My Engineers Blog

The National President of Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, Dr. Ade Tade, on Thursday, urged the Federal Government to improve on power supply to specialists and teaching hospitals in the country. He said poor power supply was threatening the multi-billion naira equipment supplied by VAMED to some hospitals. Tade stated this during a facility tour of some state-of-the-art equipment installed at the University College Hospital by the Federal Government between 2002 and 2006 at a cost of about N1.3bn. An Austrian firm, Vamed Engineering, was contracted by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to install some modern equipment and upgrade new ones at the hospital and 14 other ones in the country for efficient service delivery. Tade was told by a board member of the hospital, Dr. Babatunde Philips, that the major problem confronting the tertiary hospital, especially as it related to the effective use of the facility was epileptic power supp

Vacancy at consolidated brewery: The Role: The SPM-in-training will undergo skills based training in line with structured programme for the shift packaging manager’s role. On completion of the ranging the prospective SPm will be deployed to run any of the bottling lines in our breweries while reporting to a packaging manager Shift packaging manager (SPM) in-training Requirements: 1. minimum of B. Sc degree (2.2) or HND (lower credit),mechanicl Engineering, Food science, chemical engineering, and electrical engineering; 2. not more than 35 years of age as at 1st January 2009 3. Evidence of having participated in NYSC 4. Should be passionate about factory safety and optimization of hazards 5. should have worked on a bottling/packaging line or in a similar function for about 2-5 years 6. willing to run shifts including nights 7. should be computer literates 8. should be resilience and able to perform under pressure 9. should be analytical, proactive, a team layer and possess good communi

FACTS have begun to emerged how the poor electricity supply in the country has led and contributed to factory closures and declining manufacturing sector in Nigeria, leading millions of job loses. In fact, in the Textile/garment as well as Chemical/Leather sectors of the economy, constant power failure in the country has either led to and was a major factor to closure of not less than one hundred factories scattered across the country. According to vanguard investigations, while twelve manufactory companies in both Textile/Garment and Chemical/Leather sectors, three had their workers reduced from five thousand (5000) to seven hundred (700). Confirming this unfortunate development and the steady de-industrialisation in the country, General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) and a Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu, declared that among the factories that closed down as a result of electricity fa

It is perhaps the world's cheapest mobile phone. It is the latest offering from Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution. And its name is derived from a slang word for penis. Behold the Vergatorio. Venezuela's president launched the handset on his TV show with a Mother's Day call to his mum and predicted it would conquer all rivals. "This telephone will be the biggest seller not only in Venezuela but the world," he said. "Whoever doesn't have a Vergatario is nothing," he joked. Priced just $15 (nearly £10), the phone has a camera, WAP internet access, FM radio and MP3 and MP4 players for music and videos. And it has that name. Why the president chose it remains unclear, but he enunciates each syllable with a grin. Some laugh, others are affronted. Verga is slang for penis and vergatario is a newly minted word which signifies excellent but retains connotations from its root. The word verga, and variations of it, are associated with Venezuela's

A startup is working on a product that can tell you exactly what it's like to walk a mile in someone else's shoes — because the insoles record every touch of pressure. ESoles Inc., which makes custom insoles for athletic shoes, has created prototype insoles with pressure sensors that relay their information wirelessly to a nearby cell phone. Then an application on the phone can tell the wearer how much pressure he or she is applying in 11 different zones of each sole. The system has been used to analyze the technique of the U.S. Olympic BMX team, helping them figure out how to apply maximum power to the bicycle pedals out of the gate, said Glen Hinshaw, founder of in Scottsdale, Ariz.-based eSoles and a former professional cyclist. The system can also analyze a golf swing or skiing posture, Hinshaw said. Sports aren't the only application — the insoles can work in games. ESoles is trying a jump rope game, in which the phone screen shows a swinging rope, and users have to

Perhaps in no other African city is efficient rail system most desirable than Nigeria, the continent's most populous country, and Lagos, its economic nerve centre. With the near total collapse of the rail system built by the colonial administration, and consolidated upon by the early nationalists of the first republic, there has been a growing gap in Nigeria's transportation system even as the population keeps increasing, leaving millions of the citizens to grapple with road as singular most dependable mode of transportation. As this is happening, the roads, due to poor maintenance are fast becoming death traps, with ditches and gullies getting deeper resulting to accidents and untimely death of thousands. While government agencies, including the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) will point to dangerous overtaking, over speeding, drunken drivers, overloading, poor maintenance of vehicles as some of the factors responsible for the spate of accidents on Nigerian roads, th

Ernest Ndukwe, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) assures that the Commission is in the process of establishing a Cyber Security Centre to look at the gains the country can harness from Cyberspace as well look at Cyber security which is very important in modern business transactions. Giving this assurance at the Cyber Security Conference and Exhibition in Abuja, put together by Anti-Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition of the National Assembly, Ndukwe however urged participants not to be negative about the technology but instead encourage the teeming Nigerian youths to think of new ways to use Cyber Space. “It is important that we tackle the issue on a positive note because there is more to gain from Cyber Space instead of throwing away the baby with the bath water”. While explaining that the Federal Government has taken a number of measures to combat Cyber Crime in Nigeria, he pointed out that the aspect of legislation was very import, encour

