PositiveNaija

The Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), has launched a CubeSat, with the code name NigeriaEdusat-1, into space from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, United States.

The Nigerian Cubesat is a component of the Birds 1 satellites, comprising of four other CubeSats belonging to Japan, Ghana, Mongolia and Bangladesh. They were launched from the SpaceX Falcon9 Rocket.

Mr. Ibukun Adebolu of FUTA’s Department of Mechanical Engineering is the representative of Nigeria on the project. It is the first ever university satellite to be launched in Nigeria.

According to a statement from the Head, Media and Protocol Unit of the university, Mr. Adegbenro Adebanjo;

“The Nigerian CubeSat is designed, built and owned by the Federal University of Technology, Akure in collaboration with the National Space Research and Development Agency, Nigeria, and the Kyushu Institute of Technology Japan.

The CubeSats will be launched and docked to the International Space Station where the satellites will be deployed into lower orbit during the last week of June 2017.

The satellite technology development in the long run shall have spillover effects on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education that is an essential tool for a country industrial development.’’

Five (5) Nigerian women; Carolyn Seaman, Damilola Anwo-Adehave, Olamide Ayeni-Babjide, Ijeoma Vincent-Akpu, and Petra Nnamani have been selected to participate in the 2017 TechWomen Exchange Program.

Carolyn Seaman is using technology to empower girls through her Girls Voices Initiative, while Damilola Anwo-Ade is mentoring the next generation of coders, including young women, through her initiative CodeIT.

TechWomen is a U.S. initiative empowering and connecting the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

The program will bring together 100 women leaders in technology fields for a five-week professional mentorship and exchange program at leading technology companies in California’s Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.