The prestigious awards ceremony was organized by GOGA at the Kempinski Gold Coast City in Accra to recognize the outstanding achievements and contributions of both local and international companies and institutions that are directly or indirectly involved in Ghana Oil & Gas sector.

The event focused on the human developments, technologies, financial packages, insurance products, best practices and others, while the renowned private university was honoured the “Oil & Gas Institution of the Year”, 2017, in human development and best practices.

Dr. Theophilus Oware, Senior Assistant Registrar – Advancement and Technology and Nana (Dr.) Baah Boakye, Dean of School of Engineering received the award on behalf of the University.

The president and founder of All Nations University, Dr. Samuel Donkor, who was delighted with the successes chalked by the university, expressed his profound gratitude to the entire faculty for their immense contributions to the development of the various departments especially that of Oil and Gas.

“I must say I am very happy with what we have achieved so far as an institution, we did this with a strong team effort from everybody and I must commend the faculty members for their immense dedication and unflinching support,” he said.

Dr. Donkor in an interview with Citi News LAO indicated that the university has invested over US$300,000 to revamp the oil and gas engineering labs as well as other engineering disciplines.

“Notable amounts of financial investment have gone into training and hiring of qualified senior faculty members at the department, we have already spent $300,000 to restructure and revamp our engineering laboratories to make it one of the best and standardized in the country for our students to have the best of practical tuition.

The President of the University, however, advised prospective students to choose All Nations University due to their foresight and higher educational successes chalked.

“Currently, All Nations University is only University in Ghana to run an Oil & Gas Engineering programme and our aim is to train both local and international engineers to participate in the development of oil and gas industry. Again, All Nations University is the only university in Ghana and Sub Sahara Africa to successfully design, build and deploy a satellite (cubeSat) into orbit (GHANASAT 1) by our trained engineers so there are a million reasons why we stand out among all other universities,” he stated.

Dr Donkor also reiterated his university’s commitment towards helping the government fight illegal mining which has bedevilled the nation.

“The next mission of the university is to collaborate with Government, and corporate bodies to design and build GhanaSat 2 to address issues such as oil spillage, illegal mining, land and water pollution and other issues facing the Ghanaian society. We know and believe the GhanaSat 2 will assist the country with every data and information on all these problems and challenges.”

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By: Neil Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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A statement issued by Mr Issah Yahaya, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Communications on behalf of Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister for Communications.

It said the Ghanasat-1 was released from the International Space Station (ISS) into orbit via Japan/KIBO Deployment system onboard the ISS at 0850 hours on Friday, July 7, 2017 and monitored by a team of the University’s officials and led by Ghana’s Ambassador to Japan, Mr Sylvester Parker Allotey in the control room of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) at its Tsukuba Space Centre in Japan.

The statement said the launch was also watched on the JAXA TV channel.

“Ghanasat-1 is of Cube Standard shape with a dimension of 100mm x 100 mm and was launched by NASA to the International Space Station via Space X CRS Flight 11 on June 3, 2017 at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, USA and then released into orbit using Japan KIBO onboard the ISS.

“In his broadcast message, relayed to the Space Station by Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister for Communications, the President, on behalf of the Government and people of Ghana, expressed gratitude to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Birds Project Management Team for their support in Ghana’s quest to becoming a space faring nation”.

He noted that the benefits for humankind played a major role in the socio-economic development of every country and today, Ghana is proud of the young Ghanaian engineers namely: Benjamin Bonsu (Project Manager), Ernest Matey and Joseph Quansah for this feat.

The statement said the Ghanasat-1 has Orbital inclination of 51.61 degrees, Orbital speed of 7.67 km/s and orbital period of 92 minutes and will spend 14 months after deployment at an altitude of 420 kilometres.

It said the Space Science Technology Laboratory of All Nations University, Koforidua in the Eastern Region (ANU-SSTL), formerly known as Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL), was established in February 2012 following a sensitisation workshop held by the University.

The statement said the workshop was organised as part of ANU’s celebration of a decade of innovation, excellence and quality higher education, and was the first of its kind in Ghana. It attracted University scholars, researchers, government workers, among many others.

“Its members are made of the university students and faculty members who are dedicated to championing and establishing Space Science research and study in Ghana and Africa”, the statement said.

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Source: GNA

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The satellite will first be launched to the International Space Station by Space X CRS-11 Cargo Mission and later deployed by a Japanese astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

The satellite was handed over to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

This was after the satellite had gone through a rigorous safety review and flight fittest in February this year.

JAXA took delivery of the Cubesat, dubbed Ghanasat-1, on February 9, 2017 and handed it over to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Florida, USA on February 13.

