Lack of school fees will not kill Daniel Mwa Okocha’s dream of becoming a technologist. As a teenager, Daniel dropped out of Our Lady of Africa, Mukono, where he was studying Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.
After dropping out of school, the Makerspace, a technology lab at Oysters & Pearls-Uganda, became a perfect haven for realizing his dream.
Oysters & Pearls-Uganda has been offering the robotics training for communities in Gulu, Northern Uganda since 2013. The Makerspace opened in town in 2016 and offers training to students and interested members of the community, who have a minimum qualification of Ordinary Level and importantly, passion for innovation and technology.
Daniel notes that with knowledge, one can solve any problem.
“I want to make a flying bicycle. Nowadays, transport is a problem, so I want to make my own means of transport.”
At the end of the lesson, Daniel is busy working with a set of wires and batteries. After a short while, the transistor multi-vibrator circuit he has just made, illuminates. He smiles widely at his achievement.
Jude Barnabas Kibwota, is another trainee at Makerspace. To him, the training brings his dream alive. Sitting at a table littered with wires, Jude sees a solution in each of them.
“When I see anything electronic, I want to know how it works, and how it was made.”
Jude studied medical laboratory, a profession he says had become a hindrance to his robotics passion. Now, determination clouds his face each time he comes to Makerspace, because it is where the journey to realize his dream began. By the time the training ends in two months, Jude believes he would have acquired all the basics he needs to embark on a projects he has always had in mind.
“I want to invent an auto-vendor machine for food and beverages, which is powered by battery that uses oxygen,” he says.
The auto-vendor machine, Jude says, will help business proprietors sell food and beverages without the need to employ attendants.
Jude also works with Smart-up Factory, an organization equipping youth with technology skills for a better community. He says the robotics training will have a multiplier effect, since he will train fellow youth.
“The local community is beginning to understand that technology is the solution to our real life problems, like harsh weather that affects our crops.”
Paul Victor Kawagga, of Oysters & Pearls-Uganda says the robotics training has an added benefit at identifying individuals who can facilitate at the Tech Camps. “During trainings for robotics competitions, we face a shortage of facilitators. We want the community we are training to help us when we need them.”
The robotics training focuses on electronics, Arduino programing and mechanics.
Robotics is about the design, construction, operation and use of robots, as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing. These technologies are used to develop prototypes for proof of concept on projects that can be developed for the marketplace. Additionally, participants learn to articulate and analyze the benefits of their ideas.
Arduino is an open-source electronics modelling platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It is intended for anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environs.
The initiative offers hope for people in Northern Uganda, a region plagued by 20 years of insurgency by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels. With the training, people who had dreams of becoming techies but didn’t have money or other resources to undergo training, can now benefit.
This effort of training the community in robotics, is just one more way Oysters & Pearls- Uganda is working to improve understanding of science, technology and engineering among students and the general community in Africa, primarily Uganda.
