Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been honoured with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The award was presented to her at the university’s St Cecilia’s Hall, which happens to be Scotland’s oldest concert hall, by the university’s Principal and Vice Chancellor, Professor Sir Timothy O’Shea,
“in recognition of Ms Adichie’s achievements as an author and public intellectual.”
In appreciation of the honour, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said:
Odunayo Adekuoroye, has won a silver medal at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships in Paris, France, making it the first time Nigeria is on the medals table.
Odunayo Adekuoroye is now the first woman from Nigeria to march into the gold medal final at Senior World Wrestling Championships.
She narrowly lost to Haruna Okuno of Japan 4-5 in the final of the 55 kg women’s freestyle.
The Nigerian wrestler started her campaign in the Championship by defeating Mathilde Helene 13-9 in the qualification round to move to the Round of 16.
She then proved to be too much for Lenka Martinakova as she defeated the Czech Republic wrestler 10-0.
Oshi Agabi has unveiled a computer based modem-sized device – dubbed Koniku Kore capable of recognising the smell of explosives and could be used to replace traditional airport security.
The prototype of the device unveiled at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania is an amalgam of living neurons and silicon, with olfactory capabilities — basically sensors that can detect and recognise smells.
According to Mr. Oshi Agabi:
“You can give the neurons instructions about what to do – in our case we tell it to provide a receptor that can detect explosives.”
He envisages a future where such devices can be discreetly used at various points in airports, eliminating the need for queues to get through airport security.
As well as being used for bomb detection, the device could be used to detect illness by sensing markers of a disease in the air molecules that a patient gives off.
Koniku Kore he believes has partially solved one of the biggest challenges of harnessing biological systems – keeping the neurons alive.
While computers are better than humans at complex mathematical equations, there are many cognitive functions where the brain is much better: training a computer to recognise smells would require colossal amounts of computational power and energy, for example.
Mr. Oshi Agabi is attempting to reverse-engineer biology, which already accomplishes this function with a fraction of the power it would take a silicon-based processor.
According to him: “Biology is technology. Bio is tech. Our deep learning networks are all copying the brain.”
He launched his start-up Koniku over a year ago, has raised $1 million (£800,000) in funding and claims it is already making profits of $10 million in deals with the security industry.
Advances in neuroscience, bioengineering and computer science means that much more is known about how the human brain works than ever before.
This is fuelling the development of neuro-technology – devices that aim to mould the brain into computers.
The Nigeria Senior Women’s Basketball team, D’Tigress, have been crowned African champions following their 65-48 win over Senegal in the final of the 2017 FIBA Afrobasket Championships.
Trailing by six points from the first quarter, the Nigerians fought back to win the second quarter 21-10 points.
D’Tigress remained sturdy as they extended their lead by winning the third quarter 15-7 points and the fourth quarter 17-13 points.
Point guard, Osaretin Ekhator, emerged top performer for Nigeria with 13 points, seven rebounds and two assists.
Margaret Binga has been sworn in as the President, Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF).
Margaret Binga is the second ever Female President of a Sports Federation and the first ever Female President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation.
The Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung on Wednesday also inaugurated the board of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation with a charge to revive its federation’s grassroots development initiative.
Binga is Nigeria’s only two-time African Taekwondo Champion and a World Taekwondo Federation Class 2 International Referee.
Nationally, she was undefeated for 18 years and won 45 National Gold Medals in that period.
Kwara Falcons has emerged and crowned champions of the 2017 Kwese Premier basketball league; final victory was recorded against Rivers Hoopers in a game that ended 68-57 points.
Hoopers came second at the end of the 6-day championship while Hoops&Read who defeated Customs 85-66 finished 3rd.
Kano Pillars have emerged champions in the Kwese Premier League Savannah Conference Six play-offs by winning all their five matches and ending the championship with 100 percent record.
The tournament, which held inside the Indoor Hall of the Murtala Square, Kaduna, between August 14 and 19 had six teams from the Savannah Conference including Kano Pillars, Gombe Bulls, Plateau Peaks, Niger Potters, Bauchi Net and Kada Stars. Bauchi Net and Kada Stars replaced Mark Mentors and Defenders, both of Abuja, which failed to turn up for the competition.
To emerge champions of the conference, Pillars beat hard fighting Gombe Bulls 104 to 97 points in their first game, defeated Kada Stars 91 to 58 points, stopped Bauchi Net 85 to 44 points, beat Niger Potters 103 to 71 points and routed Plateau Peaks 80 to 64 points to maintain an unbeaten run.
Coach of the Kano-based team, Sani Ahmed, described his team’s performance as in line with his club’s desire to retain the trophy at the Final Eight in Kano. In his words:
“Winning the Savanna Conference Six shows the level of consistency in the club. It also tells of the amount of hard work put in by the players to winning tournaments. The team is not 100 percent perfect yet. We are still a high scoring side averaging 80 points per game, but we are still going to do more so as to defend and win the Final Eight at home in Kano. Our tradition is to win any tournament we find ourselves in. So, we aim to retain the Final Eight. We have noticed some weaknesses and lapses in the course of our games and will work on them before the Final Eight. I noticed the boys sometimes get complacent; but we need to be consistent and more perfect in taking shots.”
The coach also disclosed that the Conference play-offs was part of preparations for his team’s participation in an invitational tournament slated in Malaysia in the first week of September.
“Immediately after the play-offs and Final Eight we shall be honouring a fully sponsored trip to Malaysia for an invitational tournament involving teams from Japan, China, Malaysia and other Asian countries. Good enough, we will be prepared because this championship serves as good preparations for the tournament,” he said.