By Namutebi Sumayiya
Last year’s National Robotics tournament in Uganda’s STEM program produced three exceptional winners, who have now been selected to represent Uganda at the global season finals in America.
Nextgen Innovativators Uganda, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Gender, and Coderina Edutech Nigeria, facilitated their journey. The champions, Team Drasticals, qualified for the global Season Finals during the national robotics tournament held last December.
The flagging off ceremony was presided over by Rwampara legislator Amos Kankunda, marking the beginning of their exciting journey.
- Advertisement -
Peace Kamsiyochukwu Umeokonkwo (12), Firidaus Muhammad Nakitende (11), and Timothy Rwasiina (12) will showcase their talents at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, USA, from June 7th to 9th.
Akankunda delivered an inspiring message to the students urging them to get hold of the opportunity to acquire more skills and knowledge in technology during their participation in the global season finals.
He emphasized the importance of bringing back these acquired skills to Uganda and Africa, stating that it would contribute to the growth of technology in the region.
“Look at how things are done, Pick what is the best, even make it better and come back here so that tomorrow we can change the way things are being done in terms of technology and bring it to Africa’’, Kankunda said.
Kankunda praised NextGen Innovators Uganda and the parents of the champions for their belief in and investment in technology. He pledged government support in promoting the STEM curriculum through the Ministry of ICT, wishing the representatives a safe flight and victory in the competitions.
Hannah Melon Kenyanji, who serves as both the General Manager of NextGen Innovators Uganda and the Country Director of First Lego League Uganda (FLL), appealed to schools to embrace STEM robotics to foster innovation in the upcoming generation.
“I appeal to every parent in every school that in order to have a better Uganda, a different generation focused and inquisitive problem solving critical thinker generation, we need to embrace stem robotics. That is our vision and we don’t want to leave any child behind.” Hannah said.
She emphasized that to transform Uganda’s economy into a more sustainable one and to make Uganda better, embracing technology and science is crucial.
“I call upon the nation of Uganda, all stakeholders to embrace technology, science, engineering, and art and math stroke robotics to be able to transform our economy into a more sustainable economy making Uganda better Uganda’’, she encouraged champions to represent the country well and expressed gratitude to parents for their cooperation.
NextGen are country representatives for First Lego League (FLL) which is an American programme. We do science, technology, engineering and math. It has been operational for one year and operating in 18 schools. They cover the age categories of four to 21 years and this has been going on since 2023. In Uganda, they have held a national competition that was first of its kind on December 9th 2023. And the first champions are the one being flagged off for the global finals.
