UYO – The Federal University of Technology Ikot Abasi (FUTIA) has acquired wind tunnel and aerodrome facilities to aid research and training of students in the department of aerospace engineering in the institution.
Vice – Chancellor of the university, Prof. Leo Daniel disclosure this during interaction with newsmen at Ikot Abasi at the weekend saying that, the facilities will help students of aerospace engineering to have adequate practical knowledge of the discipline and also embark on research in their careers.
The VC, who is also a professor of aerospace engineering from the Russian university and Massachusettes Institute of Technology ( MIT), United States further said that, the facilities are not even available at some Airports in Nigeria adding that, the students are fortunate to have them for their practical studies.
According to him, “wind tunnel that we don’t even have in Akwa Ibom Airport will soon be here . And we will also have what we call aerodrome which will be part of the Aerospace Engineering facilities for training and for research as well as other facilities that are coming in to equip the institution.
“In fact, FUTIA is the first among the universities in the South -South to be equipped with such facilities”.
The Vice Chancellor said the National Universities Commission (NUC) approved three schools of Engineering Technology, Applied Science and Computing Information Technology with 12 departments including other programmes such as; Cyber Security and Naval Architecture amongst others.
” We are technologically advanced institution with a mandate to build an institution that will bring in other programmes that have not been seen in the past .
” We started with 550 students that were admitted and they just finished their first semester exams for this session. We have three schools with 12 programmes .Among them is the Department of Aerospace Engineering which is my field of expertise .
“It is a research thrust we want to build in the Federal University of Technology. Other programmes such as Cyber Security and Naval Architecture are parts of the programmes for the first time in Nigeria.”
He said the institution depends on funds from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund) and Akwa Ibom state government who donated land from Ikot Okpo Inua and Ette communities for the institution to take off.
The VC further maintained that, FUTIA remains the best in South – South nothing that within the short time, it has benefitted from TeTFund through some interventions and grants.
The interventions to the institution he stated included; take-off grants , High Impact grants, Zonal Intervention and Normal interventions .
He expressed appreciation to Akwa Ibom state government for the land and other logistics and appealed for the construction of internal road networks within the campus.
On the academic staff strength he explained that, 90 academic staff have so far been recruited with excellent academic backgrounds, while 120 Non Academic staff have been employed to start the university.
” We have 90 Academic staff to start the university. Most of them are Senior Lecturers and Associate Professors. We also have 120 Non Academic staff . We will employ more in the future to boost the institution”, he stated.
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