FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY MINNA

TECHNICAL REPORT ON STUDENT INDUSTRIAL WORK EXPERIENCE

SCHEME (SIWES)
HELD AT

INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY SERVICES (ITS)

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECNOLOGY, GIDAN KWANO MINNA,
NIGER STATE.

BY
ISMAIL OLAMILEKAN MUHAMMEDAWAL
2016/1/60159PP

SUBMITTED TO
THE DEPARMENT OF PHYSICS
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN PHYSICS (TELECOMMUNICATION)

OCTOBER, 2021
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 HISTORY OF SIWES
Training is a key factor in enhancing the efficiency and expertise of the workforce. The student
industrial work experience scheme (SIWES) program prepares students for labour market and it
has become an innovative phenomenon in human resource development and training in Nigeria.
The Federal government of Nigeria under the then military president, General Yakubu Gowon
(Rtd.) initiated the programme by promulgate decree No. 47 of 8th October, 1971 and amended
in 1990, highlighted the capacity building of human resources in industry, commerce and
government through training and retraining of workers in order to effectively provide the much-
needed high quality goods and services in a dynamic economy as ours. This decree led to the
establishment of Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in 1973/1974. 
Due to the lack of adequate practical background studies preparatory for employment in
industries, led to the formation of Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) by ITF
in 1993/1994. ITF has one of its key functions; to work as cooperative entity with industry and
commerce where students in institutions of higher learning can undertake mid-career work
experience attachment in industries which are compatible with students’ area of study. The
Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is an integral and indispensable part of
certain degree programmes in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
 The major objective of the SIWES is to promote and encourage the acquisition of practical skill
in industry and commerce venture with a view to generating skilled indigenous manpower
sufficient to meet the need for national economy. This fund is administered by its national
headquarters in Jos, Plateau State and with its zonal offices at State headquarters in Nigeria.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE SCHEME

The main purposes of the Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme are:
 Provide an avenue for Students in the Nigeria Tertiary Institution to acquire skills and
experience in their course of study.
 Prepare Students for the work situation they are likely to meet after graduation.
 Make transition from the University to the world of work easier and thus enhance Student
contact for later job placement after graduation.
 Provide Students an opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge in real work situation.
Thereby bridging gap between higher Education and actual practice.
 Expose Students to work methods and techniques in handling equipment’s and machineries
that may not be available in the Institution.

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 CHAPTER TWO
PROFILE OF THE FIRM
2.1 CENTRE FOR INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY SERVICES (ITS)
The Centre of Information and Technology Services (ITS) was recently established in August
2006 in pursuance of the bread vision of the Federal University of Technology, Minna to become
one of Nigeria’s leading Universities and Centre of Excellence in Information and
Communication Technology. In setting up ICT, the management of the University decided to
integrate the Management Information Systems (MIS), the National Universities Network
(NUNET) and the Computer Centre together as a Unit.
The Centre provides training and research in information for Nigerians, as well as other
neighbouring countries in order to produce experts and skilful workforce that would positively
affect the economy of the nation through the export and use of information and communication
technologies. 
The centre for Information and Technology services is currently headed by Prof. Adamu A.
Mohammed the director of (ITS).
The department has a total of 59 staff members out of which 26 system administrators are posted
to service various unit and organs of the University. Also, one staff is currently on appointment
to the Niger state Government. 32 staff working in the ITS centres in Gidan Kwano and Bosso
Campuses as Certified professional Instructors, Programmers Network system Engineers,
Hardware system Engineers, System Analyst and Database Administrators.
Thus, the Centre also engages among others in:
a) Bidding of local and international projects in Information Technology.
b) Developing software for sale to general public, institutions and industries.
c) Preparing students to sit for and pass prescribed external certification examination.
d) Providing preliminary services for budding entrepreneurs who want to develop or expand
their Information Technology businesses.

