The Prempeh College and Right to Dream Academy team have emerged winners of the Senior and Junior Category respectively of the 2019 Robotics Inspired Science Education (RISE) competition held in Accra on Saturday.
They received medals, certificates and trophies as their winning package
Under the Junior Category Radiant Splitters from Dayspring Montessori International School placed second while Mikrobot Academy took the third position.
Other participating schools were Accra Academy, Our Lady of Grace Senior High School (SHS), St Augustine’s College, Presbyterian Boys SHS, Opoku Ware SHS, Spirit of our Ancestors, Tarkwa SHS, Galaxy International School, Mount Olivet Methodist Academy, Savannah International School, St Francis Xavier School, Apam SHS, Fodzoku DA Junior High School, Ahantaman Girls High School among others.
During the competition, participants were tasked to design, build and programme robots to perform various activities namely the Autonomous Rescue Challenge (ARC) which mirrored real life-threatening situation where “victims or valuable items” are situated in a mine tunnel while the Multi-Grain Colour Sorter Challenge (MGCS) targeted Ghana’s agricultural sector by inviting young minds to build a robot to sort a container full of a unique mix of Ghanaian grains such as maize, kidney beans, cocoa beans among others.
Organised by the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (GRAF), the competition which is meant for students in senior and junior high schools was aimed to motivate and inspire the next generation of Ghanaians’ interest and participation in science and technology.
Dr Yaw Okraku-Yirenkyi, Programmes Director of RISE, said the competition was to help inspire and energise young people to become problem solvers and critical thinkers in the society.
He added that “Our aim as a foundation is to build potential inventors who can translate theories into useful outcomes to solve real life problems in the country.”
The Programmes Director said the decision to put together the competition stemmed from how science and robotics education had become indispensable in the world currently.
Dr Okraku-Yirenkyi stated that the competition would, among other things offer a lot of opportunities for participants to employ critical thinking, coupled with scientific principles in an attempt to solve problems.
“We will bridge the gap between theory and practice one application at a time, we will make science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in Ghana fun and relevant to development,” he emphasised.
He applauded the students who participated in the competition for their hard work and display of talents.
The event also awarded individuals who had contributed to the success of the competition since its inception.
BY ALLIA NOSHIE
