Climate change: French embassy to train 17 engineers, lecturers from 5 Nigerian universities

As part of its efforts to foster and strengthen collaboration on climate change, the embassy of France in Nigeria has announced plans to train 17 engineers and lecturers from five Nigerian universities.

Tagged “Fablab workshop”, the digital fabrication laboratory is part of the Research and Innovation in Adapting to Climate Change (AIRACC) project billed to hold from September 28 till October 2, in Abuja.

The AIRACC project was launched by the French embassy in April 2019, and it involves seven Nigerian universities.

In a statement on Thursday, the embassy said fabrication laboratories will be donated to the University of Lagos; University of Ibadan; Bayero University, Kano; Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, and the University of Jos.

“These fablabs are particularly conceived for designing solutions to adapt to climate change,” it said.

“The consultants in charge of training are fablab experts from France and Burkina Faso, who have helped design fablabs in several West African countries.

“The main objective of the workshop is to train 17 engineers and lecturers from the five universities in the setting up and use of FabLabs as well as in the basics of 3D printing and other engineering tools.

“These trainees are to be the future technical managers of the donated fablabs, managers in charge of the facilities and, more generally, facilitators of ideation and creativeness.

“Digital fabrication laboratories, also called “Fab Labs”, whose story began at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004, are places where everyone, from engineers and academics to students and plain citizens can come and test ideas and solutions.

“They are places for learning, sharing, innovating; places where collaborative ideas can germ and be brought to life.”