Ghana has taken the world by storm as students from the Methodist Girls’ Senior High (SHS) took the shine at the 2019 Robofest World Championship, clinching gold at the event held at Michigan, in the United States of America.

The girls from Methodist Girls SHS, known as Team ACROBOT, defied all odds, beating teams from USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Egypt, India, Macau, South Africa, and Ecuador.

The 20th edition of the robotic driven approach in solving tasks, including, building a robot to arrange boxes according to a Binary number given. This Binary number is unveiled when all robots are impounded.

The Ghanaian contingent pulled stunning results at the just ended world championship with Team ACROBOT emerging as the overall winner (1st place) in the senior category out of 25 teams.

Team Cosmic Intellect, also a Ghanaian contingent, from the Mikrostem Academy placed 6th out of 52 teams which competed in the junior category of the championship, while Team I-BOT placed 15th in the senior category of the senior game.

MEGHIS, had earlier triumphed from the preliminary contests held in Ghana among all the top senior high schools, in an annual competition in Ghana, under the code name; Robotics Inspired Science Education, (RISE), organized by the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation founded by Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Olenu.

The three teams, ACROBOT, I-BOT and Cosmic Intellect were led by staff of the Ghana Robotics Academy Foundation (GRAF) event which was held at the Lawrence Technological University (LTU), Southfield, Michigan from May 16 – 18.

The Robofest World Championship is a global Robotics competition for 5th – 12th graders founded by Prof. Chan-Jin Chung and sponsored by the Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan.

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Over the years, RISE activities has seen Ghana participate in a number of international competitions in countries including US, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, India, Costa Rica and also the recipient of prestigious awards.

In 2016, a RISE team finished as semi-finalists in the largest global competition for students at the elementary, junior high, senior high and universities, the World Robots Olympiad (WRO) in Open Category for Senior High.

In the same year, a RISE team received the Toyota Innovation Award at the Global Robofest World Championship in Michigan by one of Ghana teams.

A RISE team again, finished in the top 12 (from over 160 competitors) in the 2017 Google Global Moonbot Challenge.

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It did not end there, 2018 also saw the team take 8th position, out of 23 teams in the seniors game category of the Global Robofest World Championship. The fete by the Ghana team was the first time in its nearly 20-year history that an African team broke into the top 10.

In the same 2018, a RISE team in the Shell Ocean X-Prize global competition placed 2nd and 3rd in two separate categories of adjudication (from over 1,500 competitors).

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With the current drift of the global economy from an industrial age to a knowledge-based and conceptual/creativity age, the focus on STEM education and critical thinking has been a focus of most developed and developing countries.

To improve the efficiency and throughput of the education system in this era, it remains critical to explore efficient techniques and tools to augment the current delivery mode in schools targeting at improving STEM, creativity and critical thinking skill development.

GRAF through its RiSE program remains committed to demystifying science through a futuristic educational transformation and helping every student achieve the relevant skill-set needed to be effective in the 4th Industrial revolution.