The deployment of GhanaSat1 will be watched live at JAXA Tsukuba Space Centre in Japan by top government officials and ministers.

The successful launch of the Cubesat, which weighs 1,000 grams, is expected to make the dream of Ghana becoming a space-faring nation a reality and also boost the country’s capacity to take advantage of space science technology in the future.

Images of the event will be beamed live at the ANU campus in Koforidua.

Ghanasat1 mission

The Cubesat, described as the first university satellite in sub-Saharan Africa, has low and high resolution cameras on board to take pictures of our homeland and provide data that can be used to monitor the coastal areas of Ghana.

It also has Digi-Singer SNG mission from which the national anthem and other independence songs can be broadcast from space, as well as collect requested songs from the ground and send to the satellite to broadcast in space.

It is an initiative aimed at stimulating interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in high schools and tertiary institutions.

It will also embark on a scientific mission to investigate the radiation effects on commercial-off-the-shelf microprocessors. This means it will measure the single event latch-up occurrence that degrades electronic system on board satellites due to the harsh space environment and analyse this data to contribute to scientific research.

Brains behind project

The two-year project, made possible through collaboration between the ANUC and the Kyutech Institute of Technology (Kyutech) in Japan, began in October 2015, was completed in December 2016.

It was carried out entirely by three young engineering graduates of the ANUC who designed, assembled and tested the satellite when they joined the Birds project implemented by Kyutech for other four nations aspiring to be space-faring.

The trio, led by Benjamin Bonsu, a PhD student in Applied Science for System Engineering, Joseph Quansah and Ernest Teye Matey, executed the project under the supervision of Professor Mengu Cho, the Director of Laboratory of Spacecraft Environment Interaction Engineering (LaSEINE) and other faculty members of Kyutech.

Previous accomplishments

The young engineers and their team in Ghana were the founder members of ANUC’s Space Science and Technology Laboratory (SSTL) which designed, developed and launched successfully the university’s miniaturised Cansat on May 15, 2013, an initiative that attracted the attention of both local and international media.

The trio completed their Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering at ANUC in 2013 and constructed the university’s amateur Ground Station that currently allows the station to receive information from passing satellites.

It is an achievement that has made ANUC the first university in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa to accomplish such a feat in space science technology applications.

The effort contributed to make the university the only local institution to be given the licence as amateur licence operators by the National Communication Authority (NCA) in 2014.

Investment worthwhile

Throwing light on the project, the President of the ANUC, Dr Samuel H. Donkor, said one of the most important technologies that could advance the development of any nation was space science exploration.

“When ANUC realised that space science was something that could help move Ghana’s development forward we decided to invest over $500,000 in research in this area, starting with the development and successful launch of our Cansat in May 2013 and building a ground station a year later.

“As part of our commitment, we sponsored three young graduates to further their studies in space science technology and satellite development when they joined the Birds project that offered them the opportunity to design and build the Ghanasat-1 in two years,” Dr Donkor said.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has redirected Ghana’s mission in Japan to represent the country at the event to be beamed live via video feed from the International Space Station at Tsukuba Space Centre in Japan.

The Office of the President in a correspondent with the ANU asked to be able to communicate with the three Ghanaian students–Mr Benjamin Bonsu, Mr Ernest Matey and Mr Joseph Quansah, during the release of the satellite.

“ Such an interactions we believe will help to add much gravitas to the event and serve to convey to your students engineers our immense national pride and esteem in which they are held,” the letter from the Presidency signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, stated.

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Source: Graphic.com.gh

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Dr. Samuel Boateng, Head of Oil and Gas Department at the All Nations University College (ANUC), said that was the way forward to lift the people out of poverty.

He was speaking at this year’s ‘world space week’ celebration held in Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The programme was jointly organized by the Electronics and Communications Department of the University’s Institute of Engineering and Technology, Institute of Electricals and Engineering, National Society of Black Engineers and Society of Petroleum Engineers.

“African space festival” was the theme chosen for the event and the goal was to highlight the vital role of technology to socio-economic development.

It brought together students from various Senior High Schools across the Eastern Region.
Dr. Boateng said it was important to encourage and motivate Ghanaian students to study science, technology, and mathematics.

He indicated that there should not be any time to waste and that Africa needed to step up its efforts to catch up with the rest of the world.

Mr. Dickson Amakye, the Head of the Electronics and Communications Department, expressed optimism that the celebration would ignite the passion of the youth for science and technology education.
He called for the nation to develop an electrical and electronics industrialization plan to speed up its technological advancement.

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Source: GNA

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