FUTA Team Wins Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society International Challenge, Jostle For $22000 Grand Prize

A team of students from the Federal University of Technology Akure FUTA under the guidance and leadership of Professor of Physics of the University, Joseph Ojo  has been named one of the winners of the Fifth Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Student Grand Challenge. 

The selection will enable the team  develop an Autonomous IoT-based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for Real-Time Detection and Mapping of Environmental Hazards in Remote Regions.

FUTA is the only University from Africa picked for the award by the organisers. Other winners came from Spain, China , India , USA 

The winning teams will also  get support worth USD $12,000 and additional Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS) publication fees waiver of USD $8,000.

The award also include a travel grant of up to USD $2,000 to be provided to one person per winning team to present their results at a special session at IGARSS 2025 in Brisbane, Australia, from 3-8 August 2025.

The challenge received an unprecedented 32 outstanding proposals from 4 continents, reflecting the growing interest and innovation in this field. After careful evaluation, six winning teams, including that from FUTA led by Prof. OJO who is the current Director of the Centre for Space Research and Application (CESRA) FUTA, were selected as announced on the IEEE GRSS website:

https://www.grss-ieee.org/.../ieee-grss-student-grand.../...

TEAM FUTA : 

Professor J.O Ojo , Team Lead and Coach 

Okikiade Adewale Layioye

Ayodeji Gabriel Ashidi

Samuel Tolulope Ogunjo

Opeyemi Mudashiru Jimoh

Dupsy Blessings Akoma

Temitope Nafiu

Rege Oluwaseun

Charles Akinmoju

Victor Ishola

The  assembly and development of the autonomous IoT-based UAV for Real-Time Detection and Mapping will be carried out at CESRA  where Professor Ojo is Director.

The Vice Chancellor ,Professor Adenike Oladiji, has described the feat as another validation of FUTA's growing reputation as a leading research intensive University. "I congratulate Professor Ojo and members of his team . This is a great feat and we are confident that they will deliver on the project excellently  and further project the reputation of FUTA and Nigeria in the global academic arena," the Vice Chancellor said.

IEEE with headquarters in the United States of America,is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

The Announcement on the IEEE GRSS Website 

Winners in the Fifth Student Grand Challenge..

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Fifth IEEE GRSS Student Grand Challenge, focusing on “End-to-End Remote Sensing Applications Based on Unmanned Vehicles,” which was announced in October 2024. The challenge received an unprecedented 32 outstanding proposals, reflecting the growing interest and innovation in this field.

After careful evaluation, we are pleased to present the six winning teams (listed in order of submission):

1. Real-time Disaster Response with Edge AI on UAVs

Wuhan University, China

Led by Prof. Bo Du

2. Development of an Autonomous IoT-based UAV for Real-Time Detection and Mapping of Environmental Hazards in Remote Regions

The Federal University of Technology, Nigeria

Led by Prof. Joseph Sunday Ojo

3. HexaAgro: AI-Driven Hexacopter for Precision Pest Management and Eco-Friendly Agriculture

University of Engineering and Management, India

Led by Dr. Subhajit Das

4. Unlocking Forest Vital Signs: High Spatiotemporal VOD Mapping at Large Scales Fusing GNSS-T and LiDAR Data

University of Georgia, USA

Led by Prof. Mehmet Kurum

5. Unmanned System for Profiling Air Pollutants and Atmospheric Parameters: A Complete Framework for Onboard Processing and Real-Time Data Analysis

IIT Indore, India

Led by Dr. Saurabh Das

6. Innovative Nodes for Tracking Emissions and Guarding Remote Sensing Bands Integrity (INTEGRITY)

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

Led by Prof. Juan Ramos