OAU Student Builds a Solar-Powered Car –
When we talk about innovation, you really cannot take it away from the
most popular black nation in the world-Nigeria. The country has
witnessed young people creating solutions to businesses with innovative
technology, an addition to this, is a solar-powered vehicle built by Oyeyiola Segun, a 500Level student of the Electronic and Electrical Department of Obafemi Awolowo University.
Segun had an exclusive interview with OAU Peeps Forum
where he explained in detail how the car came into existence and the
motivations behind it. He also made it known that you can even now the
state of your car through your mobile phone by installing a software
which he wrote. Fitted with GPS functionality, it is also possible for
one to know the location of the car at any point in time.
Read full interview below:
OAU Peeps: Can we meet you sir?
Segun: Okay, I am Oyeyiola Segun, a part 5 student of Elect-Elect., OAU
OAU Peeps: We learnt you built this lovely car. Was it a joint project or you did it yourself?
Segun: I did it only. This is not a day’s job, I have been working on it for some months now.
OAU Peeps: So how does the car work?
Segun: Basically it depends on Wind and Solar energy.
All the energy derived for these two sources were converted to run the
simple car. There are different means of obtaining energy from these two
sources but I picked the one that is cool for my car.
OAU Peeps: From what you just said, you can either use the Wind or Solar Energy to power the car’s engine?
Segun: Not either energy, rather both energies are used to power the car.
OAU Peeps: Cool… that differentiates your production from the usual vehicles we see around us I suppose?
Segun: Yes, you are very correct.
OAU Peeps: Could you share with us what actually
provoked your innovation? I mean what you thought before coming up with
this lovely engine?
Segun: Basically, it is because of the climate change
we experience due to the combustion of fuel and you know cars also
contribute to that change. So I thought of running a car that will not
use fuel for its locomotion. After series of thinking and research work,
I came up with the simple method that gave birth to this. So that is
the basic reason for the car. Another concern of mine is to produce a
car that will function effectively at a reduced cost of maintenance. I
believe you know the price of fuel in this country is almost going
beyond the reach of a common man?
OAU Peeps: Yes, you are right. Is there any other
peculiarity of the car that you will like to share apart from the once
you have mentioned?
Segun: Of course yes. Another thing that distinguishes
my car from the common ones you see around is that you can know the
state of the car through your mobile phones. I wrote a software that you
can install which will give you the basic information about the car
while in your room.
OAU Peeps: What do you mean by the State of the car?
Segun: I mean the functionality of the car, like the
battery level, the weather conditions, the distance you can cover during
different weather conditions. In case you have a bad weather. The car
also has a GPS in it that helps to know the location of the car. These
and many other features embedded in it.
OAU Peeps: Wow! this is very lovely. Do you have plans replicating this nice work in the future?
Segun: The work has come to stay, but I need to keep improving it for now.
OAU Peeps: It took you how many years to put this together?
Segun: That your question can be phased into two categories, do you mean mentally or physically?
OAU Peeps: Lol… you are right. Let us talk about the Physical aspect of it now.
Segun: Okay. We all know how our country is, I mean to
get money is not easy but I pray that God will make it easy for everyone
of us. The truth is, I cannot really say how long because I started
using my personal little money to get the materials together. Let me
just say about twelve(12) months.
OAU Peeps: Did you encounter any major challenge during this project?
Segun: Yes, Money. Even at the moment, I still need
funds to get some others materials which are in my original paper design
which I have not implemented on the car.
OAU Peeps: What will be the summarized cost of this car when fully ready?
Segun: There are lots of things that will lead to
summary cost of production, so for now I cannot specifically state the
cost but with all the materials that I will be needing since I am not
producing in large quantities, its close to a million naira. Now
quantifying my effect and others on foreseen cases.
OAU Peeps: Finally, your message to fellow Nigerian students?
Segun: My message to my fellow students is that Rome
was not built in a day. It is better to start anything you want to do
now and don’t never, I repeat, never expect someone to believe in your
dreams because they may not understand it as you do. Endeavor to follow
your heart and do what will make you happy and that which will not
affect your fellow being negatively. May God help and bless us all.
OAU Peeps: Amen. Thank you so much Engineer, we are indeed proud of you.
Segun: You are welcome and May God help OAU Peeps Forum too.
From my interaction with Segun, he stated emphatically that he has
not received any form of support from anyone except his parents, not
even the lecturers in the university.
Now that the Nigerian government has a policy in place that tends to
discourage importation of vehicles into the country and encourage local
manufacturers, we hope that Segun’s effort will be complimented by the
the needed support to achieve the policy objective.
No comments:
Post a Comment