Prempeh College receives robofest trophies
Prempeh College has taken delivery of trophies from the organisers of the ROBOFEST competition as winners of the 2020 edition held virtually.
Even though the school won the competition last year, it had to wait for months before receiving the trophies because of the special arrangements.
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The programme, which is held in-person each year by the Lawrence Technological University, Southfield Michigan States, had to be rearranged and was held online due to the coronavirus disease (COVID 19) pandemic.
Team
The Robotics team won with panache, claiming the topmost prize as well as the third and fifth trophies.
It was a back-to-back victory for Ghana in the ICT-related science competition following a similar feat chalked up by the Methodist Girls SHS at Mamfe Akuapem in the Eastern Region.
It was organised by the ROBOFEST (Lawrence Technological University, Southfield Michigan State).
Prempeh College presented four teams with one from Our Ladies of Grace (OLAG) represented the Ashanti Region at the national level of which Prempeh won the top four positions.
Instead of picking two of the teams for the world competition, the organisers settled on three -- Agengo Golf, Miko Golf, Eddie Golf -- due to their stellar performances.
At the end of the competition, MIKOGOLF won the 21st Senior edition of the Robofest Online World championships.
MIKOGOLF won the GolfBowl category while the other two AGYENGOGOLF and EDDYGOLF were third and fifth positions, respectively.
Twenty-two teams including ones from USA, South Korea, India, South Africa, UAE, Mexico, Egypt and Canada competed.
The programme is being spearheaded by the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (GRAF), founded by Dr Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a Chief Robotics Engineer with NASA's Jet Propulsion in Pasadena CA, and run by Dr Yaw Okraku-Yirenkyi, as the Country Director for the Foundation's Robotics inspired Science Education (RiSE) programme.
The task
Among the tasks that won the school the prize included a design of robot to put five golf balls into a hole-slot with a wood piece attached to the robot.
All the tasks were done autonomously without any external help.
At the end of the first round, MIKOGOLF earned 88 points and 118 points in the second giving them a total average of 103 points to be crowned champions.
Their winning trophies and certificates of participation were delivered recently to the country hence the ceremony to celebrate and recognised the champions.
The Country Director of Robotics Inspired Science Education (RISE) and founding member of GRAF, Dr Yaw Okraku-Yirenkyi, congratulated the team on their excellent performance and expressed the hope their diligence would inspire teams around the country to follow their example.
“This achievement underscores the fact that given the opportunity and the right attitude with discipline, any child from around the world, however, remote their geographic location, can achieve greatness and also make important contributions to their nation’s development," he said.
Opportunities
The Headmaster of Prempeh College, Aaron Attuah Gyau, was pleased to announced that as a result of the school's participation in previous years, some of the students had gained admissions to world class universities pursuing computer science engineering and other science related programme.
He urged the current generation to take a cue from it and "push to the top."
About the competition
The Robofest World Championships is Lawrence Technological University’s international autonomous robotics programme for students in 4th grade through university.
The annual competition started in 1999 to help students master the principles of Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) as well as computer science (SC).