By Olatunde Ajayi
Organisers of the National Engineering Science and Technology Essay Competition (NESTEC) have announced that only two out of 10 shortlisted projects met the threshold required to advance to the prototype development and commercialisation stages.
The assessment report was presented at the 6th virtual edition of the competition by Prof. Emmanuel Eronu, Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, University of Abuja.
Eronu said that entries were evaluated based on originality, commercialisation potential, competitiveness and prospects for attracting sponsorships.
According to him, the highest-ranked project, “SiloGuard – A Low-Cost TinyML-Enabled Solar Granary for Post-Harvest Loss Prevention in Nigeria” developed by Abubakar Okhayole, scored 80 per cent.
He said the second qualifying project, “Neural-Network Based Controller for Full-Bridge Inverter Voltage Regulation: Design and Deployment on Embedded RISC-V Microcontroller” by Usman Shehu, scored 65 per cent.
Eronu explained that the competition adopted a higher assessment threshold than conventional academic pass marks because its objective was to identify innovations with strong commercialisation prospects.
“The objective is not just to reward good academic projects but to identify ideas that can be transformed into marketable products and attract investment,” he said.
Speaking earlier, President of the Blue Apple Educational Foundation (BAEF), Mr Michael Akan, said NESTEC had evolved beyond essay writing to focus on prototype development and commercialisation of innovative ideas.
Akan said the new approach was designed to bridge the gap between research and the marketplace by providing participants with guidance on prototype development, intellectual property, technology transfer and entrepreneurship.
According to him, the theme of this year’s competition, “Commercialisation of Innovative Ideas: The Pathway to National Development” underscores the need to transform research outcomes into viable products and businesses.
Commenting on the assessment outcome, Akan said many submissions were technically sound but fell short in demonstrating originality and clear pathways to commercialisation.
He also said that several participants treated their entries as conventional academic projects without adequately addressing market demand, end users and business viability.
Also speaking, Associate Prof. Rabiu Abdulkadir of Shandong Xiehe University, China, urged young innovators to embrace demand-driven innovation by identifying societal challenges before developing solutions.
“People do not buy technologies; they buy solutions,” he said.
He emphasised that commercialisation should be considered from the conception stage of every project.
Abdulkadir cautioned against overreliance on artificial intelligence (AI), warning that excessive dependence on foreign AI models could result in “digital colonisation” and limit the development of locally relevant solutions.
In a separate presentation, Eronu highlighted the need to bridge the gap between research and market adoption, often described as the “valley of death.”
According to him, many promising innovations fail because of inadequate financing, weak market access, poor intellectual property protection and limited commercialisation skills.
He said AI could help accelerate prototyping, reduce validation costs and improve access to innovation resources, but stressed the need for responsible adoption.
“The national task is no longer merely to innovate but to commercialise,” he said.
Similarly, the Director-General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Obiageli Amadiobi, urged researchers to protect their inventions and commercialise research outputs.
Amadiobi said intellectual property rights such as patents, trademarks and copyrights were essential for transforming innovative ideas into marketable products and attracting investment.
She identified weak intellectual property awareness, inadequate funding and poor linkages between research institutions and industry as major barriers to innovation in Nigeria.
According to her, NOTAP is promoting indigenous technologies through patent awareness programmes, Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices in tertiary institutions and support for patent registration.
The overall winner, Okhayole, described his project as a practical solution to post-harvest losses in the agricultural sector and expressed optimism that it would eventually reach the market and benefit farmers.
In his closing remarks, Chairman of the occasion, Prof. Tolulope Akinbulire of the University of Lagos, commended the organisers, assessors and participants, urging future contestants to align their projects more closely with commercialisation requirements.
He added that feedback from participants would be used to improve future editions of the competition.
NESTEC is one of BAEF’s flagship initiatives aimed at promoting innovation, engineering, science and technology among students.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Bayo Sekoni