My Engineers Blog

I The decision at this week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Algiers to cut production was necessitated by Saudi Arabia's tattered finances. The kingdom has the highest budget deficit among the world's 20 biggest economies, it's enduring a delay in its first international bond issue and now faces fresh legal uncertainty as the U.S. Congress voted Wednesday to allow Americans to sue the country for its involvement in 9/11. "Saudi Arabia wants higher prices," said Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at consultancy firm Energy Aspects Ltd. in London. The consequences could be vast. Giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp. may soon be flush enough to revive abandoned projects. Finances of cash-strapped OPEC countries like Venezuela will get a boost. Russia and other independent oil-rich countries will have to decide whether to follow Saudi Arabia's lead. U.S. shale producers, which OPEC hoped it could push into bankruptcy, will use h

OPEC agrees to cut its oil output for the first time since 2008, with the group's leader Saudi Arabia softening its stance on arch-rival Iran amid mounting pressure from low oil prices. For the first time in almost a decade, OPEC nations have agreed to keep a lid on their oil production in a step designed to stabilize the worldwide price of crude. The informal meeting in Algiers yielded a deal to reduce output from its current production of 33.24 million barrels per day (bpd) to 32.5 million bpd. “The Conference concurs that there is firm and common ground that continuous collaborative efforts among producers, both within and outside OPEC, would help restore the balance and sustainability in the market,” OPEC said in a statement. “At this juncture, it is foremost to reaffirm OPEC’s continued commitment to stable markets, for the mutual interests of producing nations, efficient and secure supplies to the consumers, with a fair return on invested capital for all producers.”

The Secretary General of   Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR)‎, Comrade Segun Esan,  In this interview with JOY EKEKE he speaks about the challenges of  ‎policy inconsistency in the railway sector and offers insight into the operations of the Railway Corporation of Nigeria.  Nigerians are mostly familiar with road and air modes of transport and not rail, what is responsible for this? The federal government which, of course,  is the owner of the rail transport subsector made it so. Roads and airports are heavily funded and built while railway was left and abandoned for years to go into operational recluse. Unlike in the 50s, 60s, up to 80s when railway enjoyed government funding and equipping which positioned the Railway well enough to care for the significant market share of the evolving passenger and freight traffic of the time. The neglect suffered by the Railway especially in the hands of military governments was largely responsible for the poor development of the rail

ABSTRACT In the pursuit of a more secure, stable and sustainable world, developing countries seek to enhance their human, institutional and infrastructure capacity.  To do so they need a solid base of technologically prepared people to effectively improve their economies and quality of life. Such a base will facilitate the infusion of foreign capital through attraction of multinational companies to invest in the developing country, assist in making the most of foreign aid funds, and provide a basis for business development by local entrepreneurs. In a coordinated approach, UNESCO and WFEO are mounting major efforts at technical capacity building in developing countries. INTRODUCTION An old Chinese proverb says: “Give a person a fish: you have fed the person for today.  Teach a person to fish: you have fed the person for a lifetime.” In today’s global economy, one more level needs to be added for developing countries: And: teach the person how to process a

Engr Balarabe Inuwa Abdullahi Swearing in the newly elected NSE Kano Branch Chairman, Engr Rabiu Haruna The Nigeria Society of Engineers, NSE, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Safety and Industrial Hazard Bill before him into law. The engineers said over 80 per cent of the Nigeria’s industries are operating below safety requirements. They said the safety law is needed to strengthen the industries’ operational capabilities. Speaking as guest lecturer during the inauguration of the newly elected executive of the Kano NSE, and induction of newly elected corporate members on Saturday, Professor Adamu Alhaji of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bayero University, Kano, said there are insinuations that most industries in Nigeria are operating below safety requirements. Mr. Alhaji said the bill can be seen as a stringent penalty for defaulters which might result in the closure of many substandard Industries. The don said the industrial safe

The members of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Awka Branch, today Saturday 24th September, 2016, had their election today to usher in new executives that will lead the branch for the next two (years). Before the dissolving the past executives, the out going Chairman of the Branch, Engr. Sylvester Ofodile MNSE, gave his valedictory speech and afterwards, the representative of the National President of NSE in the Person of Engr. Jonathan Umeh who was there to monitor and observe the election, also spoke to the branch and gave his directive as regards the election. After the accreditation of members, 36 eligible voters were gotten as financial up to date members. For one to be eligible to vote or be voted for, the member must clear his outstanding dues at the National and local level. With this exercise, a lot of members were denied the right to vote for their preferred candidates. Some of the past Chairmen of Branch were present at the Meeting/Election to cast the