Nigerian airlines are still very far from direct flight operations on the Nigeria-United States route in spite of resources and energy expended by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and repeated visits by American aviation officials on inspections to Lagos, BusinessDay can now reveal. Reason: The Federal Government is yet to meet the vital requirements demanded by Washington before Nigerian airlines and Nigerian registered aircraft can operate direct flights to the United States. One requirement the Americans are not willing to waive is the granting of autonomy to the NCAA by the ministry of aviation. Though a Civil Aviation Act was enacted in March 2006 where autonomy for the apex aviation regulatory agency was robustly provided, diplomatic sources told BussinessDay that successive aviation ministers have refused to let go the NCAA to perform its duties. “The US has very strong view that the NCAA as it is now cannot be trusted with credible oversight functions as it is too

It may be old hat in Europe and Asia to rocket through the landscape on a 200-plus-mile-an-hour train. But in America, all that promoters of high-speed passenger rail service have to show for three decades of effort are dusty feasibility studies stretching from Florida to California. Yet by committing $13 billion in stimulus and budget funds to high-speed train travel to reduce traffic congestion and cut pollution, the Obama Administration is giving these projects a critical boost. A priority is a line that would whiz passengers 520 miles from Anaheim to San Francisco in less than three hours and upgrades of Amtrak service in New England and the Midwest to reach speeds of up to 150 mph. "This is the first time a U.S. Administration has put this high on the agenda and is putting serious money behind it," says G. Lindsay Simmons, a Washington attorney representing the French National Railway, which aspires to manage U.S. transit systems. Dozens of potential investors, most of t

U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman predicted that a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions will become law by the end of the year. President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to reach agreement on a bill during a meeting today with committee Democrats, Waxman said outside the White House. “The president says he wants legislation, he wants us to move as quickly as possible,” Waxman told reporters after the meeting. “We said we’re moving it this year and he didn’t object.” He said panel members also agreed to push forward with legislation to give consumers an incentive to trade in old cars for newer, more fuel-efficient models. The “cash for clunkers” program seeks to reduce pollution from old cars. Democrats remain divided over cap-and-trade legislation to use pollution permits to limit greenhouse gas emissions, particularly over how to distribute the permits. Lawmakers from states that heavily rely on coal and other polluting industries want free permits to a

Following its sudden collapse May 2 of a fabric-covered indoor practice facility, neither the Dallas Cowboys nor the company that designed and supplied the structure are talking about the design or the engineering of the membrane-covered structure. With lawsuits likely to follow an event that resulted in three serious injuries, the National Football League team and Summit Structures are deferring detailed questions until an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation is complete. OSHA routinely takes up to six months to complete accident investigations. Footballer Travis Bright, along with Dallas Cowboys teammates and staff, searches wreckage for trapped people following the collapse of the NFL team’s practice facility. As rookie football players practiced indoors in Irving, Texas, during a swiftly moving thunderstorm, the fabric-clad building began to tremble. Suspended light fixtures began to sway. Within seconds, the entire structure collapsed. Twelve of the 70 peopl

Dancom Technologies (“Dancom”), a subsidiary company of Dangote Group and Huawei Technologies (“Huawei”), a leading next generation telecommunication solutions provider, have concluded an agreement for Huawei to build a national Fibre Optic Network, the first part of which will cover the Eastern region of the country. Huawei will provide an end-to-end solution for Dancom, including equipment, maintenances, managed services, and so on. The agreement is in line with government’s effort at encouraging a robust national telecommunication superhighway infrastructure. President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and David Xie, president of Huawei West Africa Region, attended the signing ceremony on April 27. The agreement indicates the beginning of long-term cooperation between Dancom and Huawei in the area of full telecommunications planning, network rollout and managed services. Aliko Dangote summarised Dancom’s decision thus, “Our intention is to build Nigeria’s ‘Information Highway’ b

From Njadvara Musa, Damaturu THE Yobe State coordinator of National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Alhaji Adamu Ba'aba, has identified "lack of funds" as bane of creating employment, because only 65 of 297 or 25 per cent of trained graduates in the state were equipped with tools and take-off grants. The coordinator made this known recently in an interactive session with reporters in Damaturu on the rising rate of unemployment and inability to create more jobs for the unemployed. He said: "When you train somebody and do not settle him with tools and take off grants to work with, his skills cannot be put to use to fight poverty and unemployment among the youths." He therefore appealed to the state and local governments to assist the graduates and trainees with working tools to start their business ventures. "Public officers must also come forward to provide their people with the working tools because, leaving it to government alone cannot provide jobs