Using Robotics to Solve Problems in Nigeria

With the collaboration between Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Lagos and FIRST, an organisation that inspires innovation in young people, on the 2022 Lego league and tech challenge, its stakeholders are optimistic that Nigerian youths will be able to use robotics to solve some of the problems confronting the society. Funmi Ogundare reports

When the idea of The First Lego League and First Tech Challenge was mooted by the management of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Oregun, Lagos, three years ago, it was to aside from challenging all aspects of students’ learning, also enable them to proffer solutions to problems in the society through robotics. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans.

So, the school decided to sign up for a programme organised by FIRST, a non-profit organisation that inspires young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators and put together the 2022 first tech challenge national championship, which focused on transporting goods to difficult paths in difficult terrains and serve underserved communities.

Aside from the school team including Robo Phantoms, Technobots and Tech Savvies participating, other schools teams were also represented to make their presentation on their outreach and how they could develop their robots to perform different tasks.

With their robot named ‘Humprey Dumpty’, team TECHNOBOTS won the competition and got the ‘Inspire Award’ and other prizes. In April this year, they will represent the school at the First Tech Challenge (FTC) world championship in Houston, USA.

According to the management, the team has shown success in designing and building a robot, adding that the inspire award winner will be an aspiration to other teams, acting with gracious professionalism both on and off the playing field.

The headteacher of the college, Niyatha Krishnan, who expressed excitement about her student’s success, said they are passionate about technology, adding that they have shown interest in different aspects of robotics.
“The ones who are not good at coding may not be really science inclined, but all of them have shown interest in one aspect of Robotics or another. So we have about 50 per cent of the school population who are involved in robotics, while others too contributed to design, write-ups and presentations,” she told THISDAY.

Asked how the idea of Robotics was birthed, she said, “about five years ago, we were approached” by a company called Roborave.

She added, “We went to international competitions, and we won, and so we decided that we need a world-class programme which challenges all aspects of the student’s learning.”​

According to her, FIRST was discovered and signed up for.​

For the competition, she said there are prizes for innovative projects and design, a set of core values and how the students were able to imbibe the core values engaged in work preparing for the competition and community outreach.

“For the robot games, they have to accomplish 16 missions, Lego league is in two and a half missions. How many missions are they able to carry out at the end of the day? The speed of the robot and how strongly it has been built matter a lot,” she explained.

The head of the winning team, Miss Adeyimika Adebayo, in Year 12, said her team had different departments comprising fundraising and sponsorship, marketing, media, web design and graphics, and engineering. They are all working together to build something functional.

She said they were able to programme it to do a certain task for their project, adding that it’s efficient in gripping and carrying large and delicate cargo upon ignition.

“Our robot design is based on a futuristic truck called the omnibus which on the outside looks like the regular bus that transport things. So many people complain about the things they order coming back broken,” she stressed.

“The way our robot is designed is that when it is in contact with your cargo, it keeps it safe in its grasp until it gets to its destination. It is a model towards something that we will love to develop in the future.”

The team’s coordinator and English Language teacher, Miss Oyinye Kenechukwu, expressed excitement about her student’s innovativeness, saying that with their robot, they will do great things with it in the future.

Another team from the college, Team Tech Savvies, headed by Miss Damilare Adebowale, said it was working on an app, adding that with constant development, it will be able to spread it on Google play store and perfect it as technology evolves to make it better.

Other school teams who participated in the competition were also delighted that technology would go a long way in making life better.

The coordinator of team Contech, made up of students from International School, University of Lagos, Akoka and Yaba College Staff Secondary School, Miss Ruth Yinka-Banjo, said, “We are trying to let more people build their skills in technology as the world is moving towards that direction. Hopefully, the competition will attract more members to us… We are also looking towards women empowerment.”

A coach of Greenwood House School, Ikoyi, Miss Oyeladun Toyosi, said her team, Moonstone developed an app, Cargoconnect, which revolves around delivery.

“We realised some of the problems associated with cargo deliveries in Nigeria. One should be able to access the app at any particular location, and you log in to the app, tell your name and the package you are expecting, and you either go to a designated agent or he comes to you,” explained Toyosi.

According to a coach from the school, Mr. Opeyemi Olasunkanmi, “computerised dealings” is the future,​