UNILAG don advocates special funds for STEM
APROFESSOR of Systems Engineering at the University of Lagos ( UNILAG), Olumuyiwa Asaolu, has advocated special funds for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics ( STEM) education in Nigeria.
Ashaolu said this is imperative for rapid industrialisation, which Nigeria needs in the quest for national development.
This formed part of his recommendations while presenting the 18th inaugural lecture titled: “Automata and intelligent agents: Engineered systems that make life easier.”
Asaolu decried the preference of Nigerians for foreign and imported products at the expense of locally made technologies, a development that he said, undermines local innovation, creativity and ingenuity.
The Professor of Artificial Intelligence ( AI), who challenged Nigerians to encourage local engineers by patronising and using ‘ Made in Nigeria’ goods and services, also urged System Engineers to assume the management and oversight of complex engineering projects by ministries, departments and agencies of government ( MDAS).
Asaolu’s inaugural lecture offered a simplified approach to automation and Artificial Intelligence ( AI); Automata and AI agents as a special class of manmade or engineered systems, deployed for the ease of living; as well as how systems are made to serve specific purposes showing man as an intelligent being operating in a universe that is more automated.
The lecture also outlined his contributions over the last two decades to the modeling, development and deployment of such systems in the classroom, the society, and specific industries.
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, commended the lecturer for giving a good account of himself as a brilliant researcher and research collaborator.
Ogunsola, who was represented by the Deputy ViceChancellor, Development Services, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, expressed optimism that relevant bodies would key into the recommendations and explore its potential benefits with a view to actualising the desired national development.