer which can perform 3.1 billion calculations per second was designed by Philip Emeagwali, a Nigerian based in the U.S

2.2.1 Science, Engineering and Technology

The distinction between science, engineering and technology is not always clear. Science is the reasoned investigation or study of phenomena, aimed at discovering enduring principles among elements of the phenomenal world by employing formal techniques such as the scientific method. Technologies are not usually exclusively products of science, because they have to satisfy requirements such as utility, usability and safety.Engineering is the goal-oriented process of designing and making tools and systems to exploit natural phenomena for practical human means, often (but not always) using results and techniques from science. The development of technology may draw upon many fields of knowledge, including scientific, engineering, mathematical, linguistic, and historical knowledge, to achieve some practical result.

Technology is often a consequence of science and engineering – although technology as a human activity precedes the two fields. For example, science might study the flow of electrons in electrical conductors, by using already-existing tools and knowledge. The new-found knowledge may then be used by engineers to create new tools and machines, such as semiconductors, computers, and other forms of advanced technology. In this sense, scientists and engineers may both be considered technologists; the three fields are often considered as one for the purposes of research and reference.

The exact relations between science and technology in particular have been debated by scientists, historians, and policymakers in the late 20^th century, in part because the debate can inform the funding of basic and applied sciences. In the immediate wake of World War II, for example, in the United States it was widely considered that technology was simply “applied science” and that to fund basic science was to reap technological results in due time. An articulation of this philosophy could be found explicitly in Vannevar Bush’s treatise on postwar science policy, Science – The endless Frontier. “New products, new industries, and more jobs require continuous additions to knowledge of the laws of nature. This essential new knowledge can be obtained only through basic scientific research”. In the late-1960s, however, this view came under direct attack, leading towards initiatives to fund science for specific tasks (initiatives resisted by the scientific community). The issue remains contentious – though most analysts resist the model that technology simply is a result of scientific research.

Momah (1999) reported that while Science explains why things happen, as dictated by the laws of nature, engineering, an applied science, explains how things happen, but it is Technology that makes things happen, which explains why technology is the all-pervading phenomenon involving everybody from the house-boy to the President, in all aspects of human affairs. Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) are therefore three related sides of the same coin which transforms a society from backwardness to modernity; from being a liability to becoming an asset, from being a non-industrialized nation to an industrialized nation; from a dependent economy to a self-reliant one. It further helps to categorize countries into First, Second and Third Worlds. In other words, SET are the cardinal factors in determining the quality of life of a people and the overall status of a nation, and therefore its sustainable development.

In the words of Late Dr. Pius Okigbo, he said “We must learn the language of the new age which is the future with science being its grammar. In explaining how technology develops a society, Momah (1999) states that “the most astonishing aspect of Technology is its revolutionary mobility”. For instance, World Bank analysis reports that it took United Kingdom, the first industrialized nation, 58 years (1780-1838) to double its per capita, but later with the adoption of improved technology it took other countries far less: U.S. 46 year (1839-1885); Japan 34 Technology, and its grammar which is science”. Technology is the language of the present and years (1855-1919); Indonesia 17 years (1968-1985); South Korea 11 years (1966-1977) and China 10 years (1977-1987).

Of course, it is said that, if you do not dream big dreams, you will not achieve small dreams. Vision 20:2020 is not just dreaming big dreams; it is set to achieve big dreams too! Becoming one of the world’s top 20 economies is no mean achievement especially that Nigeria is nowhere close to that envisioned status. Nigeria is ranked 95 according to the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index ranking and 2006-2007 comparisons. Nigeria is far behind the top 20 most competitive economies, which include Belgium (20), Australia (19), France (18), Israel (17), Norway (16), Austria (15), Taiwan China (14), Canada (13), Hong Kong SAR (12), Korea (11), Netherlands (10), United Kingdom (9), Japan (8), Singapore (7), Finland (6), Germany (5,) Sweden (4), Sweden (3), Denmark (2), Switzerland, and United States (1). Indeed, by that ranking, Nigeria is behind Trinidad and Tobago (84), Libya (88) and even Namibia (89). So what is the basis for this bounding optimism to be among the top 20 economies of the world?

2.3 Technology, Science and Development

Without the advances of technology, the development of the humanities and the arts would have been slower. The relation between technology and science is more difficult to define and the two are often confused. Early technology was based on experience rather than on science. Science was the domain of the philosopher, while technology was in the hands of the craftsman. The two were not brought together until 16^th Century when Francis Bacon suggested that Scientist should study the methods of the craftsman and the craftsman should understand more science. Yet science lagged behind technology. The steam engine for instance was used widely for more than 70 years before its scientific basis was well understood. It was only in the middle of the 19^th Century that the advances of science began to lead engineering and technology a situation taken for granted today.

