Ahmadu Bello University

abbreviated ABU was where I lectured today. The university is big with an enrollment of over 20,000 and has a 5 year engineering degree program.
The invitation to speak was initiated by Steven, one of the university students I got to know from previous visits. I indicated to Steven I was willing to share my experiences with his class mates on engineering work in the USA and he took it from there. I was formally invited by Dr. Mu'azu, department head of electrical engineering to talk on any subject matter that would be interesting to electrical engineering students.
I titled my talk "Made in Nigeria" in which I stressed the entrepreneurial aspects of engineering work. I discussed economic justice and how it is important to their country in order to compete with imported goods. We discussed the lack of practical training in their education and it was echoed by professor Mu'azu that they need basic parts in order to build projects. I discussed the role Hope House can play in their education by being an incubator. One that provides a laboratory, tools, and parts for developing projects that these students design. This will be a major effort in both time and money to equip this technical center.

The talk was well received by over 50 students and once they got over the initial shock that they could be business men and women, the questions flowed.
In the question and answer session they were direct and honest with their concerns about competing with cheap imported goods. How they were going to get practical training and acquire the tools to write micro processor software were discussed. Hope House and the planned technical center will play a major role in making this happen. We have an informal understanding with the university to work together on these needs and this will be a big part of my future work. Dr. Mu'azu is planning on visiting Hope House tomorrow and I hope to have more time to discuss our relationship with the university. Nigeria will benefit from these young, intelligent, focused, and want to succeed engineers. All they need is the tools and guidance to get started, like I got 25 years ago. Email me if you would like a copy of the power point I presented.