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2.2 ORGANOGRAM OF ESTABLISHMENT

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 Director ITS

Deputy Director ITS

Head of Head of Head of Head of Head of

Training Networking MIS Hardware Power

CHAPTER THREE
INDUSTRIAL TRAINNING EXPERIENCE
3.1 ORIENTATION
Having been accepted into the organization, the center of Information and Technology Services,
the IT coordinator in person of Mallam Isah Mohammed alongside the Head of Training of the
organization conducted a meeting with all IT students accepted into the center for Information

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and Technology Services (ITS) introducing themselves to the students and briefing them on the
rules and regulation, the demeanors and other marginal information required for better
participation and stay of the students in the organization. At the end of the meeting, a temporary
appointment was made for the position of the representative of all internship students, which I
was temporarily appointed as the representative of the industrial training students and became
permanent after a week into the training

An orientation was conducted for all internship (IT) students that were accepted into the
organization in which all notables of the organizations were present and accurately recognized,
amongst which was the Head of Networking department in person of Engr. Raphael, Head of the
Management and Information Systems Unit (MIS) in person of Hajiya M. Tanko, Head of
Training department in person of Engr. Alex Tsado, Head of Power department, Head of
Hardware department. All necessary information was passed during the oriental for the hearing
of the IT students present. Also assigning of students was made to each department. Each student
lasted about a month and few weeks in each department. I started from the networking
department then to the hardware department through MIS department then to power and general
works. As a student who underwent SIWES at the Information and Technology Services (ITS), I
was opportune to partake in activities with practical application of knowledge and skill set in the
department I was placed, more so, the staff of the establishment who were always willing to
ensure that I understand, and can independently be trusted to perform a giving task.

Highlighted below are the activities and experience gained from the department where I worked
under:

3.2 THE NETWORKING UNIT

A lot was learnt in this department due to that I was really exposed to a real-life work and also
have access to lots of networking facilities. We started with a brief lecture class about the theory

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of computer networking which lasted for just a week before the practical sessions which lasted
for the rest of my time in the department.

3.2.1. What is computer networking?

A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network

nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to
communicate with each other. These interconnections are made up of telecommunication
network technologies, based on physically wired, optical, and wireless radio-frequency methods
that may be arranged in a variety of network topologies.

The nodes of a computer network may include personal computers, servers, networking

hardware, or other specialised or general-purpose hosts. They are identified by network
addresses, and may have hostnames. Hostnames serve as memorable labels for the nodes, rarely
changed after initial assignment. Network addresses serve for locating and identifying the nodes
by communication protocols such as the Internet Protocol.

Computer networks may be classified by many criteria, including the transmission medium used

to carry signals, bandwidth, communications protocols to organize network traffic, the network
size, the topology, traffic control mechanism, and organizational intent.

Computer networks support many applications and services, such as access to the World Wide

Web, digital video, digital audio, shared use of application and storage servers, printers, and fax
machines, and use of email and instant messaging applications.

3.2.2. Some basic terminologies in computer networking

1. Routing and switching

2. Ethernet
3. Internet
4. IP addressing
5. Configuration
6. Troubleshooting
7. Cable crimping

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3.2.3. Some basic equipment and tools in networking

The Router

The router, at least the common home network device that is usually called a router, is the
piece of network hardware that allows communication between a local home network like our
personal computers and other connected devices and the internet.

The router used in home and small networks is more accurately called a residential gateway.
A router is the first line of security from intrusion into a network. Enabling the highest level
of security on the router turns on things like the firewall, and is the best way to keep your
computer system and information safe from attack.

Switch

Switches are networking devices operating at layer 2 or a data link layer of the OSI model. They connect
devices in a network and use packet switching to send, receive or forward data packets or data frames
over the network.

A switch has many ports, to which computers are plugged in. When a data frame arrives at any
port of a network switch, it examines the destination address, performs necessary checks and
sends the frame to the corresponding device(s). It supports unicast, multicast as well as broadcast
communications.

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 Switch

How switch works

Cable

Cable is the medium through which information usually moves from one network device to
another. There are several types of cable which are commonly used with LANs. In some cases, a
network will utilize only one type of cable, other networks will use a variety of cable types. The
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type of cable chosen for a network is related to the network's topology, protocol, and size.
Understanding the characteristics of different types of cable and how they relate to other aspects
of a network is necessary for the development of a successful network.

