By Khadijah Kolapo
Engineer Mbim Okuntinyang, the partner managing the Ibadan office of Etteh Aro and Partners, a Civil Engineering firm has advised engineers to embrace innovative technologies or stand the risk of losing their job when it becomes obsolete.
He said this while giving a lecture at the Workshop and Exhibition organized by the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Ibadan branch in commemoration of its Mega Engineering Week on the 24th of August at the Faculty of technology large lecture theatre.
Engineer Mbim related the story of how draughtsmanship was faced out by a directive from the government in the late 90s which stated that all building drawings should be drawn with a computer and he said the same thing will happen to some jobs in the near future. He encouraged engineers to embrace a change mindset, stay up to date with new technologies, understand the basics of these technologies and find out how they align with the goals of their company.
He listed some new technologies like Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality; Building Information Modeling (BIM), Modular construction and explained the different ways they can make life easier, save time, reduce stress and improve safety.
In response to a question, he charged professional engineering bodies to direct their technical sessions towards keeping professionals abreast of modern technologies and to interface with law-making bodies to ensure that the policies made favour engineering practice. While making a comment on Engineer Mbim’s lecture, Professor Lucas Adegboye, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Ibadan emphasized the need of implementing well established technologies that will be impactful. He advised Universities to promote people on the basis of the impact of their research make instead of ordinary academic research.
