Ghana is establishing its dominance in the crucial field of robotics, with a second consecutive
win at the high profile Robofest World Championship. This year’s competition which was
held online due to Covid-19 related challenges, witnessed the fruition of the formal
collaboration between Christian Service University College (CSUC) and Ghana Robotics
Academy Foundation (GRAF)
The winning team from Prempeh College in Kumasi, defeated competitors from Canada,
Hong Kong, South Korea and the US among others, with training and mentorship from
GRAF, under whose guidance, Ghana also won the 2019 competition in Michigan, US. The
participating teams were required to design, construct, and program their robots to act
independently and compete for trophies in a variety of tasks.
Following a request from GRAF on 12 July 2020 to host the competition, CSUC provided
suitable space from where Ghana’s participation was beamed live to global audiences. A
combined team from CSUC and GRAF had identified three suitable halls from where the
teams would compete. These halls were also made available to the teams to set up their
equipment for rehearsals, five consecutive days ahead of the competition.
The relationship between these two institutions was an initiative of the Centre for Research
and Business Development culminating, late last year, in an MOU to promote robotics
inspired education in the country.
Robotics education fosters a learning environment for people with different talents. It
enables participants to combine creative thinking with hands-on engagement, with tasks
designed to develop teamwork, strategic thinking with logical reasoning, analytical reasoning
and critical thinking. These skills are essential for the 21 st century global citizen, towards
contemporary challenges of various dimensions.
So far, the CSUC Computer Science Department has worked with GRAF to organise a
trainer-of-trainers’ boot camp at CSUC, followed by the National Robotics competition for
the middle sector of the country in October 2019, from which the current global winners from
Prempeh College qualified to represent the country.
By David Kwao-Sarbah