Types of networking cable

 Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable

 Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable
 Coaxial Cable
 Fiber Optic Cable
 Cable Installation Guides
 Wireless LANs
 Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable

Unshielded twisted pair Coaxial cable

Fiber optic cable RJ-45 connector

Crimping tools

A crimping tool is a device that is used to make cold weld joints between wires and a connector
through deforming one or both of them to hold the other. A special connector is used to join
metals together. The weld joint properties (mechanical and electrical) are strong as the parent

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materials when the tool works and offer some result, which is known as crimp. An instance of
crimping is to affixing a connector to the end of a wire. For example, a crimping tool is used to
create phone cable sand network cables to combine RJ-11 and RJ-45 connectors to both ends of
the Cat 5 cable.

3.3 THE HARDWARE AND THE SOFTWARE UNITS

Basically, the major work input of these units is to provide general maintenance to the hardware
components of computer system as well as the software maintenance to the software programs in
ITS and also to the entire school, including the senate building.
During the training, I was really exposed to the software maintenance than the hardware
maintenance due to that majorly we don’t really have hardware fault and if there are some, we
usually replace them on time so the no operation will be put on hold. Which make us work more
on the software maintenance because the software programs need to be up to date and keeps
running for effective operation.
This is the part I was privileged to work at the school electronic examination center (E-center).
Where we did a major upgrade of all the computer systems in the facility. Major update was
done just before the commencement of the second semester test and examinations. The operating
system of some of the computers were upgraded from a lower version to a newer version while
some operating system of some other computers was changed completely due to that those

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systems were not able to meet the requirement of the newer version of the operating system. So
as not the system to be replaced due to high cost, then the operating system was changed and it
works perfectly.

3.3.1 HARDWARE COMPONENTS

What are hardware components?
Computer hardware is the physical components that a computer system requires to function. It
encompasses everything with a circuit board that operates within a PC or laptop; including the
motherboard, graphics card, CPU (Central Processing Unit), ventilation fans, webcam, power
supply, and so on. Actually, we all know the common hardware components to be the keyboard,
mouse, monitor, screen, joystick, etc.

Although the design of hardware differs between desktop PCs and laptops due to their
differences in size, the same core components will be found in both. Without hardware, there
would be no way of running the essential software that makes computers so useful. Software is
defined as the virtual programs that run on your computer; that is, operating system, internet
browser, word-processing documents, etc.

Although a computer can function only when both hardware and software are working together,
the speed of a system will largely rely on the hardware used.

When building up a new computer, or simply replacing old parts, you may need to know the
specific hardware in your computer.

All these hardware components, are as a result of scientist with the knowledge of physics
combining with engineers. Almost all the parts of physics contribute to the building up of
computer hardware, from the quantum theories, the solid states theories, the electronics principle,
etc.

3.3.2 SOME HARDWARE COMPONENTS

The motherboard

The motherboard is at the centre of what makes a PC work. It houses the CPU and is a hub that
all other hardware runs through. The motherboard acts as a brain; allocating power where it’s
needed, communicating with and coordinating across all other components – making it one of
the most important pieces of hardware in a computer.

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When choosing a motherboard, it’s important to check what hardware ports the motherboard
supplies. It’s vital to check how many USB ports, and what grade (USB 2.0, 3.0, 3.1) they are, as
well as what display ports are used (HDMI, DVI, RGB) and how many of each there are. The
ports on the motherboard will also help you define what other hardware will be compatible with
your computer, such as what type of RAM and graphics card you can use.

Although the motherboard is just one piece of circuitry, it is home to another one of the most
important pieces of hardware: the processor.

The motherboard

The central processing unit (CPU)

The CPU (Central Processing Unit or processor) is responsible for processing all information
from programs run by your computer. The ‘clock speed’, or the speed at which the processor
processes information, is measured in gigahertz (GHz). This means that a processor advertising a
high GHz rating will likely perform faster than a similarly specified processor of the same brand
and age.

The CPU

The power unit supply (PUS)

A power supply unit, commonly abbreviated as PSU, does more than just supply your computer
with power. It is the point where power enters your system from an external power source and is
then allocated by the motherboard to individual component hardware. Not all power supplies are
made equally however, and without the right wattage PSU your system will fail to work.