Development as a socioeconomic term is concerned with increase in gross domestic product, infrastructural facilities, employment opportunities, life expectancy, housing, wholesome environment, good living standard etc. Development is an advancement(or progress) in growth. Mustapha in Nwachuku (2006) reported that development as a concept includes:

• Help for the poor because they are left with no option than to destroy their environment, e.g. by felling tree for cooking and for selling.
• The idea of self-reliant development within natural resources constraint.
• The idea of co-effective development using differing economic criteria to the traditional approach; that is to say development should not degrade environmental quality; nor should it reduces productivity in the long run.
• The great issues of health control, appropriate technologies, food self-reliance, clean water and shelter for all and
• The notion that people centered initiatives is needed; human beings, in other words are the resources in concept.

2.4 What Is Sustainable Development

Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most frequently quoted definition is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland report. The report affirms that “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It contains within it two key concepts:

• The concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
• The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.”

All definitions of sustainable development require that we see the world as a system – a system that connects space; and a system that connects time. When you think of the world as a system over space, you get to understand that air pollution from North America affects air quality in Asia, and that pesticides sprayed in Argentina could harm fish stocks off the coast of Australia. And when you think of the world as a system over time, you start to realize that the decisions our grandparents made about how to farm the land continue to affect agricultural practice today; and the economic policies we endorse today will have an impact on urban poverty when our children are adults.

We also understand that quality of life is a system, too. It’s good to be physically healthy, but what if you are poor and don’t have access to education? It’s good to have a secure income, but what if the air in your part of the world is unclean? And it’s good to have freedom of religious expression, but what if you can’t feed your family? The concept of sustainable development is rooted is this sort of systems thinking. It helps us understand ourselves and our world. The problems we face are complex and serious – and we cannot address them in the same way we created them.

What are the sustainable development goals?

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) are the new, universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years.The SDGs follow and expand on the millennium development goals(MDGs), which were agreed by governments in 2001 and areexpected to have expired at the end of 2015.

Why do we need another set of goals?

There is broad agreement that, while the MDGs provided a focal point for governments – a framework around which they could develop policies and overseas aid programmes designed to end poverty and improve the lives of poor people – as well as a rallying point for NGOs to hold them to account, they were too narrow.The eight MDGs – reduce poverty and hunger; achieve universal education; promote gender equality; reduce child and maternal deaths; combat HIV, malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability; develop global partnerships – failed to consider the root causes of poverty and overlooked gender inequality as well as the holistic nature of development. The goals made no mention of human rights and did not specifically address economic development. While the MDGs, in theory, applied to all countries, in reality they were considered targets for poor countries to achieve, with finance from wealthy states. Conversely, every country will be expected to work towards achieving the SDGs.

As the MDG deadline approaches, about 1 billion people still live on less than $1.25 (about #375) a day – the World Bank measure on poverty – and more than 800 million people do not have enough food to eat. Women are still fighting hard for their rights, and millions of women still die in childbirth.

What are the proposed 17 Sustainable Development goals?

• Poverty: End poverty in all its forms everywhere
• Zero Hunger: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture
• Good Health and Well-being: Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages
• Quality Education: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
• Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Clean Water and Sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
• Affordable and clean energy: Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
• Decent Work and Economic growth: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all
• Industry, Innovations and Infrastructure: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation, and foster innovation
• Reduce inequality within and among countries
• Sustainable cities and Communities:Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
• Responsible Consumption and Production: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
• Climate Action: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking note of agreements made by the UNFCCC forum)
• Life below Water: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
• Life on Land: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss
• Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
• Partnership for the Goals: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development

Within the goals are 169 targets, to flesh the skeletal framework. Targets under goal one, for example, include reducing by at least half the number of people living in poverty by 2030, and eradicating extreme poverty (people living on less than $1.25 a day). Under goal five, there’s a target on eliminating violence against women, while goal 16 has a target to promote the rule of law and equal access to justice.

The Young Entrepreneurs:

With these as hindsight, this seminar will be concerned with the first and the eighth of the goals: these are poverty eradication and provision of decent work for all with respect to young entrepreneurs.

