ELIZADE University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State, has won a N5 million research grant instituted by the National Communications Commission (NCC) for the development of GSM-Based Energy Meter.
A combined team of electrical, electronics and telecommunication engineers and computer scientists from the university had earlier submitted a proposal to develop a GSM-Based Smart Energy Meter for the commission.
The five-stage research work will involve construction, testing and optimisation of hardware. It will also cover software development, bug testing and optimisation.
Integration of hardware and software as well as optimisation of the system will be undertaken at the third stage of the research work. The team is expected to carry out final testing and deploy the Smart Energy Meter by the 20th month of the two-year research endeavour.
The final stage of the research will see the team analyse results and present the final report and prototype to the commission.
Elizade University and Covenant University were the only private universities among the winners of the N54.7 million research grants offered by the commission.
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Others were the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Enugu State University of Science and Technology; University of Port Harcourt; Ahmadu Bello Unversity, Zaria and the Nigeria Air Force Institute of Technology, Zaria.
Speaking while presenting the awards to the beneficiaries, the executive vice chairman of the commission, Professor Umar Danbatta, said that the commission instituted the research and proposals grant project in recognition of the role of the academia in the development of the telecom sector.
Professor Danbatta emphasised the determination of the commission to focus on commercially viable prototypes of research and innovative use of telecoms to solve national problems.
According to him, the relevance of the academia in the growth, sustainability and continuity of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasised.
He added that research results that govern growth, transformation and facilitate innovations in the industry are provided by the academia, and urged the beneficiaries of the grant to use it for the purposes for which it was instituted.