As a way of giving back to the society and for the betterment of students, Siemens Energy Nigeria on Friday equipped the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Lagos (UNILAG), with a digital engineering laboratory worth N70 million.
“We felt that the impact will be felt by starting from Lagos, which is a Centre of Excellence. Lagos is one of the cities we decided to start from and we are also going to expand to other places,” Suleiman said.
Suleiman said that his company is going to put a software of N20 million in the project, as well as train the institution’s academic staff who will impart the knowledge of the facility on the students.
Speaking on why Siemens Energy Nigeria came up with the initiative, Suleiman noted that education, social and environment are the three key words that matter to them in terms of giving back to the society.
Suleiman said: “So for education, we can never get it wrong. When you educate the society, it takes menace off the streets and people will be gainfully employed.
“What we have put up here today, which is to the tune of N70 million, is for the betterment of the students. They will not be students who will leave the four walls of the university and not be able to add value to their employers.
“This is a very important project for the school in the area of programming. This is a practical experience of how Siemens Energy truly cares about the society.”
Vice Chancellor, UNILAG, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, thanked the company for giving the facility to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, which he said, “Will lead to modeling and to innovation in the area of energy. “This is a key investment of Siemens Energy in UNILAG. This will be used by the students for their start-ups, projects, and for starting their businesses.”
“They will be able to see the stimulation of some of the projects that they want to do and also move to where we have the 3Ds, to print some of the things that they have to come up with here.”
Saying that the facility is a world-standard laboratory, which can compare with any laboratory all over the world, the VC assured that the university will make adequate use of the facility.
“I want to also thank the company for assuring us that they will continue to maintain this facility. We will give all the necessary support that is needed so that in 10 or 15 years’ time to come, this facility will retain the standard and all the equipment that we have there will be relevant.
“”Like he rightly said, they are going to put a software of N20 million in this facility and they are also going to train our academic staff who will impart the knowledge on the students.”