The word “entrepreneurship” is derived from a French word “entreprendre” which means“the act of doing something”, as a strategy to win a war. Richard Contillion (1725) used the word entrepreneur to describe a self-employed person, while Jean Baptiste (1803) used entrepreneur to describe a person who had managerial skills. Joseph Schumpeter (1934) saw entrepreneurship as an engine of economic development while David McClelland (1961) described entrepreneur as someone that met the needs of others for personal achievement. Peter Drucker (1964) opined that an entrepreneur is a maximiser of opportunity (or wealth), or as someone who is creative, but in 1975, Albert Shapero saw an entrepreneur as one who took initiatives, organised the social and economic mechanisms and accepted risks failures. Robert Hisrich (1985) reported entrepreneurship as the process of creating something different with values by devoting the necessary time and effort to it.

Entrepreneurship has no respect for colour, height, race, tribe, sex or age. In other words, anybody can be on entrepreneur. Although there is no current statistics to support the issue of youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria, studies carried out in USA, UK reported that most entrepreneurs started their business (or dreams) at a very young age. The age bracket of young entrepreneurs is usually between 10 and 30years. Records show that in the USA;

41% of entrepreneurs launched their businesses at ages less than 20years

25% of entrepreneurs launched their business at ages between 20 and 29years

39% of entrepreneurs launched their business at ages between 30 and 39years and

88% of entrepreneurs launched their business between ages 20 and 50years.

Unveiling Entrepreneurship

Origins of the Word “Entrepreneur” In common parlance, being an entrepreneur is associated with starting a business, but this is a very loose application of a term that has a rich history and a much more significant meaning. The term “entrepreneur” originated in French economics as early as the 17th and 18th centuries. In French, it means someone who “undertakes,” not an “undertaker” in the sense of a funeral director, but someone who undertakes a significant project or activity. More specifically, it came to be used to identify the venturesome individuals who stimulated economic progress by finding new and better ways of doing things. The French economist most commonly credited with giving the term this particular meaning is Jean Baptiste Say. Writing around the turn of the 19th century, Say put it this way, “The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.” Entrepreneurs create value. In the 20th century, the economist most closely associated with the term was Joseph Schumpeter. He described entrepreneurs as the innovators who drive the “creative-destructive” process of capitalism.

In his words, “the function of entrepreneurs is to reform or revolutionize the pattern of production.” They can do this in many ways: “by exploiting an invention or, more generally, an untried technological possibility for producing a new commodity or producing an old one in a new way, by opening up a new source of supply of materials or a new outlet for products, by reorganizing an industry and so on.” Schumpeter’s entrepreneurs are the change agents in the economy. By serving new markets or creating new ways of doing things, they move the economy forward. It is true that many of the entrepreneurs that Say and Schumpeter have in mind serve their function by starting new, profit-seeking business ventures, but starting a business is not the essence of entrepreneurship. Though other economists may have used the term with various nuances, the Say-Schumpeter tradition that identifies 2 entrepreneurs as the catalysts and innovators behind economic progress has served as the foundation for the contemporary use of this concept. Current Theories of Entrepreneurship Contemporary writers in management and business have presented a wide range of theories of entrepreneurship. Many of the leading thinkers remain true to the Say-Schumpeter tradition while offering variations on the theme. For instance, in his attempt to get at what is special about entrepreneurs, Peter Drucker starts with Say’s definition, but amplifies it to focus on opportunity. Drucker does not require entrepreneurs to cause change, but sees them as exploiting the opportunities that change (in technology, consumer preferences, social norms, etc.) creates. He says, “this defines entrepreneur and entrepreneurship—the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.” The notion of “opportunity” has come to be central to many current definitions of entrepreneurship. It is the way today’s management theorists capture Say’s notion of shifting resources to areas of higher yield. An opportunity, presumably, means an opportunity to create value in this way. Entrepreneurs have a mind-set that sees the possibilities rather than the problems created by change. For Drucker, starting a business is neither necessary nor sufficient for entrepreneurship. He explicitly comments, “Not every new small business is entrepreneurial or represents entrepreneurship.” He cites the example of a “husband and wife who open another delicatessen store or another Mexican restaurant in the American suburb” as a case in point. There is nothing especially innovative or change-oriented in this. The same would be true of new not-for-pro

