From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
Students of Ahmadu Bello University have secured two grand prizes at the 10 th Huawei ICT Skills Competition global finals.
The global finals were held in Shenzhen, China, from June 2 to June 5, 2026.
The competition featured categories in network, cloud, computing, and AI/innovation tracks. A total of 177 teams from 40 countries took part in the finals.
During the award ceremony in Shenzhen on June 5, 2026, the students received two grand prizes – one for first place in cloud and another for second place in computing.
Additionally, three students from ‘TeamABU 2026’ were honored with the ‘Women in Tech’ award alongside the Nigeria Network Team.
It is noteworthy that the competition began in October 2025 with over 220, 220,000 students worldwide.
After rigorous national finals in December 2025 and regional finals for Southern Africa in March 2026, the students advanced to the global finals.
The finals for the network, cloud, and computing tracks involved an eight-hour lab scenario, requiring students to solve real-world use cases. These took place on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
The AI/innovation finals followed on Wednesday, June 3, 2026. This segment was the competition’s main highlight, challenging students to design and develop AI-based solutions using Huawei technologies.
A significant achievement was Team ABU 2026 winning the grand prize in AI/innovation with their entry, ‘ ParaVision.
ParaVision is an AI-powered device built on the Orange Pi AIPro, using the Huawei Ascend 310 B4 chip.
It can test both functions simultaneously or independently, producing printed lab reports in under three minutes. It also features a multilingual interface supporting French, Arabic, Chinese, Swahili, and more.
The students involved were Kumba- Banna Tekanyi (Computer Engineering), Yakubu Musa Yakubu (Computer Science), Adekunle Abdulroqeeb Oladimeji (Electrical Engineering), Wakili Sefiu Bolaji (Computer Engineering)
Yunus Muhammad (Electronics & Telecom Engineering), Ruqayyah Hassan Labo (Electronics & Telecom Engineering), Khadija Khalid (Computer Engineering), and Grace Temitayo Olorunfemi (Computer Engineering).
Under the guidance of two technical instructors – Dr. Bashir Halliru Sani (IAIICT) and Dr. Zaharaddeen Haruna (Computer Engineering)- they excelled at the global finals.
The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Adamu Ahmed, attended the event along with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic, Prof. Raymond B. Bako.
Other university officials present included the Director of the Distance Learning Center, Prof. Muhammed Bashir Mu’ azu, and the Director of IAIICT, Prof. Emmanuel Adewale Adedokun
