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Class of 2024’s Quasar Night: A Showcase of Research Innovation and Academic Excellence

Research innovation and academic excellence took center stage as Ashesi University celebrated its brightest minds at the inaugural Quasar Awards Night. Held on August 23, the event brought together faculty, staff, students, and their families to honor the Class of 2024’s most outstanding senior-year research. Fourteen individual and team research projects received recognition, marking a night dedicated to academic achievement and forward-looking research ideas.

Also in attendance were students’ mentors and advisors, who had guided them throughout their academic journey. The nominations spanned research, applied, and entrepreneurship initiatives across the Economics and Business Administration, Computer Science & Information Systems, and Engineering departments. Computer Science major Leanne Annor-Adjaye ’24 was also named Valedictorian, having achieved the highest cumulative grade-point average (GPA) for her class.

The Quasar Awards Night is a key effort by the Office of the Provost to foster a culture of academic excellence and innovation among students. Speaking at the event, University Provost Angela Owusu-Ansah emphasized the urgent need for more research and knowledge creation at the undergraduate level to drive progress in Ghana and across the African continent.

“In the Global North, there’s a clear link between the success of countries and the amount of research they conduct,” Provost Owusu-Ansah explained. “In Ghana and in Africa, there are countless opportunities for significant research. We shouldn’t wait for more graduate students—we need to empower undergraduates to start conducting this research now, for the betterment of all of us.”

Capstone and Academic Awards for Economics & Business Administration
Apsel, Best Entrepreneurship Capstone, Joseph Dzagli ’24

Apsel is an AI-powered platform that revolutionizes social commerce in Africa by streamlining the sales process, enhancing customer reach, and building trust between online vendors and shoppers.

Joseph Azagli

Analysis of Ghana’s Real Estate Market and Alternative Pathways for Affordable Housing Financing, Best Applied Project Capstone, Roland Akwei-Sekyere ’24
This research developed the Blended Housing Portfolio Model (BHP) to address Ghana’s affordable housing crisis, aiming to improve living conditions for low- and middle-income families while ensuring financial sustainability for investors.

Robotic-Advisors and Traditional Brokers in Sub-Saharan Africa, Best Thesis, Isabella Sompa Twum-Antwi
This study explored the potential of robotic advisors in Ghana’s financial sector, focusing on how trust, financial knowledge, and usability impact their adoption.


Capstone and Academic Awards for Computer Science & Information Systems
MedLink: Revolutionizing Emergency Healthcare Drug Accessibility, Best Individual Thesis, Thomas Kojo Quarshie
MedLink uses a dynamic geofencing algorithm to locate the nearest pharmacy with essential medications in stock, addressing the critical issue of delayed access to drugs in emergencies.

Leveraging AI to Passively Record Sales in Micro and Small Businesses, Best Team Thesis, Leanne Maame Mozuma Annor-Adjaye and Chudah Yakung

This project introduced an AI system that passively records transactions in corner shops, offering a novel solution for sales recording in Ghana’s informal retail sector.

Best Individual Applied Project, Enhancing Multilingual Video Accessibility for Diverse Audiences, Styve Orel Zeumo Lekane 
This project focused on improving video accessibility through advanced multilingual capabilities.

Best Team Applied Project, M’ayaresa: An Improved Health Information Management System for Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Jochebed Afua Basil and Aaron Tsatsu Tamakloe 
M’ayaresa addresses the limitations of existing health information systems at Korle-Bu, offering a robust and user-friendly solution to improve healthcare delivery.


Engineering Awards
Design of a Semi-Active damper for a comfortable ride on all road types, Technical Excellence in Mechanical Engineering, Samuel Kwasi Asiedu Awuah 
This project came into being in response to the limitations of passive shock absorbers in Ghanaian road conditions, which often include bumpy and uneven surfaces. The primary goal was to design a semi-active vehicle damper that adjusts its damping characteristics in real time to provide optimal comfort on different road surfaces and to improve driver comfort and safety, as well as traffic flow.  

Determination of Power Consumption of a Machine Learning Algorithm Running on a Microcontroller, Technical Excellence in Electrical Engineering, Jonathan Kashabira Baraka 
This project investigated the power consumption of a machine learning (ML) algorithm running on a microcontroller unit (MCU).  The work focused on the power consumption of two machine learning algorithms—support vector machines and artificial neural networks—and their implementation on KL25Z (ARM Cortex-M0+) and K64F (ARM Cortex-M4) using two standard libraries provided by ARM Cortex Microcontroller Software Interface Standard (CMSIS)—CMSIS-DSP and CMSIS-NN—and custom developed functions. The research showed that there was a significant power saving by implementing machine learning algorithms in Cortex-M4 with CMSIS libraries, while in Cortex-M0+, power efficiency was achieved through custom implementation of ML algorithms.  

Jonathan Baraka

Creating a weather station without moving parts, Technical Excellence in Computer Engineering, Yamoah Frimpong Attafuah 
The “Weather Station Without Moving Parts” develops and utilizes a remote audio data collection system and machine learning models to infer wind speed and direction from wind noise. This project overcomes challenges faced by conventional anemometers, such as mechanical wear, vulnerability to harsh weather conditions, and the need for complex signal processing circuitry.

Yamoah Attafuah

Design of a Kente Weaving Machine, Innovative Engineering Excellence in Mechanical Engineering, Kasonde Nanyangwe 
While the traditional kente loom has produced beautiful fabrics for centuries, it demands a significant amount of time and human labor. This project, with a focuse on the production of kente stoles due to their increased global popularity, presents a solution: a mechanized kente weaving loom that elemnitaes the need for the weaver to actively weave the fabcric by hand, a much more effortless process that produces consistent results.  

Kasonde Nanyangwe

Animal Behaviour Monitoring with Machine Learning, Innovative Engineering Excellence in Electrical Engineering, Stephen Nii Adu Tagoe & Mohammed Elmir 
Pig farming is an important industry in Africa, where pork consumption has been growing rapidly. However, monitoring pig health and behavior often relies on human judgment, which can be inaccurate. To improve this, this project proposes the use of machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to automate the monitoring of pig feeding behavior in a controlled environment. 

Stephen Nii Adu Tagoe & Mohammed Elmir

Kelpet – Design of Health Monitoring and Analysis for Pets, Innovative Engineering Excellence in Computer Engineering, Jacinta Amoawah Esi Badu 
Kelpet is a comprehensive, low-cost system for pet owners to monitor their pets’ health, track their location, and receive instant notifications. The system comprises a smart pet collar as well as mobile and web applications that enable owners to find nearby veterinary hospitals and provide health tips tailored to the pet’s needs. This project aimed to make pet care technology more accessible and versatile, in light of the high cost of importing similar devices into the African market.  

Jacinta Amowah Esi Badu 1

Valedictorian: Leanne Annor-Adjaye
Leanne Annor-Adjaye, a Computer Science major, graduated as the Class of 2024’s valedictorian. Beyond her academic achievements, Leanne has been a passionate advocate for young girls in STEM and has served as a Social Media Career Peer Advisor. She aspires to build a career in robotics, machine learning, and UI/UX design, and plans to continue her journey at Ashesi as a Faculty Intern in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.

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