fit organizations. Not every new organization would be entrepreneurial. Drucker also makes it clear that entrepreneurship does not require a profit motive. Early in his book on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Drucker asserts, “No better text for a History of Entrepreneurship could be found than the creation of the modern university, and especially the modern American university.” He then explains what a major innovation this was at the time. Later in the book, he devotes a chapter to entrepreneurship in public service institutions. Howard Stevenson, a leading theorist of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, added an element of resourcefulness to the opportunity-oriented definition based on research he conducted to determine what distinguishes entrepreneurial management from more common forms of “administrative” management. After identifying several dimensions of difference, he suggests defining the heart of entrepreneurial management as “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.” He found that entrepreneurs not only see and pursue opportunities that elude administrative managers; entrepreneurs do not allow their own initial resource endowments to limit their options. To borrow a metaphor from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, their reach exceeds their grasp. Entrepreneurs mobilize the resources of others to achieve their entrepreneurial objectives. Administrators allow their existing resources and their job descriptions to constrain their visions and actions. Once again, we have a definition of entrepreneurship that is not limited to business start-ups. Differences between Business and Social Entrepreneurs The ideas of Say, Schumpeter, Drucker, and Stevenson are attractive because they can be as easily applied in the social sector as the business sector. They describe a mind-set and a kind of behavior that can be manifest anywhere. In a world in which sector boundaries are blurring, this is an advantage.

Enterprise is at the heart of employment creation. Both public and private sectors create employment. While the majority of people aspire to work in the formal economy, the majority of new work opportunities in the last decade have been generated in the informal economy. Though significant deficits exist in the formal economy, workers in the informal economy are often poorly paid, unprotected, unregulated and unrepresented. Given the large and growing numbers of people that seek decent work and better lives, the pressure is on our political leaders to respond to people’s demands worldwide. Political leaders in every country campaign on promises for job generation and are often voted out of office when the economy is bad. The United Nations convened the largest gathering of Heads of State in the year 2000 and reached consensus on an ambitious agenda, the Millennium Development goals, (though not on a funded implementation plan). While they failed to formulate a goal on decent work for all, they did resolve to “develop and implement strategies that give young people everywhere a real chance to find decent and productive work.” With the heads of the World Bank and ILO, the UN Secretary-General subsequently convened a high-level policy network on youth employment and appointed a panel of eminent persons.

Entrepreneurship is not bound by rigid concepts of age nor plagued by homogeneity. Though our focus at this Summit is on youth, it is vital that we not treat all people in a particular age bracket in a homogeneous way either. Entrepreneurs (like youth) are diverse, found in every culture, class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability and age. But what exactly is entrepreneurship and how do we define entrepreneur? The concept of entrepreneurship has evolved over time and is often used to mean or emphasize different features. Starting a for-profit business is the most common idea associated with the term, though, I will argue this is a very limiting definition and not appropriate for our discussion. If we assume that promoting an entrepreneurial culture is a desirable means of achieving our end (social and economic development), then we must clearly define what elements, behaviours, traits and characteristics we want to encourage and value. In academic and popular circles, many people now combine notions of innovation, catalyzing change, seizing opportunity and demonstrating resourcefulness into the definition. Often people ascribe a particular ‘mind-set’ to entrepreneurs that exhibit common traits such as single-mindedness, drive, ambition, creative, problem solving, practical, and goal-oriented. Stanford Professor Gregory Dees wrote that “In common parlance, being an entrepreneur is associated with starting a business, but this is a very loose application of a term that has a rich history and a much more significant meaning.

3.0 Skill Acquisition and Proficiency

Guthrie (1972) defined skill as the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy, or time and energy. Skill, according to Bernstein (1967) is the process of mastering redundant degrees of freedom in the moving organ. In other words, it is conversion to a controllable system. Skill can also be said to be a continuum from predominantly habitual (not required to think) to predominantly perceptual (necessary to think about), as reported by Knapp (1961)

To facilitate the development of a novice into an expert we should understand the psychological components that characterize skilled performers from unskilled performers. Guthrie (1972) defines a skill as the ability to bring about some end result with maximum certainty and minimum outlay of energy or of time and energy. A novice could conceivably execute a flawless motor skill, yet not be able to perform it consistently, or with as little effort relative to an expert performer. Since an individual is limited to perform one complex task at a time (Boutcher 1992) an individual may have to divert all of their attention capacity toward a new task. As individuals practice a particular motor skill, they eventually learn to eliminate extraneous movement and to effectively coordinate muscles to act as a single functional unit. As skills become automatic, considerably less thought is necessary to effectively complete the task. This allows skilled performers to attend to other relevant cues in the environment instead of the particular movement

