Lego — Building Ghana One Brick at a Time
Lego — Building Ghana One Brick at a Time
It’s no secret that Africa missed the fourth industrial revolution. In fact, some research seems to indicate that we are a few hundred years behind the rest of the world. People, that is bad. Doesn’t matter how you look at it, it’s bad.
In recent times however, an unlikely hero has risen. Our friend from ages past… Lego.
“What do these plastic bricks have to do with technological revolution?” you might ask. The answer is found in a Lego product called the Lego Mindstorms. Lego Mindstorms is a Lego kit designed to introduce kids to robotics and the intricate world of programming.
GRAF and Robotics Education
A few years ago, the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (GRAF), the brain child of Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a Ghanaian robotics engineer at NASA, began the cause for Robotics Inspired Science Education (RISE). Over the years they have introduced schools all over Ghana (from the basic level to the secondary level) to robotics through the Lego Mindstorms technology. It is actually no more unheard of to find a robotics club in a basic or second cycle institution. To be honest, if your school does not have a robotics club, they are falling behind.
It is an absolute joy to watch the kids figure out how the things they are studying in class directly apply to solving the engineering problems they face during the various robotics competitions and boot-camps organized by GRAF from time to time. The idea of playing with Lego bricks seems to water down the stress commonly associated with programming. The unfettered imagination of these young ones also does well to bring out a lot of creativity and ideas.
To be very honest, I almost get jealous of these kids some times. Why did I not get such opportunities while I was in school? 😫 Truth be told I opted not to take robotics as an elective course because in all my four years I never saw anything that looked like a robot on my university campus. I’m not saying there weren’t any, I’m just saying maybe I never searched, or maybe they were invisible. Who knows? 😂 Let me hasten to add that there are some beautiful innovations as well as innovators coming up in KNUST, so I don’t expect the problem of the invasion of invisible robots to last long.
The 2017 RISE Competitions
After I graduated from KNUST I volunteered as a Robotics coach in the school where I had my basic education: Dayspring Montessori International School. As a volunteer, it was a learning experience for me, despite the fact that I hold a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. The kids had a basic understanding of how the robots are programmed, and with the help of a few old students currently in various high schools in Ghana, we prepared the kids for the RISE — Autonomous Rescue Challenge.
Let me take some time to talk about the RISE competitions. In Ghana, GRAF is headed by Dr. Yaw Okraku-Yirenkyi, who also happens to be the Director of Studies at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre. Every year they organize a competition which is in two sections: the Autonomous Rescue Challenge (ARC) and the Multigrain Colour Sorter.
Basically, ARC is a challenge where a robot is supposed to autonomously follow a black line along a course within a given time. The challenge is categorized into the primary, junior high and secondary school / open levels, arranged in increasing levels of difficulty. The charts below show the maps the robots were required to navigate. You quickly see that it was not all fun and games.
The Multigrain Colour Sorter challenge on the other hand was for secondary schools and required teams to build complex robots which could sort out various coloured beads passed before a sensor via a conveyor belt. It’s a sight to see. A marvel of Lego engineering. The sorting robots typically look something like this:
The ability of the kids to comprehend the principles necessary to solve their problems, albeit with some coaching, sparks hope for this nation. There is a generation coming which will rub technological shoulders with the rest of the world.
Now with GRAF, winning is not so much the focus as learning is. However, I am proud to say that my kids placed third and second in the Junior High and Primary School categories. This post is not meant at promoting any particular schools, so let me desist from mentioning any names. Let’s just say some really good teams showed up.
The Future of Robotics in Ghana
All this excitement is just a foretaste of what Ghana can achieve. We cannot dwell on these little achievements. Since I started playing around with Arduinos I’ve realized how vast the horizon is! Lego-bots are just a stepping stone to greater heights. We are in the age of the internet of things, A.I., M.L., big data and a whole lot more. There are ideas floating around that will blow our minds. Maybe… just maybe we are too set in our ways when it comes to thinking and dreaming. We have been confined to these little boxes as far as imagination is concerned. But not these kids. Encourage the kids to dream! And if you are like me, dream yourself! I was so impressed when I heard that a basic school team from Ghana qualified to the finals of an international robotics competition earlier this year. They made it through using these same Lego-bots! And these kids were now exposed to robotics programming using the C programming language. Ladies and gentlemen, there is hope… there is hope for this nation.
I’d like to make an honourable mention: Mr. Michael Wilson. Ghana will one day thank people like this man for their efforts in this area. Let me be the first. Thank you sir.
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Originally published at KayO’s Blog.