From cell phones that transform into microscopes to designing new materials for targeted drug delivery, engineering discoveries at Texas A&M University are transforming healthcare. Starting in Fall 2017, 50 physician engineers will have an opportunity to enroll in a graduate program developed as a collaboration between the Dwight Look College of Engineering, Texas A&M College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital. The Engineering Medicine (EnMed) program would be an integrated research and medical school utilizing 75,000 square feet of research space at the Texas Medical Center. Kristi Shryrock, instructional associate professor and executive director of interdisciplinary engineering programs, said EnMed is envisioned as an innovative medical school where professionals will acquire clinical skills to diagnose problems and an engineering mindset to invent new technologies. “From the first day, students will study medicine through the lens of an engineer,” Shr

The US space agency issued a press release early Thursday morning telling the world it had some noteworthy news to tell us about Europa. In a sparsely worded statement, NASA said it will hold a media call on Monday afternoon local time (Tuesday morning AEST) which has to do with “evidence of surprising activity on Europa.” Europa is Jupiter’s icy moon and apparently scientists have discovered something unexpected. NASA’s teleconference will “present new findings from images captured by the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa,” the agency said. “Astronomers will present results from a unique Europa observing campaign that resulted in surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa.” It remains to be seen exactly what the surprising evidence is, but NASA was quick to squash any speculation of aliens by tweeting: “Spoiler alert: NOT aliens.” The teleconference will involve top NASA scien

" The sad reality is that most of these graduates are becoming experts in negativity and why and how things cannot work..…” ..Isqil Najim He went to school with intention of being a change maker and a problem solver. He was told that if he can be the best in his class he will build the best bridges, great automobiles and railroads. He was shown the images and works of great engineers and scientists of years gone by. Albert Einstein is just too exalted not to be emulated. The discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton brought changes to science worlds, just as the work of many more distinguished scientists, and technologists all over. Then he thought of Bill gates, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Louis Pasteur, Guglielmo Marconi and other innovators who had made their mark in tech industry. He pictured in his mind a glorious career path that can also bring him fame, money and respect. Driven by the inspiration of these great achievers and the promises therein, he went into school

China has begrudgingly admitted that the country's first and only space station is most likely out of control -- and is expected to crash into the Earth's atmosphere next year. The Tiangong-1 space station, launched in September 2011, means "heavenly palace" and was used to perform docking exercises in preparation for the country to build and launch a larger space complex by 2020. The station is also equipped with monitoring equipment and sensor payloads for space observation. However, speculation over the past few months has led to rumors that the 8.5-ton Tiangong-1's telemetry link to Earth operators has failed, which would result in an uncontrolled plummet to Earth in the next few years. In a press conference last week, Wu Ping, deputy director of the manned space engineering office, admitted that the station will likely come back to Earth in the second half of 2017, according to local media outlet Xinhua News. While the space lab has "comprehen

In the long-running debate over whether entrepreneurs are born or bred, Michael Grimes insists that, for mere mortals, leadership skills are largely learned. Grimes should know. As managing director at Morgan Stanley in Silicon Valley, the UC Berkeley grad has overseen more than $500 billion in financing, merger and acquisition transactions for hundreds of tech titans ranging from Google to Uber. Grimes is so convinced that the right education and training can help create the next crop of tech superstars that he has helped UC Berkeley launch a new program designed to do just that. The Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology program, or M.E.T., bringing together UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and College of Engineering, will open its doors in fall 2017. Over the course of four years, M.E.T. students will earn two simultaneous undergraduate degrees — a bachelor's in business administration and a bachelor's in either electrical engineering and computer

Tomorrow, Thursday, September 22, the cream of the engineering profession in Nigeria and people from all walks of life will converge on the Function Suite of the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, for the second edition of the Annual Engr. (Rev) Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh Distinguished Lecture Series. The theme of this year’s lecture is: “Managing the Challenges of Infrastructure Deficits in Nigeria: A Cross-Country Analysis of the roles of Engineers in Economic Development”. This is the second edition of the Annual Lecture series instituted by the Board of  Trustees, National Council of the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers, NICE, a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, in 2015 in honour of one of Nigeria’s outstanding Engineers, Engr. (Rev) Ette Ikpong Ikpong Etteh, OFR, co-founding Principal, Etteh Aro and Partners, based in Ibadan, Oyo State. Tracing the trajectory of Etteh’s life history clearly shows that he has had a robust professional practice spanning dec

The Nigerian development predicament has so many dimensions from which one can begin to unpack its meaning and solutions. But there is only one way Nigerians experience all these dimensions of economic disarticulation and policy incoherence: extreme suffering. This suffering is aggravated by the indices of our development dilemma—jobless growth phenomenon, infrastructural deficit, illiteracy, unemployment, zero-level poverty, income inequality, very low mortality, institutional crisis, and so many more. Understanding the implication of Nigeria’s development predicament is theoretical, but alleviating the sufferings of Nigerians requires, as a first condition, a mix of theoretical and experiential understanding of what has gone wrong and how the elements of positive development can be put together in an enabling policy framework that will deliver the dividends of democratic governance to the Nigerian citizens. We need to first understand, for example, why government policies fail to