Experts advocate strong intellectual property laws to spur innovation

A panelist at a discussion on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) has called on the government to enact strong intellectual property (IP) measures that would ensure creatives reap the long term benefits of their ingenuity and innovations.

The Deputy Director of the Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), William Owusu Oduro explained that such policies would inspire the youth to be creative and innovative since they would be assured of making significant gains on their creativity.
“If young people feel that there can be commercial values from their innovations or they feel like they have something to profit from once their innovations get into the public domain, they would be more than willing to sit with private sector and co-design,” he said.
The discussion was on the theme; “The Role of Partnerships in Amplifying the Impact of STEAM Education.”

Event
It formed part of the 2024 Annual Impact Roundtable Discussion (AIRTAD '24) and Robotics Competition organised by the Yamoransa Model (YM) Labs Programme.
The YM Labs Programme was created by the Helping Africa Foundation (HAF) to give young people in primary, junior and secondary levels of education in selected communities an opportunity to engage STEAM education.
The event serves as an avenue for beneficiaries to showcase the skills they have acquired from using the labs and robotics over the years.
This year’s edition was held from February 26-28, 2024 in Accra.
Managed by IMPLEMENTERS, an NGO, it featured a quiz competition between the various labs, roundtable discussions and a robotics exhibition, where 14 STEAM labs presented projects aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
YM Lab 7 from the Oti Region emerged as the winner in the Junior High School category while YM Lab Gambia claimed victory in the Senior High School category.

Collaboration
The Deputy Director in charge of  Monitoring & Evalaution at the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Bright Yaw Atiase said the time had come for industry to a part of the creating process for academic curricula and syllabi.
“Industry needs to feed into the learning process of academia so that we don’t give them all the theory and when they come out, we say we can’t employ them,” Mr Atiase stressed.
The Regional Head & Community Relations Manager of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi, Emmanuel Baidoo and the Programmes Director of MEST Africa, Olufemi Adewumi who were also on the panel called for synergy between industry, the private sector and academia for creating solutions that would have a long lasting positive impact on society.
In her opening remarks, the President of HAF, Dr Deborah Rose encouraged the youth not show study technology for the simple goal of getting a good job but to also take interest in liberal arts such as music, literature, painting, poetry, sculpturing and philosophy among others in order to broaden their perspectives in life.
“Current technology is time limited. It will evolve  and change sooner than you think. The current buzzword is AI , but this too shall pass. I firmly believe in human intelligence and that it will prevail over AI,” she said.