Recently, eight Nigerian universities received Galileo boards from Intel Corporation as part of the chip maker’s strategy to encourage research and developments in Information and Communications Technology in the Nigerian educational system. The Corporate Affairs Group Director, Intel Africa, Mr. Moise Adams Leye, in this interview with Vanguard explained why Nigerian Universities should embrace the technology as enabler for innovations while strengthening student’s ability to code applications. He said that the idea is to encourage learning and creating things that solve challenges.
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Why Intel Galileo boards
We decided that the technology should enable people to create solutions, enable people to create things either for the good of the society or simply for the fun of being involved in innovation. This passion is shared amongst our staff. The board is a small electronic device which enables students to develop prototype appli-cations in engineering, computing or other simple activities such as controlling a robot or controlling lighting systems from smart phones.
We are taking it to every continent and country where our technology is available so that people create their own applications and devices. It is our way of enabling people to be innovative and to create applications.
Cost of the boards
The cost of the board ranges from $50 for one board. It varies from country to country depending on the cost of shipping and customs and other cost factors. That said, it is very affordable in all the countries that we have introduced it to including Nigeria.
Allocation to Universities
Based on the application and capacity, we are giving out 140 to the beneficiary universities. This is just our push for the time being.
Universities apply depending on what their applications. The allocation is done country by country. And within the same country, we provide the same board to each university. There is no hard and fast rule. It depends on the capacity of each university to not only use the board but also spread their knowledge, activities and the products.
What Intel does is really about seeding. We showed interest in the activities of these universities. We have showed interest in their activities in the sort of initiatives that the universities can do with those boards and then expect these universities to replicate the activities and spread the word.
Having the board included in the curriculum of higher education, and that of computer sciences is what we really want to see happening in the near future so that more students can take advantage of that ability to create prog-rammes and to code applications and devices, using our board.
This is a donation programme of up to 50, 000 for universities that applied qualified for automatic donation. This is the first phase of our plan that will see Intel donate 50, 000 boards. This was initiated this year.
Expectations
What we expect is for these universities to discover what the board can do, to familiarize themselves with the technology, to get involved, for those who are able to participate in the workshop we are planning to organize so that they can understand what we have done with the board. We expect them to interact with the very advanced specialist who would be able to showcase some examples of applications that can be developed with the board and together build a comprehensive curriculum.
The curriculum can then be shared among higher education institutions in Africa, in Nigeria, so that all students, perhaps using that curriculum embedded in their own training will be able to take advantage of it.
Beyond that, we will really be excited to see students getting involved in that to make a movement. This is because that is where the innovation starts. It is when they take it upon themselves to build their own applications, to use their own creativity.
In the next few decades, Africa will need to create up to 200 million jobs for young people coming out of the educational systems.
Those jobs will only be created when we are able to drive our own innovations, create companies, products and solutions. Importing everything is not sustainable.
Subsidizing the cost of the boards
We do not have plans to subsidize the boards. The price of the board itself is globally pretty reasonable. It is not an expensive device. And it is a device that can be shared.
Commitment to Nigeria, African market
We are committed in many different ways. First of all, by our presence, in our coverage; the fact that we are involved in campaigns and we are involved in long run; we invest in local staff.
We believe in building local capacities as opposed to importing foreign experts for example.
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