CSE professor lectures in Nigeria

Dr. Stefan Brandle offers advice on computer science to Bingham University

Dr. Stefan Brandle, CSE professor, prays with the administration of Bingham University in Nigeria.

BY ANDREW NEEL

When the administration of Bingham University in Nigeria asked the academic community who it should talk to about starting a computer science department, the leaders of the new college were given one name: Taylor University.

Stefan Brandle, professor in Taylor’s Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department, answered Bingham’s call for help and found himself in Nigeria during January. While there, Brandle gave three guest lectures and presentations about technology and computer science practices.

“For the students [at Bingham], I explained how the knowledge of the computer is becoming integral to all areas of life and work,” Brandle said.

Bingham, which is located in Jos, Nigeria, started class in the fall of 2006. The university, which is sponsored by the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) and named after the missionary Rowland Bingham, currently has 130 students but expects to see steady growth in enrollment over the next few years.

“The administrators want Bingham to one day be the best university in Nigeria; they want to help the Nigerian economy,” Brandle said.

“We want to train job creators, not job seekers,” Felix Anjorin, Vice Chancellor of Bingham, said.

Brandle said the school’s motto is “Mission for Service,” and he also noticed several other similarities between the mission statements of Bingham and Taylor.

“We want to train Christ-centered men and women to send out in society to be ambassadors,” ECWA General Secretary Rev. Mipu E. Dadang said.

Brandle said that, in addition to his lectures, the main benefit of his visit was to show the people at Bingham that somebody from the U.S. cared about them enough to visit.

“I would like to see CSE or other areas of Taylor make trips back to Bingham in the future,” Brandle said. “They need help in many areas, from computer infrastructure to student government.”

Despite the problems that Bingham faces with sporadic electricity and financial difficulties, Brandle said it was encouraging to see how many people involved with the university had been “captured by the vision.”

“I want future generations of Nigerians to have opportunity for education; this is God’s project,” said Olu Olutimayin, Bingham’s chief architect, who received his bachelors and masters degree from Princeton.