Elations, wide smiles, giant hugs and camera flashes, punctuated the final hour of the 2017 robotics competition at Makerere University in Kampala. The winners were from Gulu High School, Bishop Angelo Negri College and Dr. Obote College, all in northern Uganda.
Students of Gulu High School got a trophy for developing the best prototype of an Egg Crack Partition Machine. Reagan Okumu, a student of Gulu High School, is among the students who worked day and night to develop the model. Reagan comes from a poor family in Omoro district, located more than 30 kilometers to the East of Gulu town. Every holiday, he sets up a small business stall and makes chapat and ‘rolex’ ( a snack made of fried eggs, cabbages, green peppers and tomatoes, rolled in a chapat), to raise money for his tuition and scholastic materials.
Reagan has been using a knife to crack eggs; a major ingredient in his chapat and ‘rolex’ business. But using a knife has made him cut himself many times, besides performing under capacity. Being part of the group makes him feel lucky as he has gained skills during the training and the competition. Reagan’s wish is to have the prototype of their egg crack and partition machine developed into a functional device to help him increase his production and minimize the risk of injuries.
Bishop Angelo Negri College invented a Citrus fruit harvester which made them tie 65 in points with the defending champion, Dr. Obote College, Boroboro, who invented a conveyer system.
Betty Auma, a teacher at Dr. Obote College commended Oysters & Pearls-Uganda for facilitating the students’ training and the entire process of the challenge. She observed that the competition is helping the students learn new things each time they go for a challenge.
Betty attributed her students’ success to their commitment to learnin, and hunger for knowledge. She appealed to schools and parents to encourage students to develop their talents in robotics and technology in general, to shape their dream career.
Rhian Mikisa, an associate investigator at iLabs thanked the students for the display of skills. She encouraged the students to continue their journey of self-discovery so that they get solutions to world problems.
The principal investigator at iLabs, Prof. Peter Lating, revealed that the department does research using students. He therefore inspired the school heads to help students discover their technology skills so that they join the technology department at University.
The robotics competition, which was organized by iLabs@Mak, was held at the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology, CEDAT.
The competition attracted students from nine different schools across the country, under the theme; ‘”Using Science and Technology to Increase Efficiency of Small Scale Manufacturing Industries.”
The winners of the competition, Dr. Obote College and Bishop Angelo Negri College, will represent Uganda in the 2018 Global Robotics Competition in Mexico. In July of this year, the winners of the 2017 competition, Dr. Obote College, travelled to the US, and emerged number 128 out more than 400 countries.