3.1 Challenges To Technical Skill Acquisition

Themissionstatement of Polytechnic education is to give instructions in skill acquisition in any and all of the disciplines being taught in the Polytechnic system.The role of skill acquisition in poverty alleviation and socio-economic development is generally acknowledged. However, a number of challenges are still constraining the realization of its full impact. The Meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union held between 29 and 31 May 2007, observed that, with a few exceptions, the socioeconomic environment and the contextual framework in which skill acquisition delivery systems currently operate on the continent is characterized, in general, by:

• Weak national economies, high population growth, and a growing labour force;
• Shrinking or stagnant wage employment opportunities especially in the industrial sector;
• Huge numbers of poorly educated, unskilled and unemployed youth;
• Uncoordinated, unregulated and fragmented delivery systems;
• Low quality;
• Geographical, gender and economic inequities;
• Poor public perception;
• Weak monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and
• Inadequate financing, poor management and ill-adapted organizational structures.

Wapmuk (2008) who reported a study conducted jointly by the ITF and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) which revealed, among other problems, the dearth of middle level technical skills required to drive the wheels of industrial growth. Also, study tours of Brazil, Norway, Singapore, Indonesia and China, undertaken by the ITF, exposed the fact that, the rapid industrialization in these countries is, to a very significant extent, anchored on the availability of middle level technically skilled personnel trained in hundreds of Technical Skills Training Centres. It is therefore clear from the ITF-NECA study and the study tours that, there is an urgent need to generate the missing middle level technical skilled personnel critical for fast-tracking the industrialization of our dear nation.

However, it is lamentable that, while there is urgent need for middle leveltechnical skilled labour in many sectors of the national economy on the one hand, there is mass youth unemployment in the nation. Professor Soludo, an ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria observed that, while unemployment of people in the 15-64 years age bracket has declined from 18% in the 1990s to 5.3% in 2006, the unemployment rate among youths of ages 15-24 years is 14%. In the urban centres the rate of youth unemployment is 20%, with that of urban centres in the South-south reaching up to 23.8%. National under-employment rate for ages 15-64 years is 20.2%, with that of rural areas being 20.5% while that of the South-south 26.2%.

Related to this is the problem of poverty, which though has declined generally from 70% in 1999 to 54% in 2004, but regional scenarios generate a lot of cause for concern particularly in the South-South, North-East and North-West geo-political zones as shown in the table below:

Table 2: Zonal Percentage of Poverty Levels in Nigeria

(The poor as a percentage of the total in each group)

ZONE 1980 1985 1992 1996 2004

South-South 13.2 45.7 40.8 58.2 35.1

South-East 12.9 30.4 41.0 53.5 26.7

South-West 13.4 38.6 43.1 60.9 43.0

North-Central 32.2 50.8 46.0 64.7 67.0

North-East 35.6 54.9 54.0 70.1 72.2

North-West 37.7 52.1 36.5 77.2 71.1

Source: Federal Office of Statistics.

Judging from the statistics indicated in the table above, it is not far-fetched to establish causal relation between poverty and socio-political crises in the nation. It is significant to note that, the youth in the poverty stricken regions, are usually the instruments and victims of these crises largely because they do not have skills that could be used in paid or self-employment, skill acquisition is the solution. But the problem of skill acquisition needs to be resolved first. The key issues that the proposed skill acquisition strategy seeks to address are the following:

• Poor perception of skill acquisition
• Gender stereotyping
• Instructor training
• Linkage between vocational and general education
• Linkage between formal and non-formal skill acquisition
• Linkage of skill acquisition to the labour market
• Traditional skills, business management and entrepreneurial training
• Harmonization of skill acquisition programmes and qualifications.

Taking into account the key strategic issues and guiding principles, the main goal of the strategy may be stated as follows: Promote skills acquisition through competency-based training with proficiency testing for employment, sustainable livelihoods and responsible citizenship. The vision of the strategy, as articulated by CAMEDAF II+, is to position skill acquisition as a tool for empowering the peoples of Africa, especially the youth, for sustainable livelihoods and the socio-economic development of the continent. Emphasis should be on technological skill acquisition programmes such as:

• Building and construction (including bricklaying and concreting);Carpentry and joinery;
• Welding and fabrication (including manufacturing of simple agricultural implements and tools);
• Agriculture (crop production and animal husbandry);
• Electrical installation and electronic equipment repair;
• Car repair and maintenance;
• Water supply and sanitation systems maintenance, including domestic plumbing works;
• Handicrafts and traditional skills;
• Basic ICT skills (word processing, data management, internet, etc.)
• Tourism-related skills (hotel management, tour guides, cooks, waiters);
• Business entrepreneurial skills and attitudes (including time management,

marketing, basic accounting, micro-business management; joint ventures);

