UNILAG Trains Youths on Coding, Robotics Programming

The Coordinator, Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Laboratory, University of Lagos, Dr. Chika Yinka-Banjo, said a total of 226 pupils and undergraduates have so far been trained in the institition’s Summer Coding and Robotic Programme, since inception in  2018.

Yinka-Banjo disclosed this at the Undergraduate Robotics Challenge, powered by Coderina  and the closing ceremony of the 2022 one month summer coding and robotics programme.

The programme is aimed at introducing young beginners to the field of robotics and progressively leadin them from basic concepts to actual work with robots.
The students learn the history of robots, the work of early pioneers, the development of robots and the distinguish features of robots, among others.

She stated that this year’s programme started on August 8 and ended on August 26.
“So, in 2018, we started with 50 girls who were trained in Web Application Development and Android Application Development.
“In 2019, we had 42 junior and high school students, from various schools around the university of Lagos, who were trained in coding and robotics. Unfortunately in 2020, the programme did not hold, following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we had other online programmes for our previous students.

“In 2021, 56 students were trained in coding and robotics and this year, we had
78 trained in game programing and scratch programming,” she stated.

According to her, projects were usually carried out during this period where parents of the children are usually invited to see for themselves what their children and wards were capable of.

She noted that in the undergraduate category, two main projects were carried out by some students. According to her, they will be showcasing what they did during the past three months at the laboratory.

“They came out with a robot that could pick up trash and go and discard. The other is an undergraduate attendance system, using finger prints to eliminate fraud and both are things that impact the university and country at large positively.
Yinka-Banjo added that at the primary school level, children between ages 8 and 16, drawn from schools around the university community were part of the programme.

According to her, more parents are showing interest and are eager to register as many of their children as possible.

“This year, though we wanted less of the children, say about 60, parents kept coming to get their children enrolled. The undergraduate students have been at the laboratory for three to four months before this time.

“I must say we are making a huge progress in all of this but one thing that is our major challenge is the issue of sponsorship.The way we are going now, we need a whole artificial intelligence building. We need expansion so as to accommodate more children and other interested  participants.

“We need support and assistance to move forward and to make the experience more exciting for these kids. Nigeria is a great country but needs support. We are trying to catch these children young and this is what we call from grassroot and from this grassroot, you are already making their vision wider.

On his part, the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe said the intention was to bring only young female children from age 13 and below together and get them exposed to coding and robotic programming.

“However, this time around, it has been expanded to include some of the undergraduate students. People also called for the inclusion of the younger boys too. We also had to include them this time around because we had funding from the Funmi Ayinke Foundation, we were able to increase the number of participants.

“They are being exposed to the area of coding and robotic programming and this is the in thing now, which is the era of artificial intelligence.

“You can see what they have done, showing a robot that can be used in clearing wastes and the other, a device for attendance by way of thumb printing. That is for the undergraduate level

“The other level is for the children in primary school, schools around the university. It is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which we are encouraging now. So, this is very important and interesting. Some of them that went through this programme in the past are now working with companies such as Microsoft and some others in other great companies as programmers.

“So, what we are saying is that these children are full of ideas and we need to harvest them, train and expose them,” the VC stated.