Students of the University’s College of Engineering (COLENG), made waves in Johannesburg, South Africa during the final event of African Unilever Idea Competition. They are: Ayobami Kalesanwo and Oluwaferanmi Muraina, both in 500-level Electrical Engineering and Mr. Oluwapelumi Kolade, 500-level Civil Engineering.

The team, which was christened “Team Innovatus”, represented Nigeria alongside “Team Adobe” from the University of Ibadan. They competed against nine other teams from  African countries such as: Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa, including their fellow citizens in Team Adobe. Team Innovatus, however, emerged First Runner-Up with Team Sparkle from South Africa clinching to the first position. Team Innovatus would, therefore, jointly represent Africa with Team Sparkle at the global finals in London later, this year.

Out of the over 2,000 entries, Team Innovatus was selected among few others to convert a written essay into a 40-second video advertisement. The outstanding students were subsequently selected to be part of the 36 students from universities all over Nigeria to attend a boot camp session in Lagos. The 36 students comprise of 12 groups of three team members, each.

The boot camp ran for a period of four days from August 23 to 26, last year and they were trained in marketing and sales techniques. Team Innovatus came out successful and proceeded to the semi-final round of six teams.