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A modern computer will generally need a PSU that’s rated between 500W – 850W to effectively
power all hardware, although the size of the PSU will depend entirely on the power consumption
of the system. Computers that are used for highly intensive tasks such as graphic design or
gaming will require more powerful components and thus will need a bigger PSU to cater to this
additional need.

Without the right amount of power, components won’t be able to run effectively and the
computer might experience crashes or simply fail to boot at all. It’s recommended to have a
power supply that more than covers your system usage. Not only do you guard yourself against
system failure, you also future-proof yourself against needing a new PSU when you upgrade to
more powerful PC components.

Understanding your computer and its hardware components can prove very useful when the time
comes to upgrade or replace any parts, or when building a computer. Should a problem arise with
the internal workings of your computer, you will have a better understanding of the importance
of each component, the need for them to be in good working condition and how to go about
solving any issues. 

The PUS

Some other hardware components include

1. The keyboard
2. Mouse
3. Read access memory (ROM)
4. Graphics processing unit (GPU)
5. Random access memory (RAM)
6. Hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD)
7. The power cable, etc.

3.4 THE POWER UNIT AND GENERAL WORKS

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This is the part where we were all technicians. At this unit we worked and were exposed to
electrical and mechanical works. A lot of duties are been discharged in this unit as it is the power
house of the facilities. Without the supply of power to the facilities, none of the above mentioned
will come to life. This is what make this unit to be always available at all time and to make sure
all the modes of power supplies are in good state.

During the time of the training, and my time in this unit. I worked on the maintenance of the
generator backup set, the inverter/ battery room, the solar power system. Despite we have a very
good supply of electricity in Gidan-kwanu campus, all necessary backup power supplies are
readily available and all been maintained. This is why on daily and weekly basis we evaluate and
carry out what we called general routing check on all the sources of power supplies in the
system.

Also, during the training, I was privileged to be involved in arranging new sets of solar panels to
increase the power output of the solar system in the facilities.

This unit is more of electronic physics, which widen and expose me to the practical and real-life
experience of some theorical classes I attended during my stay in school before the training. The
knowledge of semiconductors came in place in this unit as well.

In the images below are some machines and materials I worked on during the training.

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Tubular inverter battery 150AH/12V A diseale generator set

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12V 200AH inverter deep cycle battery Solar cell panels

3.5 OTHER EXPERCIENCE GAINED DURING THE TRAINING

Huawei Training

This is a month certificate training, I participated during my industrial attachment. This is a big
opportunity for every industrial training student in ITS. We were registered on a very low
discount due to that we are students and also the facilities to be used is the place for our
industrial attachment. The training is about routing and switching which deals with the
networking unit of the organization. This training exposed us to international standard of routing
and switching. At the end of the training, an examination was conducted and a minimum
requirement is needed to be able to be certified. I met with the requirement and I was certified by
Huawei company.

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Other trainings are;

Staff training

Office management training

Technical workshop

Work and social ethics training.

CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

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4.1 CONCLUSION
My six (6) months Industrial Training at Information and Technology Services (ITS) was a huge
success and a great time of acquisition of knowledge and skills. Through my training I was able
to appreciate my chosen course of study even more, because I had the opportunity to blend the
theoretical knowledge acquired from school with the practical hands-on application of
knowledge gained here to perform very important tasks that contributed in a way to my
productivity in the organization. My training here has given me a broader view to the importance
and relevance of physics electronic and physics telecommunications in the immediate society
and the world as a whole, as I now look forward to impacting it positively after graduation. I
have also been able to appreciate the connection between my course of study and other
disciplines in producing a successful result. Also, I appreciate the exposure of what real life
working experience looks like and the responsibilities that comes with it.

4.2 RECOMMENDATION
For subsequent trainees being taken up by the company, I strongly recommend a more stringent
supervision of their training program, especially by the Human Resources Department. This will
go a long way in ensuring that trainees do not lose focus and will constantly remind them that
their services to the company remain valuable.

Also, I suggest ITF should liaise with some companies where they will take up students for
industrial training. This will help students who find it difficult to find attachments or who end up
in companies where they do nothing.

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