The Way Forward: Technology Development Strategy

It is rather unfortunate that while developed countries are in their fifth technological revolution, Nigeria and the rest of the developing world are yet to firmly understand the basic rudiments of the first Industrial/Technological Revolution. Our best option therefore, is not to re-invent the wheel, but to adopt “Copy technology” and hence leap-frog unto the appropriate level of technology. Such a level must be sustainable within our peculiar socio-cultural milieu, and political temperament. If this is done, then, we can confidently in the next 11 years be knocking on the door of the privileged club of developed nations of the world.

The example of how India developed her agricultural institutes and trained her extension workers deserves attention here in Nigeria. The Prime Minister of India, Pindit Nehru, who was a natural science graduate of Cambridge University before going into politics, in one of his quotable quotes, said, “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty, of sanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom and tradition, of vast resources running waste, of a rich country inhabited by starving people. Who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every turn we have to seek its aid. The future belongs to science and those who make friends with it”. We must therefore, not fail in our quest for technology because the strong correlation between technological advancement and economic well-being is now globally recognized. Despite all its shortcomings, no nation can be economically and socio-politically independent without scientific and technological self-reliance. Simply put, ‘there is no alternative to technology’ and it is only our Polytechnic graduates who while contributing their quota to national development that will see us through.

Indeed, to emphasize this inevitability of technology is the fact that GDP can be quantumly enhanced when value is added to items through hi-tech. For example, a given quantity of silicon purified in Brazil will fetch about $140m while the same quantity of silicon when superiorly purified in the US through hi-tech, will fetch three trillion US dollars. And so, this, in simple terms indicates how hi-tech can multiply wealth 7000 times!!! It also explains why Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) are always moving in tandem.

In short, technology spins wealth permanently as against our much talked-about petroleum which being an exhaustible wealth, does initially give an illusion of wealth but in real terms, it spins poverty. Technology is therefore, the inexhaustible oil wealth of the future. We therefore, have no choice than to imbibe technology and that too. Today, our economy is down but not out, our agricultural output is poor, our industrial capacity utilization is critically low and the political terrain is slippery. Obviously, to successfully implement Vision 2020 will not be easy in a Third World environment where Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) are still regarded with some awe of mysticism. To tackle the problem and demystify technology, there is need for a Cultural Adjustment Programme (CAP). We should therefore, improve our literacy standard. As ancient Romans used to say, ‘Scientia Prima’ (knowledge is power) but today, the global dictum is, ‘Technology is Power’.

As a people, we must match our conspicuous consumption with conspicuous production; we must idle less and work more; we must think more of the living and less of the dead; and for Nigeria to survive, we must give more and take less. We must spend less to save more and engage only in worthy merriments that are sustainable. We must compete locally in order to effectively compete internationally, and finally, as a people; we must not only be patriotic but should back it up with scientific mind that will positively influence our culture with technological imperatives. Definitely to succeed in reversing the Nigerian economy, that is for the society to develop, for the better and on a sustainable basis, it must be holistically tackled. The Vision 2020 master plan needs to provide an ideal instrument for doing so but our undoing is self-deceit, sycophancy and lack of sincerity of purpose.

Finally, as a nation and as a people, we should imbibe one of the slogans of Nigerian Society of Engineers which says, “think technology, talk technology, trust technology, try technology” to survive. Science, it is said is simply an extension of common sense but one does not really have to be a scientist to have a scientific mind because a scientific mind simply means having a mind of inquiry on any subject be it in Law, Philosophy, Economics, Management, etc. Technology, simply put, is a better way of doing things. Imbibing technology is not only for scientists, engineers, and technologists, it is instead, the survival mechanism for banishing hunger, ignorance and disease within the society.

7.0 OUR MODEST CONTRIBUTIONS TO TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Industrial Experience:I started my Engineering career as a Project Engineer with Langrad Engineering and Manufacturing Company Limited, Lagos, where I was involved in the installation of agro-industrial plants and machines across the country.

