Three Katangites have emerged winners of the just concluded INNOTECH competition organized by the Faculty Of Science,  University of Ibadan.

The katangites, who were members of Team SCIFITES, were announced winners of the competition on Tuesday, 14th of December, at the Faculty of Science Lecture Theater (FLT).

Before emerging champions, picking up the competition’s grand prize of 100 thousand naira, the team had initially been shortlisted as part of the top five in the competition.

Members of the team include: Showunmi Segun, a 100 level student of the Department of industrial and production engineering; Nnaemezie Philip, a 100 level student of the Department of Microbiology, and Ajibodu Peter, a 100 level of the Department of Industrial chemistry.

INNOTECH is an idea pitching competition, encouraging students to pitch ideas of different projects on different areas of science which would help make life and productivity easier.

Team SCIFITES came up with the idea of a “SOLAR PLANT”, an horizontal axis solar tracker, which follows the sun as it rises from the East and sets in the West.

Through the help of photosensitive cells, the solar plant senses the direction of the sun and positions the panel to tap enough sunlight. Hence generating 40% more solar power than the regular rooftop (stationary) panels.

Speaking with IndyPress on Tuesday night, Nnaemezie Philip, a member of the team, expressed delight about his team’s victory.

“It feels so surreal because it all started as a joke on our Freshers group,” he began.

“We eventually formed the team, applied and when we got shortlisted, we kind of expected it, but winning the grand prize was unbelievable because other teams also had great ideas as well,” Phillip added.