Unilorin Set To Use Drones For Exam Monitoring And Surveillance

If the authorities of the University of Ilorin accede to
suggestions by members of the institution's Drone
Team, it is highly probable that the University will, in
future, monitor examinations conducted within the
campus with drones.
The drones, developed by a team coordinated by Prof.
Sulyman AbdulKareem of the Department of Chemical
Engineering, added colours to the just concluded 40th
anniversary/31st convocation ceremonies of the
University.
Other members of the Unilorin Drone Team include
Dr. M.T. Yakubu of the Department of Biochemistry; Dr
Babalola of the Department of Physics; Engineer Eric
and Mr. Ahmed, both of the Department Electrical and
Electronics Engineering.
In separate interviews with Unilorin Bulletin last
Thursday (November 12, 2015), the Co-ordinator of the
team, Prof. AbdulKareem, and another key member of
the team, Dr. Yakubu, said that drones can be used to
monitor the conduct of examinations in future as well
as general campus surveillance in conjunction with the
security personnel".
According to Prof. AbdulKareem, "the use of drones
has come to stay because where you don't want to
endanger human life, a machine, which a drone is, can
go there and still get the information you need". He
pointed out that "drones, rather than infringing on
human rights, actually protect human rights because
the man who wants to do evil and knows that a
machine can remotely capture his act, will not likely do
it".
The Unilorin Drone Team Coordinator, who is the
immediate past Vice-Chancellor of Al-Hikmah
University, Ilorin, disclosed that some academic
departments in the University have started showing
interest in the use of the drone. He said, "I believe that
apart from giving practical knowledge to those in
Geography, Electrical Engineering and Physics,
virtually any Department that may have a reason to
capture events beyond what is in front of the camera,
which has to be aerially covered, can use the drone."
Prof. AbdulKareem urged the University administration
to challenge people to do more "because there are lots
of students who are eager to learn and who have ideas
that they can put into practice if they have good
supervision. He said, "I believe it is a matter of
encouragement. Most Nigerian universities should be
able to do wonderful things and make major
breakthroughs", noting that some students were co-
opted into the team to learn how to operate or fly the
drones.
The Drone Team Coordinator enjoined the newly
appointed ministers especially for the areas of science
and technology, "to see a need for us to self-develop,
self-evolve, and self-emancipate as a nation".
He said, "For a long time now, we have relied on
personnel from foreign countries to bail us out of
every technical problem we get into, but the issue is
that, we have so many Nigerians that are trained
abroad that are here and even those who have not left
the country that are equally talented that should be
encouraged to do wonderful things for the nation."
Prof. AbdulKareem maintained that the new ministers
"should see their appointments as a chance of working
with the academics in the educational institutions to
promote what will be good for the nation, to make the
nation as a whole self-reliant on personnel that are
available locally."
In the same vein, Dr. Yakubu said, "We can also use the
drone to monitor what is happening on our borders;
we have a very vast amount of land, and we can use it
to track activities that are going on there. Invariably,
we can use the drones to cover the entire University
and in getting information to the appropriate quarters.
Source:Myshcool.com
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