The Academic City University College in Accra has organised a robotic session for students of the Aburi Girls Senior High School (SHS).

The session is part of measures to encourage and increase participation of girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related fields, and prepare the students for the upcoming ‘FIRST Global Challenge’.

It was organised in partnership with STEMbees, a non-governmental organization.

The FIRST Global Challenge is an annual Olympics-style international robotics competition, with the Aburi Girls SHS representing Ghana for this year’s competition, which will attract 160 countries.

A statement from the University College, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the projects the students were undertaking for the competition included designing and developing a biodegradable nose mask from plantain fibre, CubeSat Prototype and robots for different purposes.

It said Academic City engineering students were mentoring the students as they developed their projects for the competition.

The statement said among the mentors, were: Mr Benedict Amoako, BSc. Information Technology, Mr Barnabas Nomo, BSc. Computer Engineering and Ms Louisa Ayamga, Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

It said Mr Amoako, a STEMbees Robotics Associate, was responsible for providing technical assistance for designing and building four different robots, and Mr Nomo, a satellite enthusiast, providing technical guidance in preparing, inflating, and safely launching the weather balloon that would carry the nanosatellit.

It stated that the CubeSat prototype was successfully launched using a tethered weather balloon on Saturday, September 25, 2021 at Aburi Secondary School and that the launch formed part of the FIRST Global Challenge pre-event activities.

The statement said, speaking at the session, Ms Angela Koranteng, Co-Founder and Programmes Director, STEMbees, said the event provided students with genuine engagement with real-world engineering concepts and an opportunity to improve on the various projects for the competition.

“I believe the session has provided an opportunity for these young girls to improve on their ideas and boost their confidence to make a difference in the competition and ultimately emerge as the winners,” she added.

Mr Amoako said; “I’m blown away by the amazing concepts these girls came up with. The breadth of creativity depicted by them is astonishing and we promise to provide the necessary support required to make them successful in the competition".

Mr Nomo said the session with the young girls had broadened his understanding not only of engineering concepts but had also helped to strengthen his ability to lead projects in technical areas.

Academic City is a premium Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) and Entrepreneurial tertiary institution set to define modern tertiary education in Ghana and throughout the African continent.

The University’s fully digitised state-of-the-art campus is situated at Haatso, a suburb of Accra – Ghana. It has a diverse academic community of students, faculty as well as staff from across the world.

The ultra-modern campus offers small class sizes in an environment that emphasises one-on-one attention.

The University’s elite undergraduate degree programmes in Engineering, Information Technology, Business Administration and Communication Arts are strategically designed taking into consideration world class STEAM education to develop students to become more practical, hands-on and productive.