The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, AIMS Cameroon, celebrated on February 16th 2019 as they Joined AIMS Senegal and AIMS Rwanda by launching and graduating their first cohort of Cooperative Education Masters Degree Students.
11 students, made up of 6 females and 5 males from 6 African countries were conferred Masters degrees in Industrial Mathematics after undergoing 10months of academic work and 8months tackling real life problems at local and International Industries.
The Ceremony took place at the AIMS Cameroon premises in Crystal Garden’s, Limbe, under the auspices of the Minister of Higher Education represented by Prof. Fonkeng Epah George, Guest speaker and Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of teaching, Professionalization and the Development of the Information and Communication Technologies, University of Buea.
Also in attendance was Mr. Samuel Mbua, Chief of cabinet representing the Government Delegate of the limbe city council, AIMS Cameroon’s Industry Partners, AIMS Cameroon’s Center President, Prof. Mama Foupouagnigni, The C.O.O, Mary Bernadette Fultang, AIMS’ Academic Director, Prof. Marco Andrea Garuti, AIMS lectures, tutors, staff and a host of invitees.
In a Welcome speech, the Chief of Carbinet, Mr. Samuel Mbua referred to AIMS Cameroon as a pride to the city of limbe and hopes that in subsequent years, the city council and other councils will be part of the Co-operative program initiative as partners.
Ms. Ebude Antem Yolande Ebong, Cameroonian female and overall best student, stood proud as she thanked all those who made their journey a success. “Dear Classmates, we need to bootstrap, as we will soon brave reality, though it might be obscure, o remember, drink a lot of water’ she joked while encouraging her mates.
Prof. Marco Garuti, AIMS Cameroon Academic Director, while recapping the year from the academic point of view, revealed that students for the pioneer batch were selected from a pool of 500 applicants following a highly competitive and rigorous selection process.
The Chief Operating Officer, Mary Bernadette Fultang equally joined her voice to that of the Academic Director in congratulating the students on a job excellently done. She reminded them to uphold AIMS’ core values of excellence, respect, pan Africanism and integrity as they move on to their respective careers.
Prof. Mama Foupouagnigni, after explaining the 7 programs currently implemented at AIMS and the importance of mathematics to Africa’s economy, expressed satisfaction with the work carried out by graduands during their internship placement.
“For instance, the problem Ebude handled is very relevant in the sense that most of the problems our industries face can be resolved by a proper collection of data and analysis for decision making,” Prof. Foupouagnigni explained.
Ebude during her internship, devised a hard and software system that is beneficial, especially to telephony companies in Cameroon that use electric generators to power the different relay signal antennas they have around the country, some in very remote localities where there is no electricity. This system instantly monitors and informs the central offices on the quantity of fuel in the generator’s tank.
Prof. Mama Foupouagnini confirmed that this system will help these companies check fuel pilferage, reduce cost of placing personnel on antenna sites to monitor the tanks and will enable these companies to ensure proper functioning of all their antennas at a far reduced cost.
Prof. Mama ended by referring to the efforts of the fresh graduates as ‘version Zero’, meaning the beginning of greater things to be accomplished.
Director of the Limbe Regional Hospital, Dr. Denis Nsame, was also very pleased with the research work carried out by two of AIMS graduands at his Hospital during their internship. He confirmed that partnering with AIMS Cameroon is a win-win as students identified and focused on areas where the hospital was facing challenges such as reducing queuing time by patients at the hospital and the need for a Disease surveillance automated system to track disease incidence. ‘Of course the recommendations were very very good for us and we are going to implement them’ he said.
In the same spirit, Patrick Okali Dima, Manager of ManPowerCam, Group 1 Holding, was happy with the results his company was getting, thanks to the partnership with AIMS.
Presiding over the occasion, Prof. Fonkeng Epah George, guest speaker n representative of the minister of higher education, stated that the mission of AIMS is in line with that of government’s plan of action in the educational sector. He added that, the masters in industrial mathematics is a great thing for Cameroon’s economy in the key areas of professionalization and employability as students gain hands on experiences which they will use to pick up jobs in the society.
Prof. Fonkeng went ahead to validate the hard work of the graduating students while urging them to remain steadfast and maintain professionalism. ‘The government of Cameroon has observed with great satisfaction and is very proud of you and we are grateful that AIMS Cameroon has started a Cooperative Masters program to further train young scientists who will grow up to shape the future of Africa’ he said.
He appreciated partner countries and funding institutions as well as AIMS’ center president, Prof. Mama Foupouagnigni, for his clear vision, strong commitment and leadership.
Gifts in the form of cash prices were awarded to exceptional students, thanks to ManPowerCam, Group One Holding, The Limbe City Council and AIMS Cameroon.
By Sally Teke.