Some of the projects include:Factory construction and erection using structural steelssuch as universal beams and columns to erect portal-framed warehouses in Ijebu Ode and in Aba. I supervised the fabrication of steel structures such as stanchions, rafters and purlins and the erection of fabricated steel structures to build steel-framed warehouses for agro-industrial concerns. I supervised the installation of a twenty-ton per hour integrated Livestock plant for Goodluck Agro-Industrial Company Limited, Aba which I started from its inception to its commissioning. It was a six-floor factory building, the biggest and most modern mixed feed mill plant in West Africa, as of 1984. The work entailed assembly of unit-operation machines like bucket elevators, raw material and finished product silos, screw and chain conveyors, hammer mill, air cyclones sift machines,crushers, two-ton scale,etc.

Repairs and maintenance of Agro-Industrial Plants at LadokunFeedmill, Ibadan.Plant maintenance and factory extension at Ladokun and Sons Feedmill Limited,Ibadan which entailed structural steel fabrication and their erection using tifors, derricks and cranes. Fabrication and installation of worn-out machine parts, e.g. connectors, hoppers, etc.

Erection of grain storage and seed processing plant at Ado-Ekiti(for Ekiti-AkokoAgricultural Development Project). The machines in the plant erection were bucket elevators, silos, sieves, distributors, scales etc, (Oyinlola, 2015).

Academic Experience:Mr Rector sir, the three major activities of any academic are Teaching, Research and Service to the Community. I reported for appointment at The Polytechnic, Ibadan on 1^st of November 1984, and was asked to report to the Director, Saki Campus where my career as a Lecturer in the Polytechnic system started.

I was the first staff employed for duties in the Department of Agricultural Engineering; I was the Coordinator and later the Acting Head of Department. I had the privilegeof admitting the first set of National Diploma students at the Saki Campus of The Polytechnic, Ibadan. I developed the National Diploma curriculum for Agricultural Engineering for the students. Some of the students I trained are now Lecturers, Senior Lecturers and Chief Lecturers and Associate Professors in some Polytechnics and Universities, while others are established professional engineers in the public and private sectors of the economy.

When Osun State was created in 1992, I was one of the first set of staff that came to Osun State College of Technology, EsaOke, even when its future was not certain orwell defined but I acted based on strong patriotismand the first staff to report to the Department of Mechanical from among those who came from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, others joined much later in 1993.

The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) eventually accredited our National Diploma programme in Mechanical Engineering after so much effort on my part (along with some others) to locally fabricate some of the machines and teaching aids required by the Board. The Board had insisted that without some of the machines and teaching aids it would not give us any accreditation and the College could not fund their purchase because of scarce resources and other pressing needs. Some of such teaching aids include, but not limited to, gyroscope,inclined plane, automobile cooling system, braking system, suspension system of the automobile and teaching aid for refrigeration are shown Figs 1 to Fig 7, respectively while Figs 8 to 17 are some unit operation machines that were fabricated in our workshops (which impliestheir sustainability as they can be put to use and maintained with local know-howand used to increase human productivity to sustain development.

My odyssey into Machine Development

My research interest is in the area of Plants and Machine Development, which involves Machine Design, Production and Testing.My interest was spurred by DrO OMojola(later Professor, of Mechanical Engineering) who guided me into the design and construction of a Design and Construction of a Solar cooker

Solar cooker as a contrivancewas not as popular or common in 1980/81 as they are today.

I started by collectingsolar radiation data, using actinometer, for twenty four-hoursof everyday on the University of Ife campusfor about nine months prior to the design of the solar cooker. The idea behind this was to obtain the amount of solar energy available for consideration in any design. The design considered different geometrical shapes using four insulating materials, viz: sawdust, laterite, extruded polystyrene and grasses. I found out that

a cooker with trapezoidal shape that was insulated with grasses and/or sawdust gave the highest temperature of boiling a half litre of water that was put in a pot in the cooker.

Fig 1: The Gyroscope

Fig 2: The Inclined Plane

Fig 3a: The Automobile Cooling system

Fig 3b: The Automobile Cooling system

Fig 4: The Automobile Braking System

Fig 5: Automobile Suspension Unit

Fig 6: The Refrigeration System (Teaching Aid)

Fabrication of an Electric Power Simulator

Two electric power simulators shown in Fig 7 were fabricated forFederal Polytechnic, Ilaro and MoshoodAbiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta which this College sold to them. This boosted our finances and the image of the College soared in the committee of Polytechnics, as the NBTE recommended the fabricated simulators to other Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology, Oyinlola et al (2011)

