Today, July 30th, 2012, our robotics mentors began their training for ARX 2012. During the one-week training programme mentors will receive instruction in robotics, how to be effective academic mentors and work to develop social programs for the ARX 2012 participants who are arriving next week.

“We are already learning a lot already,” say two mentors, Delphina Kyeremanteng ’13 and Nana Ama Marfo ’13. “As Business Administration majors, getting to program and build robots is fun and challenging, and the whole experience feels exciting already!”

“I think next week is going to be fun,” says Dr. Ayorkor Korsah, lead faculty organizer of the ARX programme. “The participating students are from very diverse backgrounds, in terms of their prior robotics experience, the regions they are from and other factors.”

Some have argued that as the world increasingly develops better technology, Africa will become the next big player in this movement. Dr. Ayorkor Korsah, assistant professor at Ashesi University College, believes that Robotics will be key to preparing Africa’s generation for its future role in this revolution.

Dr. Ayorkor Korsah has been a technology evangelist for as long as she can remember. Growing up in Nigeria and Ghana, she first wanted to be an astronaut, then an engineer. She eventually went on to study in the United States, where she discovered her love for Computer Science during an introductory programming class. She earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Dartmouth College, followed by a PhD in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University. Now, one year after her return to Ghana, Dr. Korsah is working to bringing Computer Science to the fore in Africa – through Robotics.

Earlier in 2012 Dr. Korsah teamed up with visiting robotics professor Ken Goldberg from University of California, Berkeley, to form the African Robotics Network (AFRON). AFRON aims to marshal institutions and individuals working on robotics-related areas in Africa, strengthen communication and encourage collaboration among them.

“There are many robotics activities emerging in Africa," says Dr. Korsah, "Our goal is to highlight, enhance, and provide support for efforts in different parts of the continent."

One of AFRON’s projects, which was launched in April 2012, is the $10 Robot Design Challenge, which hopes to find creative ways to design a simple robot with parts that cost under $10 that students can use to explore computer science and engineering subjects.

Professor Goldberg recognizes that building a programmable robot for just $10 is a challenge. But he points out that AFRON wants “to get people thinking creatively. We are not sure it's possible, but it's a target to aim for."

AFRON’s advisory board currently includes role models like Patrick Awuah (President, Ashesi University College), Tim O’Reilly (Co-Founder of O’Reilly Media) and Dale Dougherty (Make Magazine). Inspired by other robotics networks like the European Robotics Network, AFRON will focus more broadly on education, research and industry, and work to expose more school children to robotics.

Ashesi University College, in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation, is pleased to announce the introduction of the Ashesi Robotics Experience (ARX) 2012. ARX is a weeklong program, running from 6th to 10th August 2012, which aims to inspire high school students to study computer science, engineering and other related fields at the university level. Sixty selected students from various Ghanaian high schools will participate in this program.

The workshop will use hands-on robotics programming projects and other computational thinking activities to give participants insights into the prospects of studying computer science and other related subjects at the tertiary level. The participants will learn to build and program robots, using the Lego Mindstorm kit and NXT (for Lego Mindstorm).

Participants will also get to live on Ashesi’s campus and will be mentored by a team of Ashesi faculty, staff, and students. The ARX 2012 is offered in partnership with The MasterCard Foundation and will therefore be completely free for participants. The selected students will also get an opportunity to learn about opportunities for full scholarships to study at Ashesi provided by The MasterCard Foundation for bright but needy students.

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