Engineers particularly those in the Chemical Engineering discipline have been tasked to provide local solutions to many challenges the pandemic has brought to the fore.
Engineer Bayo Olanrewaju-Alo, a chemical engineering expert and Principal Partner, AVODAN Project and Engineering Services Limited, recently made the call at the annual public lecture organised by the Lagos/Ogun Chapter of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE).
At the lecture in honour of erudite Engr. Anthony Olufemi Shobo on his 89th birthday, Olanrewaju-Alo, in his virtual presentation titled, ‘The New Normal-COVID-19 Imperatives: Challenges and Opportunities for Engineers’ drew the attention of his colleagues to the challenges and opportunities for engineers in various sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, banking, agriculture, health and education, among others.
The guest speaker advised that engineers should factor flexibility into the design of manufacturing factories for switching production lines to more urgent needs in times of national emergencies, citing the example of Ford Motors in America, where cars assembling plant was converted for the production of Ventilators.
In the banking sector, Engr. Olanrewaju-Alo noted that “Engineering solution should be developed for our banking system to avoid the type of rush we witnessed recently during the ease of the lockdown. How do we maximise the cashless policy and increase the flexibility in the use of Point of Sales?”
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On education, the guest speaker queried the readiness of engineers in developing e-learning protocol on social distancing in academic institutions, even as he called for support and encourage leaders championing the scrapping of the ‘Almajiri’ system.
He also suggested that remote operations in oil and gas field operations should be extended to all field operations and other business areas outside the petroleum industry, such as public utility, power supply and monitoring of electricity distribution stations and substations.
“Let’s diversify the economy and stop dependence on oil,” he said, adding, “More attention should be given to agriculture by developing local solutions for the preservation and storage of farm harvest to minimize waste. There is a need to emphasize value addition to farm products by processing and packaging for local and export markets.”
Other areas of opportunities Olanrewaju-Alo suggested include design of cheap and disposable apparel; safer deliveries to minimise human contacts; sanitation engineers to provide safe drinking water in rural communities; biomedical engineers to collaborate with the medical community in developing novel tools and medical equipment; as well as the use of drone technology and robotics for safer health care delivery services.