Development of a Laboratory Screw Press for Peanut Oil Expression

In the laboratory, small quantities of freshly extracted oil are often required for on-the-spot analysis. This can be obtained at an affordableprice from equipment like a model screw press, which is capable of processing small quantities of oil-seed, if readily available. A model screw press was designed and fabricated, as shown in Fig 8. In the design of the screw press, the size of the screw material, the optimum shaft length for a given screw pitch, appropriate shaft speed,

the tapering angle of the conical shaft, the maximum shaft diameter and the inside diameter of the enclosing barrel were determined. A shaft speed of not more than 90 rpm was found to be suitable for for working the screw press while the clearance between the shaft and the barrel was 3 mm (Oyinlola,et.al, 2003).The challenge of processing small quantities of oil seed was addressed by my developing a small scale screw press that can express oil from as little as 10 kg of oil seed (Oyinlola,et.al, 2003).

After the publication of the outcome of the research, requests and questions were received from researchers virtually all over the world.In August 2006, a particularly interesting request came from Dustin Pepper who requested that his company, Vincent Corporation, Florida, U S A, manufacturers of screw presses for industrial food applications; paper mill applications etcsince 1940s was interested in pursuing the further development of my design for a commercial model screw press. In other words they wanted to partner with me to commercialize the work, and they wanted to buy the patent. As of October 2016, another request came from China where I was invited to attend a conference in June 2017 “Considering your research “Development of a laboratory model screw press for peanut oil expression” is good for this conference. I cordially invite you to participate in this event to share your new research findings”.

Development of a Small-Scale Kerosine Heated Egg Incubator

Egg incubators enhance the mass production of poultry, however locally made incubators are not readily available, or may not be affordable by local farmers. Erratic electrical power supply (if and when electric power is available) would also not encourage the purchase of the more sophisticated incubators and may be elusive to rural dwellers, hence the design and construction of a kerosene-powered egg incubator. The incubator was made from readily available local material and technology, was tested and a mean temperature of 38.5 ^oC was obtained while a relative humidity at about 60%. Three trial of poultry egg incubation gave a result of one egg out of six eggs (16.67%); two eggs out of eight eggs (25%); and seven eggs out of eight eggs (87.5%). The successive increase in the eggs hatched may be attributed to improved heat and humidity control in the incubator; and the periodic turning of the eggs at three regular intervals every twenty four hours of the incubation period.

Fig 7: Electric Power Simulator (Teaching Aid)

Fig 8: Model Screw Press for Oilseed Oil Expression

Fig9: Poultry Egg Incubator

Fig 10: Cold Room

Fig 11: Tricycle for Rural Transportation

Fig 12: Maize Sheller

Fig 13: Locust Beans Dehuller

Fig 14: The Hammer Mill

Fig 15: The Hammer Mill

Fig 16: Paper Shredder

Fig 17: Mobile Cold Storage using Bicycle

At the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies, we allow prospective students to choose from any of the thirty trades we have in our stable.

Fig 18: Entrepreneurship for Poverty Reduction: Products of our Beads and Wire Works Unit

Fig 19: Entrepreneurship: Students during a Barbing Session

Fig 20: Entrepreneurship: Students in Shoe and Leather Works Unit

Fig 21a: Entrepreneurship: Fashion Design Sessions

Fig 21b: Entrepreneurship: Fashion Design Sessions

Fig 22: Entrepreneurship: Women Hair Dressing Unit

Fig 23a:Catering Class at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies

Fig 23b: Catering Class at the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies

Administratively, I had the opportunity of being appointed the Coordinator of Pre-ND Programmes in the Faculty of Engineering (1997/19998), appointed the Acting Head of Department of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1998/99, 1999/2000, 2000/2001). I was appointed as the first Acting Director, Evening Academic Programme in 2002/2003; which was renewed in 2003/2004 and was elected the Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Chairman Committee of Deans,(2006-2007). Later in 2007, I was elected as the Deputy Rector of this College (2007-2009), re-elected for a second term (2009-2011), and appointed from 2011- March 2012. In July 2015, I was appointed the Director of the Centre for Skill Acquisition and EntrepreneurialStudies; theappointment was renewed in 2016 and in 2017.

8.0 Prologue

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) stated that “Man is a tool-using animal. Weak in himself and of small stature, he stands on a basis of some half square meter, has to straddle out his legs lest the common winds supplant him. Nevertheless, he can use tools, can device tools and with skills, the granite mountain melts into light dust before him; seas are his smooth highway, winds are his unweaving steeds. Nowhere do you find him without tools. “Without tools he is nothing, with his tools and skill he is all”.

Thank you all for your patience in listening.

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